American Reacts to Outdoor Objects You Can't Find in Britain
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- čas přidán 17. 07. 2023
- As an American I find that there are countless random differences between Britain and the United States that I love learning about. To day I am very excited to learn about outdoor objects that exist in American but NOT in Britain. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
The hydrant picture he showed is just the identification plate. The hydrant itself is a little metal flap in the ground like a small manhole with the letters ’FH’ cast into the lid. The stand pipe is carried on the fire engine and the firefighter will see the identification plate and can tell that an 80mm supply pipe is 2 meters in front of the identification plate.
FH small manhole covers are usually painted yellow.
It's the same in Germany, but when normal "small manholes" for gas and water are circles, the ones for firefighters are oval in shape and show the letter "H". There are different indicators for different pipes (yellow for gas, blue for water, white with a blue or red rim for hydrants, and green for special sewage systems working with high/low pressure)
Or it signifies roughly where a grates I think that they can lift up and then plug their hoses in.
There is also a short, yellow painted stripe on the kerb, denoting where the water stand pipe is. It is not allowed for motorists to park beside the yellow stripe incase they block a fire engine from refilling their tender, although the firemen would forcibly move any offending vehicle if they needed access to the water.
It can also be a manhole sized cover in the road. I live in a Victorian terrace and have a Hydrant sign on the short brick wall out front. Landlord doesn't exactly take care of things so a few years back I reported to the county council & fire service (via Twitter) that the sign had fallen off and presumably been disposed of by the street cleaners or refuse collectors. I assume they don't have a map of these things because I had to use Streetview to (a) show them where the sign used to be, and (b) show them where in the road the hydrant is.
Not sure when the Geospatial Commission's National Underground Asset Register (map of every underground pipe and cable in the country) will be available countrywide to the those that need it, but I would hope they'll have a 'surface layer' for locating access/manhole/hydrant covers.
I have seen similar signs for things underground, such as dark blue signs giving directions for water main shutoff valves, and orange signs for gas pipelines. I think buried 275/400 kilovolt cables just have the standard electric shock risk signs (black and yellow on white background) with the text saying something about buried high voltage cables.
In the UK we don't "swear allegance to the flag" so the flag is just that, a flag, not a symbol of the nation. The military swore allegance to the Queen (rest her soul) not the flag.
That's true, I remember it was either the diamond or platinum jubilee seeing lots of flags in peoples gardens and flag bunting in celebration for the queen as well.
King now.
"Who'd fight for a rag"?
"You do Richard, you do".
@@josephturner7569 Sharp.
hope her soul does not rest
We don’t normally have specific school buses because we have this novel idea called “public transport”.
public transport is for poors though
@@neezduts69420ok mjf
@@neezduts69420 and the poor dears have to share their chauffeur.
These days an armada of SUVs deliver the kids to school driven by mothers still in their jimjams or putting on their makeup while driving!
And legs
American yellow school buses and red fire hydrants are as iconic to us, as British red telephone boxes and double-decker buses are to Americans. Virtually no-one flies a flag outside their house or on public buildings in the UK, America is soooooo patriotic it seems a bit culty to us, especially when you salute it and make people recite that pledge thing.
Unless it's during some football tournament.
Every single one of these items are seen in Canada, so none of them are unique to the U.S.
If we fly the cross of St. George, the English flag (a red cross on a white background) we are labelled as far right extremists.
Other than the queens platinum jubilee or the kings coronation. Couldn't not look at a union jack
It's even worse for me as someone who despises nationalism and all forms of tribalism. I don't even like the very normal tendency humans have to identify with the country they were born into. So seeing people pretty much worship a flag, or act like their country is somehow superior to others, really creeps me out. If I seen someone flying their country's flag, my immediate thought would be "okay, this person is weirdly obsessed with the country they live in for some reason".
In my almost 47 years of life I've never seen a water tower here in the UK.
Even living all my childhood and early adulthood in the countryside your water is just mains pumped to your house like it is in a city.
There’s one in the centre of Colchester. It’s huge, Victorian and called Jumbo, because it resembles an elephant or so they thought.
Really? There are loads in rural East Anglia.
The Fison Fertilizer factory site in Stanford-Le-Hope had a concrete water tower until quite recently. Demolished by the demolition company that currently uses the site.
The only one I've ever seen is one behind a hospital.
Yeah, water towers are pretty rare here.
Most water comes from reservoirs.
There is a water tower near Edinburgh Airport.. But, yeah, it's a pretty rare sight.
Australia doesn’t have visible fire hydrants either. Ours are in the ground. The firefighters lift the metal cover and attach the hose end.
Yes, that's the same as the UK. The yellow H sign he showed is just sometimes they what they put at the side of the road to indicate where it is under the road.
As any normal person would.
And it makes more sense as you won't have idiots crashing their cars into them. Parking is less of a problem as well as the hydrant access is usually away from the road unlike in the US where you can get ticketed for parking in front of a fire hydrant.
Ditto across the ditch in New Zealand
Same in Ireland
Brits often grow a hedge around their gardens, with a gate to let people enter
As previously said, we DO have water towers in the UK, but they are very very few and far between. The few that I have seen are concrete, but the vast majority of our water comes from gravity reservoirs which are either open and above ground or (very often) underground (in built-up areas/suburbs - hidden under low hills). The only billboards we tend to see off roads/motorways are on the side of an old truck in a farmers field. People don't like them. We have occasional school buses but they tend to be just a normal bus (lots of different colours) hired twice a day. In general we don't bus our kids to school - they walk or take regular transport or the parents do a school run. (The distances except in very rural areas are not far). Mesh fences are VERY rare in the UK around residential homes. Ours are hedges (of privet or box-plants) or lap board fences (look it up!). In the 19th century the GPO (General Post Office) strongly advised homeowners to install a letter slit (mail slot) into front doors, and virtually everyone has one. Even a remote country cottage down a lane a mile from the main road will get their mail through their door. Regarding the culture references - one striking change is that American shows will be shown in the UK (or Australia/Europe etc) as made. Successful British or Australian shows get remade for a US audience (and the remakes are normally not as good as the originals) - because the US networks think that America couldn't cope with something not "made in America"! This is one of the weirdest nationalistic traits of the US (along with the flag). No-one flies a flag outside their house- most of us realise where we live!- although when the world cup (soccer) is on you do see many England (or Scotland/Wales) flags outside kid's bedroom windows!
were I live if one of the local teams makes it to any final or tournament in Europe they get the team flag put outside or hung up inside on the front window even with some bunting
This pretty much all exactly applies to Ireland as well.
i would say that the yellow school bus is probably as iconically American to us as the red double decker is to you.
