Creative & media

© VisitEngland

England is full of artist flair with around 2.3 million people employed in creative industries like advertising, architecture, fashion, television, film, design, gaming and mobile content. Cities ooze creativity. Bristol is home to street artist Banksy and Wallace and Gromit creators, Aardman Animations. Manchester hosts TV at Salford MediaCity and Bradford is a UNESCO City of Film.Lancaster, Sussex, Brighton and Loughborough universities lead in art and design.

Our architectural pioneers include Sir David Chipperfield, Lord Norman Foster and Lord Richard Rogers and fashion national treasures include Mary Quant, Paul Smith, Stella McCartney and the late Alexander McQueen.

The thriving UK games industry employs 28,000 people in centres like Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Guildford, Cambridge, Oxford, London and Brighton.

Blockbusters have been shot at England's top film studios. Pinewood is the backdrop to James Bond action and The King's Speech and Sherlock Holmes film sets were built at Elstree. Colleagues can visit Hogwarts and see Harry Potter special effects on the Warner Bros Studio Tour, London.

For English art history lessons head to The Lowry art gallery in Manchester for the Lancashire painter's matchstick men or Tate Britain for prints by Bradford-born David Hockney. Budding art historians graduate from Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick universities.

It is exciting times for mobile gaming with companies racing to meet the demand for smart phone apps. The UK has 16 million smart phone users and over half of the apps downloaded here are games.

Centres of excellence for creative & media

Bristol, London, Leicestershire, Newcastlegateshead, Northumberland & County Durham, Manchester, Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford