What is steampunk?

The UK's guide to steampunk

Everything steampunk

What steampunk is, how to dress for it, where to see it and what to watch. Guides to the Victorian future that never happened, written in Britain.

What is steampunk? Build an outfit
64 years
of Queen Victoria's reign, the century steampunk borrows
1987
the year the word "steampunk" was first printed
245 m
the Hindenburg, nose to tail
A steampunk in a top hat fitted with brass gauges, a gear brooch at the wrist

Top hat, gauges, a brass cuff: the look in one photograph

What is steampunk?

Three things, turned up

Steampunk is a style and a kind of story: the Victorian age, powered by steam and clockwork, living out the future its own writers imagined. Choose one of the three and watch the gauge.

The full guide: what is steampunk?
AGEPOWERDREAM STEAMPUNKS · PSI

Victorian Britain

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. Steampunk borrows that century's clothes, manners, buildings and railways: frock coats, corsets and top hats, brick stations and iron bridges.

Source: Queen Victoria: reign 20 June 1837 to 22 January 1901

Steam, clockwork and brass

No microchips and no plastic. Everything runs on steam, springs and gears, and the workings are left on show: brass fittings, copper pipes, rivets, gauges and dials.

A future that never came

The future as Victorian writers imagined it: Jules Verne's submarine and balloon, H. G. Wells's time machine. Steampunk asks what if that future had happened, and dresses for it.

Source: Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1863; The Time Machine, 1895

Spot the difference

From Victorian to steampunk

The same century's clothes, with the workings added. On the left, a Victorian-style dress: bustle, lace, a little hat. On the right, the steampunk version. Tap a number.

A woman in a Victorian-style bustle dress of dark red damask, with a lace collar and a small hat
Victorian
Two steampunks in a bamboo grove: a man in a gauge-covered top hat and goggles, a woman in a riveted top hat and red round glasses
Steampunk

  1. Gauges, cogs and a pair of goggles riveted to a top hat. The Victorian top hat is still there; it has just been given a job.

  2. Round brass goggles are the single most recognised piece of steampunk. Here they are worn; just as often they sit on the hat brim.

  3. Metal finger plates over a glove. Armour like this is made for the look, from card, foam, leather or thin metal.

  4. Straps, buckles and holsters across a plain shirt and waistcoat: the explorer's kit over a gentleman's clothes.

  5. Small round lenses in red, amber or smoke. Easier to wear all day than goggles, and just as much part of the look.

  6. Worn on the outside, over a blouse, and fastened with buckles and straps instead of hidden laces.

Build an outfit

Dress the tailor's dummy

Five choices make a steampunk look. Pick one of each and the dummy wears it; every piece links to the guide that says how to find it, make it or wear it.

Your look

Top hatBowlerGogglesRound glassesMonocleWaistcoatCorsetFrock coatCropped jacketPocket watchCog brooch

On the head

Over the eyes

Under the coat

The coat

The finishing touch

Read about each piece

Top hat Bowler Goggles Round glasses Monocle Waistcoat Corset Frock coat Cropped jacket Pocket watch Cog brooch

Hats, goggles and the rest

The pieces that make the look

Most steampunk outfits start with ordinary clothes and become steampunk at the edges: the hat, the eyes, the waist, the feet and the pocket.

A woman in a top hat with goggles and gears, looking over her shoulderGogglesBrass, leather and round lenses: worn, or parked on the hat brim.Read the guide A woman with blue hair in a top hat fitted with brass goggle eyesHatsTop hats first, then bowlers, dressed with gears, goggles and feathers.Read the guide A black leather plague doctor mask with brass rivetsMasksThe plague doctor's beak, masquerade masks and half-face metal.Read the guide A woman in a black corset dress against a pale wallCorsetsWorn on the outside, laced or buckled, over a blouse or a dress.Read the guide Leather boots and belts with buckles on a wooden tableBoots and beltsTall, laced and buckled, the leather to match the straps.Read the guide An open pocket watch on an old book, with loose gears around itWatchesThe pocket watch on its chain, and wristwatches with the gears on show.Read the guide

Every accessory guide

Where it came from

A century and a word

The look is Victorian; the name is from 1987. In between: balloons, submarines, a time machine and two great airships.

A brass compass on an old map
Hands typing on an old typewriter by lamplight
  1. 1837

    Victoria comes to the throne

    Her reign, to 1901, gives steampunk its century.

    Source

  2. 1863

    Five Weeks in a Balloon

    Jules Verne's first great adventure crosses Africa by balloon.

    Source

  3. 1870

    Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

    Verne's Nautilus, serialised in French from 1869 and a book in 1870: the steampunk submarine.

    Source

  4. 1895

    The Time Machine

    H. G. Wells sends a Victorian inventor into the far future.

    Source

  5. 1930

    The R101 is lost

    Britain's great airship crashes in France on its first overseas voyage, on 5 October.

    Source

  6. 1937

    The Hindenburg

    The German airship is destroyed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on 6 May, and the age of the passenger airship ends.

    Source

  7. 1987

    The word is coined

    The writer K. W. Jeter calls the style "steampunk" in a letter printed in the April 1987 issue of Locus magazine.

    Source

  8. 1990

    The Difference Engine

    William Gibson and Bruce Sterling imagine Victorian Britain with a working computer.

    Source

The airship ruler

How big were the real airships?