Same as the New York yellow taxi and the London black cab.
School kids just use buses in Australia.
That is a London thing, they are all different colours in the rest of the country.
@@Phiyedough .
Indeed, don't know if it still applies, but a London Transport red bus would be one where their home garage was in the London area, LT green buses would be from outside the area even if they entered it.
This guy hasn’t been to the UK for a while I am guessing. The Union Jack is flying over most town halls or Council offices and other government buildings. Flags come out big time when we have a British celebration - winning the World Cup would see many England Red Cross flags everywhere. Fire hydrants are underground with metal caps over the access. School buses are only for secondary schools and are just normal double decker buses. They only pick up children in the morning and then go back to normal public service after until 3pm when they pick the children up. The primary schools are usually close to the children’s homes as they go to the school that is in their catchment area. You get to choose your secondary school but the local government decide on which primary school your child goes to. Buses for secondary schools are only for children within the catchment area. Beyond that the children have to catch a public bus or taxi. My kid’s school is in the middle of nowhere. 96% go by bus as it is on a farm but that’s unusual. Many kids can walk to school. The UK is smaller than the US.
Most kids would use a regular bus, but those same bus companies also put on limited timetable school bus routes to fill in necessary gaps. These would be visually identical to the regular buses in your town.
In Australia and New Zealand regular buses are used but on a special timetable - they have a removable sign on them saying "School" but in every other way they're identical to a normal bus.
@@jamesdignanmusic2765 Same here in Ireland though they will be Bus Eireann rather than, say, Dublin Bus [like Mt Cook Landliner rather than ARA - if they both still exist, did when I still lived there 40 years ago now]. In rural areas or if they are a ''posh'' school then they will be a private coach company but again with ''school'' on both the front header but also signs in the front and back windscreens.
Many Children live within walking distance of their school in the UK and in most of Europe.
In Malaysia, we have yellow school bus but it's nowhere the same as USA
as in, our school bus don't have the "dog-nose" design like what's typical in USA, instead it's all "flat-nose" design here
and our yellow school bus is usually the same type of vehicle as normal stage citybus or intercity coach bus, just painted as yellow outside
though, in certain areas, our "yellow school bus" is actually just a van (think of Nissan Vanette) painted yellow
these kind of van-based school bus is for areas with tight small road or serving small areas that is far from the actual school
Where I live, there is a regular bus route which, at certain times, stops in the school grounds. Where there is no regular bus, a coach is provided, which can also be used by the public.
When I went to school, it was by train or cycle.
I’m curious what interactions Tyler has had with fire hydrants?🤔
And no, Brits don’t have trash cans. They have rubbish bins.
Yes, I wondered that, would he be able to get water from one?
If you're an older UK resident it will be a dust bin and a dust cart comes and empties them.
@@dutchgray86 well actually if you want to split hairs it’s bin men that empty them.
Here in New Zealand our dustbin men, or dustmen were called dusties, just like our postmen are called posties.
A short film about Dusties in Wellington, 1971. Well before wheelie bins...
m.czcams.com/video/rwA9nDK8TUM/video.html&pp=ygUSV2VsbGluZ3RvbiBkdXN0aWVz
My mate had a visitor from the States. He told him that the dustmen come on Thursdays. His shocked American visitor said “You have men to come and do the dusting??” 😅
Oh and, like the person from NZ, we also call the one who delivers our letters a ‘postie’. (Round here anyway.)
All fire hydrants in Britain are underground to stop them freezing. They are accessible through cast iron covers which can be broken with a sledge hammer if they are stuck.
Flying our flag or displaying it at home or on vehicles is considered crass. We have taken to heart Dr Samuel Johnson’s saying “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”. To show our patriotism we just say we are English, Scottish, Welsh or British
The UK hydrant that was shown is a marker, not the place where the water is dispensed, it's an indicator to show it's nearby, and basic directions. The top number marks the size of the connector in mm, and the bottom number marks the distance the connector is from the marker in meters. The connector is normally under a small cover in the pavement/sidewalk/road. This is lifted, and the hose attached.
This surely cant be right? Ive seen the top number range from 01 to over 600?
@@Goatlinton I might be wrong, the top number might not be the connector size, maybe it's the size of the water pipe supplying water to the connector. 60cm seems right for a chunky water pipe.
@@stuartcollins82 then again the signs ive seen could have been vandalised by kids because 1mm makes 0 sense
Since WW2 all Hydrant connections are one size and one fitting. The upper number indicates the size of the water mains, in millimetres, the lower number indicates the distance to the hydrant cover in metres, there can also be an arrow used to indicate if the hydrant is off to one side.
There are still old imperial ones, occasionally. I’ve seen hydrant signs where it might say 3/3. So that would be a 3” gauge, 3’ away from the sign. Mostly they’ve been changed now. So this example would now be 75/1 (75mm, a metre away).
I live in uk Never seen a water tower
i live right next to one 😂 tho it don’t look like the american ones
Glasgow had many fed by Loch Katrine.The one still in Cranhill now lit up.
They were also made from brick. So you probably have seen one, you just didn't know what it was
The iconic American fire hydrant was made here in my home town of Rotherham Yorkshire. The company making them Guest and Chimes went out of business just a few years ago. Their factory is being preserved as a Grade 11 listed building.
