What is the ICONS England project all about ?

At Icons we asked everyone who lives in England - from all different communities and backgrounds - to help create an online collection of 100 cultural icons, from Stonehenge and the SS Windrush to the humble cup of tea. Together these icons make a living portrait of England.

What about Wales, Scotland and Ireland? Why are they left out?

We would love to compile icons for Wales, Scotland, Ireland and elsewhere. At present, funding has only been provided for England but we will be working to get funding for similar initiatives in other parts of the UK (and possibly beyond). If you think you can help us achieve this ambitious goal in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we'd love to hear from you: info@culture24.org.uk

Is Icons just for cultural experts, about museum and art galleries, collections and the like?

No, the idea was to involve everyone, and all our histories. Icons - A Portrait of England was a collaborative project inviting ordinary people and assorted sporting, cultural and heritage institutions to help decide which icons to explore on the site.

How much did it cost?

The original build cost of Icons was £1 million when the project was initiated in 2005. This covered all of the costs involved in developing the site, marketing it and providing service. This funding lasted until February 2007, when the Department of Culture, Media and Sport granted a small amount of money for the site to be taken under the wing of Culture24 - Britain's national virtual museum. This new lease of life for Icons brought the site to new audiences worldwide, was an exciting prospect and a good way to ensure real value for money and a sustainable future. 

What happens now?

The first two waves of Icons were launched in 2005/6. 2008 marked the collation of the final 26 Icons and brought the project to its ultimate goal - 100 English icons.

Why should money be spent on promoting cultural icons rather than funding new cultural projects? What is special about this project?

At Icons we fully support spending money on new cultural projects. It is vital to encourage new productions, installations, artists, writers, sculptors, film makers and photographers. But housing and staging all the wonderful things created by artists would be foolish if we did not encourage people to go and see them. Many of us have heard of things like the Magna Carta or Stonehenge, but sometimes we don't know very much about them and often we have not seen them either. ICONS can help people to discover and explore these things further. As well as helping our children to learn, ICONS will also stimulate interest in England generally. The website will be a valuable asset in promoting our attractions to a growing international tourist market. This earns vital cash for our nation.

Who was involved in creating ICONS England?

It was all about you. You helped nominate icons, and joined the debate about icons already nominated on the site. In addition, there was a  dedicated small team of ICONS staff working in the offices of the Culture24 office in Brighton, as well as an outsourced voluntary Advisory Board.

Who's it for?

It is for everyone. ICONS reflects the things that are important to each and every community in England. England is a multicultural and multilayered society and ICONS should reflect this too. The imaginative presentation of cultural icons should engage and excite even the most reluctant student and the most web-phobic as well as the die-hard Stonehenge fans, fervent railway-enthusiasts and well-read museum curators.

How were the ICONS chosen?

An ICONS Advisory Board was set up to help make these decisions, but their choices were based largely on nominations from the public. Every nomination was considered by the Icons team, and then presented to the Advisory Board for final approval.

People can't be icons apparently. Why not?

We felt there might be a problem here because of how celebrity status can muddle things. Any ICONS list would be likely to be unfairly dominated by those in favour or fashionable right now. Their elevation to iconic status could not have stood the test of time. For those who are no longer alive and whose iconic status is assured, we will consider the things that made them famous or noteworthy. So the list will not include Shakespeare himself, but does include the First Folio of Shakespeare.

Are you concerned about accusations of being "little England"?

Quite the contrary, we hope. One of the surprises you will find is how much of what we associate with England comes from somewhere else... We also wanted to tackle the controversial aspects of cultural icons nominated as well as the more comfortable associations we may have with them. The idea was to stimulate debate. Even familiar subjects like a cup of tea stirred things up because, of course, it isn't English at all in origin. Neither are Punch and Judy, who started life in southern Europe. Even the best-known stone in the Crown Jewels is the cursed Koh-I-Noor, which came from the Maharajah of Lahore. We tell the stories of tea-clippers and bone china and Italian puppet-theatre and murdered Mogul emperors that lie behind the icons we hold most dear.