Steampunk's airships are make-believe; these two were not. Choose an airship and a British landmark, and see them side by side, to scale.

The airship

Beside

The R101 was 237 metres long. Stood on its tail, it would be 2.5 times the height of Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).

The R101 was 237 metres long. Stood on its tail, it would be 1.5 times the height of Blackpool Tower.

The Hindenburg was 245 metres long. Stood on its tail, it would be 2.6 times the height of Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).

The Hindenburg was 245 metres long. Stood on its tail, it would be 1.6 times the height of Blackpool Tower.

Sources: R101: 731 ft, later enlarged to 777 ft (237 m) · Hindenburg: 245 m (803 ft 10 in) · Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben): 316 ft (96 m) · Blackpool Tower: 518 ft (158 m)

100200 237 m245 m96 m158 m
Drawn to scale by height and length. Widths are drawn to look right, not measured.
A modern airship moored on a grass airfield

Find a film

Tonight's programme

Thirteen films and a series with steampunk in their bones, oldest first. Choose what you are in the mood for.

Films, games and books

The Steampunks Picture House13 films7 films6 films4 films5 films

  1. 195420,000 Leagues Under the SeaDisney's Nautilus and Captain Nemo, from Verne.Live action
  2. 1960The Time MachineGeorge Pal's film of Wells's story, with its brass and velvet machine.Live action
  3. 1986Castle in the SkyHayao Miyazaki's floating city, sky pirates and airships.Animated
  4. 1999Wild Wild WestBarry Sonnenfeld's gadgets and a giant mechanical spider.Live action
  5. 2001Atlantis: The Lost EmpireDisney's expedition by submarine and digging machine.Animated
  6. 2002Treasure PlanetDisney's Treasure Island with sailing ships in space.Animated
  7. 2003The League of Extraordinary GentlemenNemo, Quatermain and company in Victorian adventure.Live action
  8. 2004SteamboyKatsuhiro Otomo's boy inventor and a steam-powered castle in Victorian Britain.Animated
  9. 2004Howl's Moving CastleA walking castle and a war fought from flying machines.Animated
  10. 2011HugoMartin Scorsese's clockwork automaton in a Paris railway station.Live action
  11. 2015April and the Extraordinary WorldA France where steam never gave way to electricity.Animated
  12. 2018Mortal EnginesCities on wheels that hunt each other, and airships above them.Live action
  13. 2021Arcane (TV series)A city of brass and invention and the slums beneath it.Animated

Years from each film's own Wikipedia page, read 11 November 2026.

An Edison bulb glowing inside a glass jar lamp in a dark room
A crowd of old alarm clocks, faces of every size
A heap of brass and steel gears

Home and decor

Steampunk at home

A steampunk room is lit warm and low, with the workings on show: filament bulbs, exposed gears, copper pipe and leather.

Lamps and lightingEdison bulbs, pipe lamps, cage lights and wall lights in brass and copper.ClocksOpen-faced wall clocks with the gears turning in plain sight.A room in the styleDark wood, leather, maps, brass and pipework, without it feeling like a museum.

Steampunk in the UK

Where steampunks gather

Two of the best-known weekends are on the Yorkshire coast and in Lincoln. The events page will list them all, with each organiser's own dates.

Departures

  1. WhitbyNorth YorkshireA steampunk weekend in the town of Whitby Abbey and Dracula.Dates to follow
  2. LincolnLincolnshireThe Weekend at the Asylum, held at The Lawn every September since 2009.Every September
Every UK steampunk event
The ruins of Whitby Abbey reflected in a pond under a blue sky
Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire
Two smiling steampunks in goggles and decorated hats at an outdoor gathering

The Victorian world behind it

The world it borrows from

Steampunk is only half invention. The rest is real: the buildings, the railways and the Gothic churches of the nineteenth century. Point at a panel to open it.

A tall Victorian red-brick building with rows of arched windowsVictorian LondonRed brick, terracotta and iron: the buildings steampunk sets its stories in.The long nave of a Gothic cathedral with its ribbed stone vaultThe Gothic RevivalPointed arches and soaring vaults, built again by the Victorians.The red driving wheels and rods of a steam locomotiveRailways and steamThe age of the locomotive, where steampunk gets its power.

Everything on Steampunks

The contents

Nine sections and about fifty guides, each one long enough to answer the question properly.

  1. IWhat steampunk isThe meaning, the look, where it came from, and how it differs from Gothic and Victorian.
  2. IIFashion and costumeWomen's and men's outfits, a costume on a budget, Halloween, a steampunk wedding.
  3. IIIHats, goggles and accessoriesGoggles, top hats, masks, corsets, waistcoats, coats, watches, jewellery, boots.
  4. IVHome and decorLamps and lighting, clocks, furniture and ornaments, and a whole room in the style.
  5. VArt and makingSteampunk art and artists, how to draw it, robots and creatures, cogs and gears, props.
  6. VIFilms, TV, games, books and musicThe films, the animation, the games, Minecraft builds, the books and the music.
  7. VIISteampunk events in the UKWhere steampunks gather, with the dates from each organiser's own site.
  8. VIIIAirships and machinesSteampunk airships, and the real ones that went before them.
  9. IXThe Victorian world behind itVictorian fashion, London, architecture and the Gothic Revival.

Where to start

New to it? Read what steampunk is. Going to an event? Build the outfit. Staying in? Pick a film.

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