"I used to work at a place where they built fire hydrants but I had to quit. You couldn't park anywhere near the place." (Steven Wright)
There are very few water towers in the UK because we don't usually need them...unless it's a sparcely populated area with few houses. Our water usually comes straight from the mains or from large storage reservoirs built at higher levels and often hidden inside man-made hills - they are basically gigantic concrete tanks hidden in a hill!
It's an interesting cultural difference.
I was almost stopped dead in my tracks by a highway billboard in Missouri that advertised something like "Joe's Adult Toys Emporium in 15 miles".
The questions went something along the lines of:
- Why are you telling this now?
- In fact, why are you telling me this at all?
We do have metal mesh fence in the UK. They are slightly different as they have a protective plastic to reduce corrosion and are usually a green colour.
They are more commonly found in the back yard. Not so much on the front or sides of property.
Plus most people rip these fences out and install a wooden fence.
Brick and local stone is mostly on the front of the property 😊
In UK white picket fences are rare, as are the chain link fence shown (these tend to be used in commercial or older properties).
The type of fences/boundaries used are often local choices but range through, none, rope on small posts, a hedge plant (often Privet), brick walls, stone walls, Aris rails, Lapped planks, woven planking (panels)
UK hydrants are actually near to one of those markers, which tell you where it is and how much pressure it has by the numbers on it. Usually they are underground covered by a small manhole cover.
The upper number tells the firefighters the size of the water main, not the pressure.
Our fire hydrants are set into the ground. What he is showing in the video is an marker that tell the firemen there a hydrant near-by. The "H" indicates its a hydrant then the numbers tell you the size of the pipe and the distance from the marker. Effectively in the ground is a connection to a water main with value that our firemen connect a stand-pipe too, then connect their hose to stand-pipe and open the valve to get water.
Its funny when americans struggle with the term letterbox rather than mailslot, when Americans still called widescreen video with black bars letterboxed, because its the shape of A LETTERBOX.
There was a 1970s kids' TV series in the UK about a time-travelling wizard called Catweazle who lived in a water tower. It was disused though so, presumably, they'd built a nice, big reservoir uphill by the time he moved in. The UK has practically always got a handy hill to run water from to create the necessary water pressure to get water to come out when you turn on the tap.
The slot in the door is called the letter box, but we have large rounded red pillar box's that you can put letters in which are collected a couple of times a day, these letters are taken to a sorting office and sent on to the appropriate address.
The water tower that was built near where I lived when I was a child in Lincolnshire in the 1960s was like an enormous concrete mushroom, with a thin stem and a wide tank at the top.
Concerning fire hydrants, the "H" sign just tells the firefighters where the hydrant is located. The hydrant is actually under a metal plate in the pavement, and the firefighters attach a detachable standpipe to an underground connection to the water system when they need to use it. The hose then gets connected to the standpipe. The advantages of this are that they can't be crashed into by a vehicle (unlike the American ones), and being underground they are less likely to freeze up in the winter.
The old water tower on the corner of Westgate and Chapel lane in Lincoln looks like a castle built from bricks.
Mesh fences are definitely not a thing in the UK, we have wooden panel fencing in 4 ft or 6 ft high panels with either wooden or concrete posts between the panels, or we have hedges/boundaries made of plants, shrubs bushes, small trees etc. As for yellow school buses they aren't a thing in the UK, we do have some buses and coaches used for schools but they are owned by private companies local to the schools and are whatever colour the companies livery is, and many children just take the regular bus to school that's used by everyone else, or they use the train or walk as many live close to their schools. We don't have any adds on our motorways or main roads. We do have add boards in the cities at the side of the street on boards, but they are few and far between in most places. Of course in many of our cities adds are carried on the side of our double deck buses, especially in the larger cities like London.
Yes, or rather we do have plenty of wire mesh fences, but they're not used as home dividers. You'd only see them surrounding municipal tennis/basketball/five-a-side football courts, car parks, or other areas that need to be fenced off, and then they would be much higher than the ones shown in the video.
@@leohickey4953and schools
Some gardens will have chickenwire fencing around them, often older gardens, but we put it up in one of our places - to keep the dog in and other dogs out - because it was much cheaper than higher wooden fencing.
The wire mesh fences, in the US, are mostly due to having to deal with snow or wind.
There are plenty of yellow school buses here in Greater Manchester.
If you travel round the world you will find that the U.S really is the odd-man-out on so many of the things Americans react too - that doesn't mean there is not some cross over.
To say that Brits don't fly our flag as often as Americans, is a massive understatement.....we almost NEVER fly flags outside our homes, and most Brits would regard it as worryingly Nationalistic.
Scotland does 🏴
I don’t fly a flag outside the house all the time and I’m not a football fan 🙄so certainly don’t fall into “ that” category ..but I flew my union flags and English flag with immense pride on the occasion of our Queens jubilees and Our New King. Unlike some I am proud of my country and am not constantly denigrating it ….. perhaps those that aren’t should consider moving elsewhere… 🙄🏴🇬🇧
@Ionabrodie69 I think the Nationalistic comment was for outside special occasions, lots of people have flown or displayed the English flag for international football events, and big royal occasions are generally a good cause to show the British Union flag. It's not so much as an aversion to pride in our county that people tend to otherwise avoid flying the flag, I think that we tend to be adverse to blind adoration of the country that the US seems to have been programmed into, that rarely works out well as it leads to accepting that your country can do no wrong or its the greatest, needs no improvements and is better than everywhere else. It was similar programming that allowed the Nazi party to get away with so much on the lead up to the second world war. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So overt Nationalism is generally worrying.
@@kellymorgan4304 Yeah. But that's because of the nationalist movement.
@@SF64 Quite…but the worrying trend is to constantly apologise for our Country.. and wear a hair shirt for things in the past for which nobody alive today has anything to do with…🤷♀️ There are things we did wrong..but for all those things..we did as many if not more GOOD things… Slavery was not invented by us British,we profited by it for many years…but who didn’t..? The one’s asking for reparations now are just as bad…Our Country stopped slavery but it didn’t start it…
I don’t and won’t constantly fly our flag but am I proud of my country ….Yes , whilst being aware of its foibles… 🏴🇬🇧
In my small town the water tower looks like a castle built on the top of a hill. It looks gorgeous, it's a shame it's not used any more.
