During the Precambrian and the Palaeozoic, the tectonics of NW Europe were dominated by the sequential accretion of different terrains on to the North American Craton, e.g. old continental crust of the Scandinavian Craton, magmatic arcs of the Avalon-Brabant Massif, Pentevrian continental crust and the Brioverian magmatic arc. Terrains were locally bounded by thrust packages, by NW-SE trending strike-sliptransform faults parallel to the accretion direction, and by NE-SW trending strike-slip faults defining localized oblique collision or, more generally, boundaries to zones of lateral continental extrusion and escape. Close analogies can be made with the Tertiary MakranHimalaya-Tibet collisional zones. The Laxfordian/Caledonian/Variscan thrusts and more importantly the large-scale strike-slip faults, imposed a complex heterogeneity to the crust which critically influenced the subsequent extension directions and the siting of basin bounding faults and tectonic inversion, from Devonian times to the present day.The relatively recent availability of seismic data has led to enormous advances in our understanding of the deep geology of the British Isles. In particular the deep seismic surveys obtained by the BIRPS Group (British Institutions' Reflection Profiling Syndicate) have shown variations in crustal thickness and middle to deep crustal tectonic fabric in the northern and western offshore regions of Britain and throughout the North Sea (see for example Cheadle et al. 1987; Freeman et al. 1988; Klemperer 1988). The combinations of shallow commercial seismic data, deep level BIRPS seismic data and conventional structural and stratigraphic field data, allow new models to be derived for the tectonic development of Britain. They show us the relationship between deep level tectonic fabrics and surface structures, which combine to produce the overall tectonic framework to Britain and adjacent parts of NW Europe. This paper aims to describe this structural framework and (i) review the pre-Mesozoic basement kinematics in Britain and adjacent parts of NW Europe, based on the the available seismic data, previous published structural data and reviews, and new work by the author, and (ii) discuss how different fabric intensities and styles influence subsequent Upper Palaeozoic and Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin development.The pre-Mesozoic basement rocks of the British Isles range from the Lewisian gneisses of NW Scotland, dated at c.2900 Ma (Moorbath et al. 1969), to the Devonian and Carboniferous sediments involved in the Variscan fold and thrust belts of southern Britain. Much of the tectonic framework of NW Europe was developed during three major compressive tectonic episodes, i.e. the Laxfordian (1800-1700 Ma), the Caledonian (500-400 Ma) and the Variscan (400-300 Ma). Other compressive and strike-slip orogenic events affected NW Europe but their effects were largely obliterated by the major compressive events listed above. Figure 1 shows the distribution of these tectonic events in four principal domains in Brita...