Icons of englishness:

Red pillar post boxes and beautifully printed stamps

Separate hot and cold water taps

The pound coin (is it the largest and heaviest in daily use in W. Europe?) As the world moves towards ever more plastic, electronic, and flimsy metal methods of payment, it's like a primitive reminder that money was once heavy metal.

Liking to complain for its own sake without taking positive action to change the situation
(sure, you can't change the weather of course, but just play the hat-counting game to confirm this observation! Apart from the teenage baseball cap and woolly hat brigade, it takes extremes of cold, wet, or social formality, to get hats on heads.)

The Angel of the North: I think it's moving and beautiful. Ed Pickford's website has his song about it, which is quite different from that other one quoted earlier; it combines humour with a nice evocation of what it means to locals. (can't do a blue link, but you can find it through google)