Yeah our town has a castle looking one, my son's got the front bay bedroom and we live behind farmers fields so you can see the tower in the distance and he's CONVINCED it's a castle and he says goodnight to the knights hahaha. He's 3 so it's incredibly cute 😂
This was the same as the city I whent to university in the UK
Our one is red brick with a lovely green copper roof - it’s called jumbo and it’s a local landmark
It was a big thing where peregrines nested in it
The fire hydrants in the UK actually aren't hydrants at all. That thing with the H on it indicates where the stopcock is, (in feet from the location of the sign), that's situated underneath a steel plate that's on the footpath. When the fire brigade need access to water, they place their own hydrant onto the stopcock and switch it on. The idea being that there's not this huge thing sticking up out of the path when it's not needed. There are school buses, but they're not specifically for schoolkids to travel to and from school. They're just normal buses with normal livery that are assigned as school buses. Or, where there are none, kids would use normal buses and walk the rest of the way from the nearest stop to their school, and vice versa. Water towers exist, but they're not really that common. They're only really used in areas where the water pressure isn't high enough, where pumping it isn't an option, for whatever reason.
The only American style front yard mailbox I’ve seen in the UK.
Is when you drive through country roads or small villages.
But they are not for mail!
It’s usually something called an honest box.
The proper owner will put some eggs or vegetables that they have grown into the mail box.
You are then expected to leave money inside the mailbox to pay for the items that you took from the mailbox 😉
Our Post Office here (IE), An Post sell them, called delivery boxes, attached to the wall of house or by/on front gate, they are large metal boxes that are locked the householder has a unique key and the postie a master. They have a barcode inside which he/she scans and acts as a signature. They also collect any prepaid/stamped outgoing post inside when delivering.
@@tonys1636 that sounds really good and practical.
Something I've not seen mentioned on your videos so far, is the consistant use of the common noun "home" when Brits and others would say "house". My grandsons will invite friends to their house, but will announce to their parents, "I'm home". As the old adage says, "A house is not a home". 😅
In the UK we tend NOT to venerate our flag, after all it is the 1707 Union Flag. The flags that are important to us are the ones for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It is tacky to fly the Union flag. Its is not necessary to demonstrate our patriotism.
I guess you don’t get out much. The Union Jack is everywhere 🤷🏻♂️
When I was a kid in the 60s, you'd only see one flown on some sort of special occasion, and usually only on or near public buildings.
Now, since Brexit, to put up the flag up is to invite everyone to assume what your politics are. It's got more common but it's more a private but politically contentious gesture than a public gesture of national solidarity.
I suspect the same is happening in USA since Trump.
Yorkshire also has its own flag, pale blue with a white rose depicted, likewise Lancashire with a red rose.
Five centuries ago when the Tudor dynasties were created, civil War between two branches of the Tudor family erupted, lasting almost a century all across England.
Henry V eventually became the King under the Red Rose, the biggest battle was at Towton, near Tadcaster in Yorkshire.
You'll see the tricolour on public buildings here but the flags you are more likely to see are the county flags especially in football season when they are often flown to support the county GAA/football/rugby teams [depending on what you support/follow]. On big matches you'll see them flown from houses in support of one or other of the teams in the finals.
We have metal fences in the UK but you would never see them as someones garden fence. Lots of places here have metal fences, particularly schools but not houses.
Brit fire hydrants are almost always underground. The yellow identification plate displayed on a short concrete sign post (or wall) has two numbers top = size, lower = distance to metal cover often with FH cast into it, often painted yellow. Once cover lifted a stand pipe (from fire appliance) is inserted and hose connected.
For the school bus thing:
We do not have a dedicated class of vehicle for school (like the US's yellow school bus). If a bus is used for going to school, it's either a normal public transport one, or one that's been rented/bought for the school's private use. The other more common option is to use a fleet of people movers (Minivans in the US), either hired or school owned.
In the UK, school buses are operated by private companies that have been contracted to run them by the county/borough/district council. As such are just the buses that get used for other routes these companies operate. As other people have commented though, there is nothing to stop kids from using normal buses to get to school if its convenient to do so. If a bus is needed for a school trip, then the school hires a coach from a private hire company.
The various education boards in Northern Ireland have their own buses. They also will hire buses from to shift youngsters around. They’re mainly used in the rural areas.
In Australia, we have public buses owned by the government, as well as private buses which are privately owned and decided on their own routes through our suburbs. Private buses often fill the gaps between train stations and home, or they go past your local school so you can be dropped at the school gate. We had bus passes at a greatly reduced fee, not sure about modern day because my school years ended decades ago.
We had bus passes in NZ back in the 70s, you'd buy the concession card - as it was called - from the local newsagent for the ARA buses or from the driver on the local private bus companies which also ran buses. They were quite a bit cheaper than paying cash fares every day and you could buy them as adults as well if you were a regular on the buses. I always used them because I caught the bus to and from work as well as school, and keeping a piece of card safe in your purse or pocket was much easier than having to keep change on you.
There are several objects you find in UK Streets that you will not find in Amerian Streets. Just as we have Letter Boxed for our incoming mail in our doors, we also have OUT GOING Mail Boxes dotted randomly arround out towns and cities when any one can Post a Letter to a friend or relative that the UK Mail Company (Royal Mail) will COLLECT the letters and take them back to the Sorting Office for onward Delivery to the Addressee .
In New Zealand our fire hydrants are under manhole covers in the road, school buses are just buses and most houses in the suburbs (and rural areas) do have letter boxes near the street.
Fire hydrants are under the road or footpath, accessed by a hinged metal plate . The “H” in the photo is a sign telling the firefighters where the plate is….the numbers are measurements from the sign. The metal plate is opened and a vertical hose connector pipe is screwed down onto the underground water pipe
Manhole.
