Minor quirks and differences in the UK

'Drip brewed coffee' is available in many places in the UK but its called filter coffee. It's usually the cheapest coffee on a menu.

Those all sound normal to me (and Aussie) so I guess the opposites would be quirks I'd notice if I went to the US.

I used to buy a big cup of Starbucks filter coffee at Paternoster Square every morning when I had a daily commute. With milk and 2 sugars. It was only £1 when I started on that route, and went up to £1.20. The freshness of coffee from a pot is going to be pot luck in the UK though. Very few people drink it and a pot can sit for a while.

When I commuted filter from Pret a Manger was my morning drink of choice. 99p and it did the job.

Emma, maybe I didn't look very hard, but I didn't see that on the menu anywhere I visited. I probably just overlooked it though!

1. I believe this is current regulation.
2. As energy costs are high, turning things off is taken very seriously. No phantom energy.
3. See point 2, common throughout Europe
4. I wasn't aware, as this is not something I would drink. But lower sugar is a good idea.
5. I found drip brewed coffee in London.
6. I'm not disputing this, but I never came across a paid toilet during my week in London in March.

While there are differences, I wouldn't consider the above quirks.

Aren't light switches upside down compared to the US? We push the switch down to turn on the light. Am I imagining it when I have a recollection of it being the opposite in the US?

Filter coffee isn’t as common as espresso based coffee.

Yep electricity costs a fortune here and we’re encouraged to turn things off at the wall to save money, and it’s perceived to be safer. I don’t know if that’s true but if I forget to turn certain appliances off at the wall at work you can guarantee somebody else will performatively do it for me.

The rule about the light switches in bathrooms is that you shouldn’t be able to touch water and electricity at the same time. The kitchen seems to have different rules for some reason.

The sugar tax has effectively reduced sugar consumption but the drinks with sweeteners don’t taste very nice. Coke Classic is pretty much the only non artificially sweetened fizzy drink that is widely available.

It is very common. I don't like strong coffee, and I'm a cheapskate.
If it isn't available an americano is the closest, basically watered down espresso.

Regarding bathrooms something that seems to come up here a lot is why we don't have hairdryers in hotel bathrooms. Much confusion about where to find a hairdryer (answer - usually in the drawer by the table with a mirror).
I presume it is a cultural thing but i have never understood why you would want to dry your hair, put make up on etc in a damp steamy bathroom, when you can do it much more comfortably in the bedroom. Doing it in the bedroom also means you aren't blocking the bathroom that someone else might want to use.

I presume it is a cultural thing but i have never understood why you would want to dry your hair, put make up on etc in a damp steamy bathroom, when you can do it much more comfortably in the bedroom.

Hmm, makes me wonder, do you not have exhaust fans in your bathrooms?

Light switches-- In US 'up' is on.

Light switches-- In US 'up' is on.

Thanks Joe. I thought as much.

'Hmm, makes me wonder, do you not have exhaust fans in your bathrooms?'
Some do, some don't, but i still don't think it is a very pleasant, or practical place to get ready.

In hotels you have to insert your room key card into a slot on the wall in the room in order to turn on the lights.

Encountered this in a hotel in Milan. It also was hooked to the a/c. Discovered any rectangular plastic card would work, so was able to keep the a/c running low while we were out and not have to wait 45-60 minutes for the a/c to cool the room to be habitable upon return.

Room key inserted in the " slot on the wall in the room " is very common in Europe (not just the UK) and Asia (multiple countries). I don't remember my experiences in Australia and New Zealand; it wouldn't have seemed strange to me. I have encountered it in the US also.

The main place you'll find pay toilets in the UK is at large railway stations, although some of them have recently removed the fee after the COVID pandemic and resulting lifestyle changes reduced the number of people using them.

Toilets at most if not all UK major train stations are now free.

The paid toilets I saw were mainly in public parks. For example St. James Park in London and Victoria Park in Bath. They all accepted contactless card as well.

