They're a national institution and every week 7 million portions of fish and chips are consumed in the UK – that's a staggering 380 million portions a year.

Not only do we love to eat them, but they're good for the economy too with the industry worth £1.2 billion a year to the UK.

But whoever thought of serving fish with chips? And why? And how long has Britain enjoyed this very British delicacy for?

Well, it was actually the beginning of Victoria's reign that saw fried fish being sold as leftovers to the working-classes in London Billingsgate fish market. Alexis Soyer, the celebrity chef of the time, used to eat it with his fingers on his way home from work.

From there, the rest, as they say is history, so to find out how they spread from East London, to the outreaches of Britain and across the world, watch our animated video.

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