The older water towers, mainly in the Fens have been designed by an architect of the day, some are quite beautiful and one or two are protected against any changes. Main reasons to have such strong structures is to withstand the weather, maintenance and regular testing must be carried out for water quality and such things as Legionella etc. The only reason I know is because I use to live near the Fens and one of the pubs had beer coasters with 'famous' water tower pictures on the beer mat, the architects name, some history on it, date of construction etc. Very nerdy I know but some of them were very pretty structures.
Many listed/protected ones have been converted into homes, a cool place to live if one has the money.
Britain does have amazing water towers from the late 1800s Victorian era constructed of brick and ornate, looking more like a church bell tower than a water tower. Concrete towers tend to be early 1900s.
In addition to brick walls, 6 foot privacy fences are more common at British homes. Wood panels typically prefabbed and attach to either a wood post or slide down in slots of large concrete posts. Diamond wire fence not common with Britain preferred a tight rectangular mesh and crimped for rigidity. More secure fencing at businesses may be a palisade fence with galvanized steel angles and spiked at the top. Watching lawn care videos from Australia, they also use sheet metal panels for home fences and if maintained look great too (and practical).
Hydrants: along British streets, sometimes an H is posted on a street lamp signifying a hydrant location, often yellow sign and not blue like the US signs directing drivers to a hospital.
One thing Lawerence didn't cover in this video is US homes love their concrete or asphalt driveways. In Britain, off street parking is typically rock chip or brick pavers. Individual businesses will opt for brick pavers as part or all of their parking areas as part of the landscaping appeal. Sure lots of places use tarmac (asphalt) or concrete but brick car parks are still common (sometimes different colors and brick patterns).
🥸yeah, me is american nerd addicted to watching videos across Britain
I've encountered few "mail boxes" in England as a kid. Usually for houses with a dog where the owner didn't like their newspaper being shredded before they read it. The water towers are always concrete and the oldest ones quite elaborate. Where I grew up it was a landmark you could see on the highest hill in town looking like a victorian control tower.
I think that the UK equivalent of the water tower would have been our large gas holders. That used to be everywhere, but most have now been removed. They were used to store up town gas to meet peak demand. Like when everybody switched on their gas cookers at the same time, to make their Sunday dinners. Not needed now that the pressure in the gas supply can cope with peak demand.
Depends on where you lived in Britain, in East Yorkshire the land is predominantly flat and there were quite a lot of water towers around to give the system a Head of Pressure.
Our house has a stone wall 5' high then a hedge 7' high. Back garden has a plastic pannel fence 6' high in green (no maintenance required). Have 2 'mail slots' one in the front door and 1 in the side door (tradesman's entrance!). School busses are hired from private companies in this area whereas the regular busses are electric.
That wasnt a British fire hydrant he showed, its just the marker. The actual hydrant will be in the ground somewhere in front of the marker and one of the numbers on the marker tells you how far in front it is. The ground covers should be coloured yellow too although this isnt always the case.
School buses in the UK are regular buses ran by the Bus Companies in the area, but only run during certain times of the day but when they're not school busses they get incorporated onto other routes.
For school field trips in the UK either they either hire a coach service and driver or might use a smaller school owned transit style bus.
The Hydrant sign in UK is for the firemen it tells them the distance and depth to the nearest hydrant tap is from the sign that’s why there’s numbers on there…( my husband was a fireman)
Size of the main (top) in mm or inches - and (bottom) distance away in feet or metres. Old ones are in inches and feet, newer are metric. So the example shown is an 80mm main, 2m in front of the marker.
The larger number indicates the size of the water main that feeds the hydrant, in millimetres.
The smaller number indicates the distance to the hydrant from the sign, in metres.
Some (but not all signs) will indicate the direction in which the hydrant is located.
Thank you Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service for decoding the sign 😁
Our Fire hydrants are mostly underground, the signs are to show emergency services exactly where the hydrants are located, the two sets of numbers on the sign show (bottom) how many metres away the hydrant is and (top) the size of the water main , this is to show the exact location in case the hydrant cover is obscured by something, for example plant foliage.
British fire hydrants are set into the pavement under a metal cover. The H sign tells you how far away the cover is -- usually about 2 ft.
In the UK a lot of water towers double up as cell phone sites with the aerials either on the top or more commonly around the out side.
We don’t have trash cans at all we have rubbish bins
The yellow H isn't a hydrant, its a sign indicating where the hydrant is. There's a little cover on the pavement infront of the sign where fire engines can be hooked up to get water.
Mail slot = letter box. Its just what it's called, some people have a box on the other side but most houses the letters just fall to the floor.
In the Uk if a wood fence is present it usuallly treated with a protective wood stain which i personally feels looks a bit more natural but which also is for more forgiving in regards to its appearance with wear and tear and dirt.
For my country, the Netherlands, it is basically the same.
Our watertowers (No longer in use in most cases, we get our water from pumping stations) look more like Castletowers (including the brick exterior and tilts). Many are no protected monuments.
Billboards: Can't be placed just anywhere and are illegal alongside Highways. (Although there are some loopholes depending on the municipality alongside that stretch of highway)
Schoolbus: If anyone goes by bus to school, it is public transport. Most children and students will go by bycicle though
White picket fence: Seen some in rural areas. If people have a garden it can be bordered by anything ranging from a meshfence, hedge, wooden fence, nothing, flowerbeds etc etc.
Front yard mailboxes: You might find them in rural areas. In cities and towns they mostly use mailslots in the door. Might or might not be having a box behind it.
Firehydrants. they are generally hidden as a manhole branded as hydrant.
Flags: you might find a few here and there but in general only flown on special days like Kingsday or when someone graduated (their schoolbag proudly hanging from the top), with important sporting events. Liberation day etc.
I would pronounce it Patriotic because Patriotic just sounds weird
Houses in the England from my experience don't tend to have wooden fences in the front garden. For my home atleast we have a roughly chest height brick wall in our front garden and houses that do have wooden fences are rarely even painted and are just bare wood.
