Is britishness a cliché ?

Britishness is defined as "the state or quality of being english, or of embodying british characteritics". Today I want to study and discut the idea of britishness. I went four times to London and, therefore now I have enough experience to question that notion like A SCIENTIST. 

The first known stereotype about english people is that they are really old-fashionned at various levels. We all have in mind the image of the 20th century english man who wears a top hat and holds a cane. Honestly I didn't seriously noticed this kind of old-fashionned look and state of mind. For sure british people are attached to some old traditions like tea time or the revere the royal family like gods, but UK appeared to me as a very modern country. 

The second stereotype about the population is that they don't care about what people think and like to have a extravagant apparence or way of life. How cool this cliché is ! It would be really fun if it wasn't a cliché right ? Excepting in Camden Town where I saw some really extravagant sellers and visitors, originallity wasn't what hit me the most. I more noticed that people and most particulary teenagers didn't seem to follow the rules of fashion as many people in France. However I had the impression that people who had very original styles were looked in the street as much as in France. To my mind this is thus an half-cliché, haha. 

Then, it's often said that it's always raining in United Kingdom, and also that british people all look like this : 

Half-cliché too ! I have to admit that some days weren't very sunny in London, but honestly it wasn't raining everyday ! The last time I went to London, the weather was even better than in France. To talk about the appearance of british people, I confess I thought sometimes that this or that person really looked like the perfect english because of his or her skin or red hair. But the english population seemed very motley to me and saying that every british person is red-haired is a lie...

I can not tell if british people's houses are dirty and messy because I only spent time in the streets or in hotels... But in case it would be true, it is often said that people living in messy rooms are inventive clever, so, british people must be geniuses. 

Ah ! Here is something we can't deny : british people never refuse a drink. When I went to London, I was surprised by the number of pubs and how packed they were ! English people seem to enjoy having fun especially in the night, and most of all they seem to love beer and alcohol in general. We often met drunk people in the street or even in the underground, even if it was late in the afternoon. 

Here are my studies about britishness and the stereotypes that unfortunately make us imagine what UK is before we even go there. Britishness may exists in some movies or fictions, and you will always find some elements of this concept in UK but you can't define a nation and its population with some clichés : we are not our country and we are not the representations of our country in foreigners's mind.