I wouldn't call any of these things quirks, just because they are different than in the US. That rather smacks of a superiority that is unmerited.

Many if not most of those things are also found in other countries around the world.

Re light switches- north American switches are up for on only if that switch is the only one that controls that light. We have lights in 4 different rooms that have 2 switches for the same fixture- located at different entrances to those rooms. So depending on use, the switch may be up OR down for on.

So depending on use, the switch may be up OR down for on.

Yes. It's the same here. That's just the nature of switches in a circuit. The standard electricians see in code for how switches are mounted is flipped though. I think the UK may be an outlier in this respect. I'm thinking of The Netherlands and Spain and both are the same as US (maybe?).

They don't seem like quirks to me - same as Australia (where I'm from) and Singapore (where I live). The room key card thing in particular is common throughout Asia and the Pacific.

Except for paid toilets, which are actually not that common in the UK any more. Singapore manages spotlessly clean free public toilets just about everywhere.

CJean, I didn't mean to use 'quirks' in any kind of negative sense. I don't think any of these things are necessarily better or worse than how things are in the US. I just found them interesting and sort of unexpected. I like seeing the different ways of doing things when traveling to other places.

Regarding the electrical, not necessarily outdated, just a different approach. You might have also noted that in addition to the switch being outside the bathroom, there were no outlets in the bathroom. In the US we use GFCI outlets instead in the bathroom, as well as any potentially wet environment. (Kitchen, Garage, Outside, Basement)

You would probably not notice, but each plug on an appliance, lamp, even your plug adapter (if you have a correct one) has a fuse in it, not found in US products, but we limit the current to a greater degree at the main panel.

Light switches for bathrooms are typically located outside of the bathroom. This is, I think, some sort of (possibly outdated) safety regulation?

Pretty normal for me. My house was built in 1952 and the bathroom light switch is outside by the door.

In hotels you have to insert your room key card into a slot on the wall in the room in order to turn on the lights.

Common across the board. What I find funny is wherever I check-in, without fail, I'm always issued a second key card and told it's for the light slot.

Soft drinks all have lower amounts of sugar and have alternative sweeteners. I learned this is due to a 2018 law which imposed a tax on drink soft drinks manufacturers for any drink which contains 5g or more of sugar per 100ml.

At home when I drink soda, it'll be diet Dr Pepper or Mt Dew but I got use to my only choice in the UK being Diet Coke. So it was pretty glorious when I found a Dr Pepper in a shop near East India Docks in 2017, then a Mt Dew in Poundland in Chichester in 2018 & Edinburgh in 2022.

You can get coffee pretty much everywhere, but they don't appear to do drip brewed coffee like we most commonly have in the US. It's all espresso drinks, and most places it's pretty good!

Coffee is never an issue. I just don't like the little sachets on low/no fat milk.

Electricity switches outside bathrooms is not an outdated safety regulation, but is common in many countries I have visited. I think it is the USA which is behind the times. Deaths from electricity in the UK each year usually less than five. Equivalent figure in the USA about 1000.

"Light switches for bathrooms are typically located outside of the bathroom. This is, I think, some sort of (possibly outdated) safety regulation? "

Its certainly is not outdated, its currently part of both the Building and IET Wiring (BS 7671) Regulations. Standard UK voltage is 220 as opposed to 110 in the US, a huge difference. As such standard sockets in the UK are not allowed within 2.5 metres horizontally from the boundary of a bath or shower. Shaver sockets and the like are allowed in bathrooms but have to be transformed down to 115v and the socket IP rated against water ingress and its not unusual to RCD protect them as well.

Filter coffee is widely available if you want it. Card access and electricity activation is used widely in hotels across the world not just the UK.

Electrician here. The regulations are that light switches should be out of hands reach in a bathroom. As an alternative to mounting the switch outside, it can be a pull cord switch mounted on the ceiling, inside the bathroom.
The main function of the switches on socket outlets is so that the plug can be removed under no load conditions. Simply pulling a plug out when the appliance is drawing current cam result in arcing at the pins which become damaged over time.