Only private owned schools in the UK have school buses, majority use public transport. The H just shows where the fire hydrant is and how far deep it is. It’s basically underground 😊
The hole in your front door is what we call ‘the letter box’, whether there is an actual box mounted inside the house to receive the post or not. If not, it lands on the hall floor. If you are not in to take delivery of a parcel the postman will either leave it with a neighbour, because he knows you do that for each other, or else it will be taken back to the main sorting office. A card is put through the letter box to advise you where it is so you either collect or you can opt to have it re-delivered.
Letters and parcels are referred to as ‘the post’ and dotted throughout a town are the iconic round red cast iron ‘post boxes’ on the pavements into which you ‘post a letter’. There will be a notice on the front giving collection times. Where there is no pavement or it’s too narrow for a round post box, there may be a square shaped one mounted on a brick wall, still painted red and with the notice about collection times.
Parcels need to be weighed, and large or thick letters have to be measured because charges vary, so you need a Post Office, which will either be a stand-alone building in a town or else a secure counter within another shop. These are called Sub-Post Offices. They will sell you the right value postage stamps and will take the parcel from you and keep it for collection by the van from the sorting office. Since COVID the Post Office has started a new service whereby they will collect parcels from your home. This was introduced because people stayed indoors and the PO business was being decimated by online shopping being delivered, and sometimes returned, via couriers.
There are also Royal Mail parcel post boxes where you can drop off returns and pre-paid parcels without needing the post office
as a brit I have never in my life seen a water tower in the UK so I'd say they are very rare indeed and not as common as the video makes out.
He’s been out of the UK for too long
Well I'm pretty sure Fire Hydrants here in the UK are just connected to the Water mains via an underground pipe that looks like a drain outlet. That Block with the H symbol just shows that the Hydrant outlet is close by. The advantage of that, is that it stops annoying kids from being able to set them off and wasting water, like you see in movies!
Some people do have picket fences in the UK, but rarely painted. Probably stained. Fences are solid wood 6ft high between properties.
In Brighton, UK, school buses use regular city buses but have designated route numbers for morning & afternoon, for example: 94 Cardinal Newman, that serviced parts of Brighton & Hove. Other school children just board regular city buses if it wasn't in their housing estate & the rest either just walked or carpooled with friends/neighbours/parents if it was in their housing estate or close by in another housing estate. It took me 45 minutes to walk to my school, I got soaked in the rain by the time I got to the end of my road that that took 10 minutes to walk, so I changed schools which the school was almost opposite my house & left home 10 minutes before class started so I was there for registration on time & dry.
In the UK, the fire hydrants are underground. But above ground we have a YELLOW SIGN - with a large 'H' to indicate where the hydrant is located. Two numbers appear on the sign, which indicate the size of the water main (the top number) and the distance from the sign (the lower number). Newer signs show these measurements in millimetres and metres, but older signs still use inches and feet.
I'm from Glasgow, Scotland/UK. I've grown up watching movies that have those white picket fences and front yard mailboxes. I don't have anything to say about the fences really, other than they do look clean and pretty. The British mailboxes however, have more advantages than a front yard mailbox. We don't have to leave the house to get our mail. (We have draught excluders fitted inside of our letterboxes...so it's not like there are many things other than letters that can fit through the slot...so random things getting put through is not a problem. We also have an indoor and outdoor sleeved letterbox which also helps with draughts and is aesthetically pleasing...rather than a hole in the door. If you're waiting on an important letter (which MAY contain sensitive information) we don't have to worry about anybody stealing/reading the post. I've never liked the thought of an outdoor mailbox.
Laurence grew up here in Grimsby, service buses are used for school buses which would go back into regular service on a particular route afterwards, coaches are used as well and actual service buses which Laurence would have ridden in. There is/are a video/s on his channel when he has returned to Grimsby. The H signs are marking where the hydrant is located which is under a manhole on the ground in front of the sign the fire brigade insert their equipment in and turn the water on, I watched the fire brigade checking the hydrant opposite the house I grew up in, i don’t know where the nearest one is where I live now.
Hi Coming back to UK fire hydrants the bit the presenter missed out is on the H plates it show some digits.
The H plate normally faces towards where the hydrant is located and digits refer to the distance away -
It refers to the manhole where the hydrant is located, covered by a clearly marked metal HYDRANT cover to which the fire brigade have tools lift to gain access to the water outlet......
Oh by the water towers are used to increase the local are water pressure - a bit like some older houses in the UK baths and WC flushes are fed off the tank located in the false roof, its purpose is to reduce the demand on the pressure of the incoming mains water supply.
That is why if ever you visit older UK houses never drink from cold taps on the upper levels without checking first that it's safe to do so!!
A few waters towers here in theUK have been turned into luxury houses usually commanding a lofty panoramic views over the countryside , we have tv shows showing people converting these towers plus old windmills costal forts or any old ruin .
There was a fight over our water tower being turned into apartments - I think it was turned into a historical landmark or something because I haven’t heard any progression on the conversion in over a decade
A bin is indeed a rare sight where I am. Council removed a lot of them, the ones they did leave are often in stupid places with low foot traffic- good job council. They promised years a go to put more bins close to shops, at bus stops and other places where you might need one. But I haven't noticed any follow-through, in fact there is a bus stop in my town which is very close to the centre and right by an ASDA (very large supermarket) that serves hot food you can take out like chicken drumsticks. Busy, rightnear places that generate waste- bin recently disappeared and now you see a lot of littering. Good job guys!
Many public refuse bins were removed during the "Troubles" with the IRA to stop them just dropping a bomb in the bin timed to go off at rush hour thereby killing as many innocent people as possible, the fact they haven't been put back since the Good Friday Agreement simply means they aren't giving anyone else the same opportunity.
As a child was taught to always take my rubbish/litter home with me, something the younger generations seem not to do. Bins were rare in suburbia/villages except the local shopping parade owned and emptied by the shopkeepers, no fast food places then except maybe a chippy.
