Bill Bryson has a book called Icons of England, in which he looks at typical English icons, such as pillar boxes, canal boats, pub signs etc

http://www.cpre.org.uk/support/shop/icons-of-england

I'm trying to think of Spanish icons. The ONCE seller, the newspaper kiosk, perhaps the serviette box! Any more you can think of?

Paella pan, flamenco dancer, toro, and lagarto. Immediately spring to my mind and I think that I could list many, many more without too much effort.

Rosemary

Icons have to be unique to the country and call it to mind instantly.

The Osbourne bull, the Tio Pepe figure, ONCE yes, but kiosks and serviette boxes no.

Ruling out food and people, it's not quite so easy, is it? Plus if it can't be buildings in particular....

By using the term "unique to the country" you really narrow down the field.
Most things Bryson mentions can be found in other countries, such as the red pillar box he uses as his front book cover or main symbol.
By ruling out food you narrow it down much further.
However you slipped up in failing to rule out beer, so at least that still gives us a lorry loads of tasty options, especially with regard to the UK, from any number of independant breweries.
Also worth a mention would have been the British bulldog and the Grand National.
Regarding Spain I tend to think mainly of food and especially jamon iberico,however even that is produced in lesser amounts under a different name in Portugal and likewise tapas bars are not unique to Spain.
What about the Spanish version of "Club",naughty but nice.
Apparently they do great business close to the Portugese border.

Well, my personal definition of the word 'iconic' is pretty close to 'unique + memorable/striking.'

So it would need to be something that when shown to the majority of people from different countries, they would instantly think 'Spain.'

So, that would deffo be the bull and the TP figure, but the ONCE would only really work for those who had spent time in Spain.

There's fewer icons than you would think. The UK ought to have a lot, because so many innovations and inventions have come from there. Since the war, I think 50+ % of all world changing inventions have come from the UK but been funded elsewhere.

Asking Spanish people could be useful.

Hmm you may have a point in some countries, but for most Brits the Italian marketing has done the job and Parma ham is what people regard as top quality ham. Certain foods like chorizo, tortilla and morcilla could be held as icons, but again probably a lot of Brits would be unaware. The most famous foods would be Paella, Sangria, Gazpacho and Sherry I suspect.
A lot of the icons most recognised by Brits would be typical Andalucian ones - the Cordoba hat, the flamenco dress; even bullfighters have their spiritual home in the south.
There are of course many other icons, such as el Gordo, Chupa-chups, El Pais, the Once box, and (in recent years) the duck headed high speed train, but as a previous poster pointed out, they wouldn't be quite so famous in the UK. A couple that have spread quite widely are Zara and Santander, but I'm not sure whether they would qualify as icons.

Hmm good point, thought everyone had spanish friends

Well if you read the thread it was pointed out several times that certain things would not be recognised as an icon by a Brit (or other nationality) even if they were regarded as such by a Spaniard.

To find icons that are across the whole of Spain is very difficult. My OH says Asturias is more like Britain than Andalucia for example. Spain is very diverse.

Asturian icons may be the Asturian cow, gaitas, madrenyas, boina and fabada

The burro, cava, sardena, buttifara and Barca football club in Catalunya for example

Someone once said to me that tortilla de patata and jamon iberico are the only Spanish foods that are eaten across the whole of Spain. The rest depends on the region.

Not really. It would be useful if you were looking for UK icons, but to arrive at Spanish ones you really want to be asking people from outside Spain.

Or Spanish people that have travelled.

Btw, I have zero respect for Bill Bryson, the guy is an idiot and the most dangerous of all species - both ignorant AND arrogant. I read his book on why English is the best language in the world, what a load of cr*p.

One of his reasons was that English has a word for everything and even a widely spoken language such as Spanish, doesnt have a word for "stop"

What an idiot, most of us on here know the guy hasnt a clue what he is talking about. It's amazing he doesnt even get someone to fact check the nonsense he writes?

I am confused. Are you saying that Brits living in UK can identify Brit icons but Spanish living in Spain can not?

The book may be written by a yank but majority of contributors are Brits.

Best not recommend the person who checks yours then

Once you start paying me a lot of money for posting on here I might