Tiled fire-surrounds were being constructed in England during the 1630s, but the fashion was not widespread until the 1660s. At first demand was met by imported Dutch tiles but from at least 1676 they were made in England. In that year Jan Ariens van Hamme, an immigrant potter from Delft, was granted a patent for the manufacture of tiles and is thought to have set up a pottery at Lambeth. After his death in 1680 the patent lapsed and other potters there and at Vauxhall took up tile-making. At first they were not very successful and Dutch tiles continued to be imported, despite restrictions imposed in 1672 and 1677 to protect the English delftware industry. By the 1720s, however, the techniques of tile-making had been mastered and large quantities were being produced in the London area, and in Liverpool and Bristol.

Apart from fire-surrounds, tiles were used for decorative wall panels, pictures and shop signs. Completely tiled reception rooms, like those which survive on the Continent, did not become fashionable in England, but extensive wall tiling was used in bath houses, dairies, kitchens and other household offices.

The majority of late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English tiles were painted in blue or manganese, or both. Polychrome tiles were much less common until the mid-eighteenth century, when large quantities were made at Liverpool. The brightly coloured scenes on these tiles were influenced by Chinese porcelain of the reign of Kangxi (1662–1722).