6:49 First Group (a UK Bus operator) did actually have import some school buses from the US but they didn't catch on. In the UK school buses are normally just regular buses that are allocated on the routes although exceptions may apply such as the MyBus BMC Condors. Another thing, I noticed that the school buses in the US are high floor with a bonnet in the UK our buses have to DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant and there for require a wheelchair ramp on buses and chair lift on high entry coaches.
I think perhaps one reason why they have mail boxes in the USA is that for the postal worker to get to the front door would add a lot of extra time onto their shift and so with mail boxes it would make it quicker, in the UK though houses are a lot closer to the pavement and so it is not much of a difference and also post is more secure. I also remember that when I was younger I used to watch the 'House Doctor' on channel 5 with was hosted by english presenter with an american interior designer, she had a lot of good ideas but she had a dislike of net curtains and always removed them not understanding the purpose, in the UK with most houses close to the street you could see inside a house from a pavement and so it was to give privacy but in USA the houses are so far back from the road I believe that is isnt a problem. I had a neighbour who decided to remove their net curtains and within a few months they were burgled.
Well, you could say that British people don't have 'trash cans' - we have 'rubbish bins' 🙂
I can confirm that the concrete water towers are the norm here, although I've also seen brick ones on occasion.
Can't think of any white picket fences near me...nor of any chain-link fences on domestic properties; I have seen something similar to the chain-link fences around schools. Most domestic properties do have fences or walls, but not those specific varieties.
You're wrong to say the letter slot doesn't exist at all in the USA. My Dad's house in Orange County had a letter slot; not in the door, but just next to it in the wall. And yes, the vast majority of homes in the UK have the slot in the door; sometimes a block of flats [apartments] will have a bank of letterboxes at the entrance - either outside or just inside a communal lobby.
I might see 3 or 4 Union flags when I go for a 15 mile cycle ride - extremely unusual to see one within the town, but occasionally out in the more rural areas someone will fly a flag. The only place within town where I'd expect to see the Union flag is outside the town hall. Quite often, a church will fly the English flag (yes, English, not UK - red cross of St George on a white background).
Churches typically fly flags on saints days and for other significant events - not year round.
@AirstripOne-nd4du Where do you live? Somewhere hilly?
The fence and the mailbox are both results of the amount of land around houses in the US compared to UK housing some of which have has no surrounding land at all
When I was at school in the UK 20 years ago the majority of the school buses were retired touring coaches, with a few service buses as well, we had about a dozen serving our schools routes, all run by private companies.
Hi tyler. There are dedicated buses but usually it's transport for children with special needs (I used to be in one) or taxi minibuses that are contracted by the school. A lot of people would walk, ride or drive to school (patents or in my case taxis). I used to go in a red bus for primary school and then for high school I was using normal taxis that the schools paid for. In college I used normal taxis : as a teen I used the taxis funded by the college for adults with special needs and then when I went to college the past 3 years as an adult, I used normal taxis that I paid for. They revoked funding for transport for SEN children /adults. There are still some running but many have cut down. Xx
In terms of Buses/transport for school, it very much depends where the school is. If it's in a city or larger town with good Public transport, then the kids will tend to just use the Public transport bus. If however, the school is in a Rural area with limited/ not very reliable Public transport, then the school will generally hire out coaches each day to take the Children back to their Village or (small town). These coaches don't have a uniform colour, but will always have a logo on it to show it is transporting children. Of course, if they live close to the school, then they'll simply just walk home.
I've not seen a water tower here in the UK for years. Everything is pumped as distances are so much shorter between reservoirs, processing plants and users.
"Billboards" are illegal on the major roads as they are distractions. People park trucks with adverts sometimes as they are not permanent.
School busses? Nope, walk, cycle, public transport and the occasional lift. School busses just aren't needed.
Back gardens have walls, hedges, fences. Front here are just open and it's in the house deeds to keep the whole neighbourhood open.
Mail get put through the door letter boxes so no one can steal it. You post letters into dedicated local "pillar box" (google it). What's your security on a mail box?
Our fire hose connections are under the pavement/road beneath a small cover. The never get hit :P They are marked by yellow plaques and markings.
Flying the UK or especially a England flag is often seen as xenophobic/racist, especially given the UK's colonial past.
Not noticed if they are still there but there would often be an advert on a railway bridge that crossed over a road.
In the UK, we use standard public transport buses, private schools usually use a minibus or coach buse...
I've never seen a water tower and when I went to school, yes the school had dedicated buses, but they were not labelled school bus, just their route number and the company that ran the buses and it was usually a coach type bus that you'd normally see used for long distance. I'm sure every school does things differently that's just how my school worked. Quite often labelled Belfitts coaches or Grindles coaches, since that's the 2 companies I can remember that had buses allocated to our school.
And the H is usually just marking where the drain is for the fire brigade to put there house pipe onto, the concrete sign is just a sign/marker, but I think some do also have the tap inside of them.
Is the mailbox locked? If so how does the mailman get into it? If not, anyone could steal your mail.
In the UK there is a slot in the mailbox so that the mailman can put mail into it. They do not pick up mail from houses in the UK - you have to drop it off at a post box or office. In the US, it's not locked and yes, someone could steal your mail but it doesn't really happen - and if it does, you can chat with the mailman about it (tend to have the same one) or drop it off at the post office.
In Britain we get to know our postmen and mine knows my mother lives round the corner and has come to her rescue by alerting me to a problem. They often wear shorts all year as they walk a lot and find them more comfortable. It’s funny to see a shorts clad postmen delivering Mail in a Scottish winter. NB Although Scotland is the same degrees latitude as Alaska we have a temperate climate it is rarely too hot or too cold so shorts ok for fit people.
@@alanaw27 wish I could get to know mine in London - seems to change every week.
Fire hydrant in the uk are under a grid so the sign just points to which grid the hydrant is under
The British "hydrant" shown is simply a sign saying where the hydrant is - it'll be under a small cover buried in the road or paving. The "H" sign has a couple of numbers on it saying the pipe size and exactly where the hydrant is.
Some people in England might like white fences, but most prefer hedges of various sorts. Usually, only gardens that are not accessible to visitors have external boxes. We have a front door and a side door, both with letter boxes. The "H" sign simply shows where the hydrant is, usually like a drain access in appearance.
For Americans (not Tyler I don't think he reads this) the H is just a sign that the water hydrant is nearby. It is accessed through a flat metal plate set into the ground so won't be knocked down by a car!
I don't think he reads any of his comments ever, as I have never seen a reply on them, and I been watching for well over a year now.
@@DebraElias-uc6yz• I've seen several people say that Tyler never reads ANY of the comments, and in my experience, they're correct. If he did read them, he would have realised by now that the man whose videos he "reacts" to is wrong more often than he is right. I doubt if he's set foot in the UK for years.
This guy sacrifices clarity for comedy, he could explain things a little better as many of the comment point out.
I hadn't realised he was trying to be humerous. I just know that in all the videos I've seen him in, he's completely wrong about a lot of things, which leads me to believe that he hasn't been back to Britain for a long time.
Agree. People seem to love him, but occasionally I despair at his lack of clarity or occasional incorrect nonsense.
Yes - and that's the point. His channel is a humourous one. There are plenty of dull, boring, analytical list-spouting channels if that's what you want.
@@sameebah • I don't mind humour at all, although I don't find Lawrence funny tbh, but I do mind that he's quite often wrong.
The fire hydrant in Briton is underground for safety the sign shown is the marker black H on a yellow background, the small numbers tells you the size of the pipe and the other number tells you how far the cover is from the sign.
Concrete water towers in the UK are so strong people have converted them into homes.
We have yellow school busses in the UK.
yup. there's a couple of schools use them near me. given how some kids are little idiots, seeing the yellow bus reminds me it's school chucking out time. the majority of the school buses are regular buses - and all our buses, school or otherwise, are fitted out with cctv.
We do have some motorway adverts in the Uk, but they are anything but common, more like rare.
The metal mesh fences in the Uk are more common around business premises.
The Fire Hydrants built into the side of buildings in the Uk are usually Dry Risers (very occassionally Wet Risers) with the the inlet joint on the outside of the building for the fire tender to attach itself to , then an outlet joint on each floor of the building for the firemen to attack the business end of their hoses to for easier fire fighting per floor. The outside joint of the Dry Riser is usually situated near a road based Fire Hydrant to allow the Fire Tender to act as a pumping station between the Hydrant & Dry Riser (The Dry Risers are more common than Wet Risers as they can't spring a leak).
Look in older parts of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, etc. Some of the row houses have mail slots in the front doors. In the UK, some (e.g. us) have a mailbox on the wall outside the house. Big billboards by the road side are not allowed in most parts of the UK. However, people get around that by parking an old semitrailer on a field and turning that into a billboard. I've seen the occasional steel water tower in the UK but they were dedicated factory units. Others are disguised to resemble castles, and some seem to have been taken out of use.
A billboard is no more distracting than beautiful scenery.
I'd like to know how you write down a lawyers phone number when you're travelling at 70 mph on a highway. Sounds pretty distracting to me. (You'll probably be needing that lawyer too if you try this!) 🤣
Except the billboard doesn't have to be there
Your eyes and brain don't need to focus on passing scenery like it does on text
😂not often I see beautiful scenery with text written on it or numbers to read
Loony man is back..........l fear for good.............
In the UK, school buses are a mix of public and privately operated:
London has a school bus network that whilst is catered towards children, any member of the public can use and the buses are just standard red double or single decker vehicles that would also be found on non school bus work - schoolkids will also commonly use the regular network as well as I did when going to secondary school. School buses in London are easily identifiable as they will be numbered in the 600 series (the 607 was an outlier until a few days ago when it was renumbered SL8)
In the rest of the UK, it's similar to London although there is less school routes available to other members of the public and buses will be all shapes and sizes and in whatever livery that operator would usually use - they will also be numbered like London though not always in a set series. Contrary to what Lawrence says in his video, some operators have painted their school buses in the same shade of yellow as the classic American School Bus
We also have privately run school routes which are found both in London and the rest of the UK and which are not open to the rest of the public. They follow similarly to how school buses outside London work - all shapes and sizes and whatever livery that operator wants or usually uses
You are expected to make your own way to school unless the school is (if I remember correctly) more than 5 miles away when a bus or taxi will be provided. Living in a fairly rural place that means you cannot get a taxi between around 7.30 to 9.30 am as they are all doing school runs
Considering that in the UK mail companies have a legal obligation to make sure that a letter or package is delivered to the resident's door they have no choice but to go up long driveways, to out of reach areas and post it through the box or place it in an agreed safe spot.
And for the record there are only water towers in the Lowlands of Scotland because the Highlands get there's straight from the hills 😂
In the UK kids either catch a regular bus that just happens to go near their school or, if there is a specific bus just for the school run, the local council will usually have a deal with the local bus company and instead of a number on the bus it'll just say something like "St Joseph's School".
Busses in the UK depend on location, and often have multiple competing companies running different routes and/or timetables. School service busses were just a standard timetabled bus indicated with an 's' included in the route number in my area, which anyone could still use and some would divert off the standard route to reach schools if needed, but otherwise followed the standard route (e.g. my local bus service was the number 85 bus, the school service was 85S). I'm not sure if my local busses even provide school service busses now as I don't recall having seen one for years!
The only yellow school buses in the UK are those used by local councils to get children to special schools, those with severe learning difficulties or disabilities.
I work in a Special School but all our buses are local Council buses and they are all white. When you pass one, you don't know if it's got kids in it or OAP'S going to a day care.
As a child, the Special Needs bus that went to my work was white with blue stripes on side. It looked like a tube of Germolene so as kids we all called them the Germolene buses.
We do have billboards but it’s usually farmers parking up an old lorry with an advert on the side of it. They rent out the space but it’s very few and far between though.