I have so much appreciated the energy savings by requiring hotel guests to put their card in the slot by the door to turn the room electricity on (though don't, as I once did, leave your kindle in the room to charge while you're out, because it obviously won't charge).

Recently I stayed at a hotel in the U.S. that had the same concept, and I congratulated the front desk guy when he explained to me about putting the card in the slot. But the concept was destroyed when the front desk guy gave me two key cards, so I could leave one card in the slot. I thought about trying to explain things to him, but felt my attempts wouldn't succeed.

For 2. About the card needing to be in the slot, there are hotel chains, some international, that have Digital Keys. What happens then? Are you supposed to use any card then? I'd hate to forget and leave by credit card in the slot and then need to pay for something more expensive than I have cash for or the place doesn't take cash.

For 2 an add-on
We’ve used business cards to keep in the slot. Works just as well.

My British partner and I end up in discussions like this. Last year we remodeled a bathroom, and he was horrified that we were required to have an electrical socket within 3’ of the outside edge of a sink basin. I pointed out that it was GFCI and only 120V, so more like the ubiquitous “Shaver Only” socket.

During grad school, I lived in an apartment from 1938 where there were no sockets in the bathroom and the light switch was in the hallway. I put a vanity in the bedroom and felt like such a lady drying my hair and doing my makeup there.

I’ve read that because the US electrified quite early relative to Europe, our voltage was selected for the type of lighting used at that time. By the time electricity was widely installed in Europe, lighting technology had progressed and the voltage could be increased.

In the conversations that happen in our household, there’s a certainty that what we grew up with is the logical way and the other way is not. We’re both guilty of this and know it.

Electrician here. The regulations are that light switches should be out of hands reach in a bathroom. As an alternative to mounting the switch outside, it can be a pull cord switch mounted on the ceiling, inside the bathroom.
The main function of the switches on socket outlets is so that the plug can be removed under no load conditions. Simply pulling a plug out when the appliance is drawing current cam result in arcing at the pins which become damaged over time.

Does the UK current electrical code require arc fault breakers or the like? I also don’t recall seeing GFCI outlets in the UK. Seems each country is trying to protect its citizens in different ways. Regardless, I find this post interesting even though it is slightly off topic to the more typical travel posts we see here.

OP discovering differences between the US of A and the rest of the world is essential in appreciating how others live.

For Great Britain:
Driving on the opposite side of the road than we do in the US
Use of the term take way instead of to go.
Ask for still water or you’ll get fizzy water
Use of the term toilet instead of bathroom or restroom
Children and pets allowed in pubs
Respecting queues
Cricket instead of baseball
Use of the term of barrister for lawyer
Lorry for truck
Lift for elevator
Bin for trash can
Underground for Subway
Trousers for pants
Mobile for Cellphone
Telly for TV
Chips for French fries
My favorite is chin wag for a disscusion

The Glasgow Underground is officially called The Glasgow Subway.

It predates any North American subway. It was originally the Glasgow District Subway, became the Glasgow Underground in 1936, then reverted to Subway in 2003, a!though colloquially it was always the Subway.

Chips for French fries

I had an interesting discussion about this with a work colleague who was from the UK, but traveled often to the US and Europe.

His take was that it was not that simple, and really only applies if you call everything either a French fry or a chip. A chip to him was the chunky cut potatoes you commonly get with fish and chips or in most restaurants, something more like the steak fries you get in the US. He mentioned he would never call what you get at McDonalds "chips", they are good, but he would use the term "skinny fries". Thicker ones, evenly cut, he considers those Frites, using the Belgian moniker, but those, most of his UK friends still call chips.

I brought up that in the US we have different names for different forms, from crinkle cut and curly fries, to the mentioned steak fries, cottage fries, home fries, and a few more, not just "French fries" (I am purposely excluding Freedom Fries) Of course, after another pint, we moved to the discussion of biscuit vs cookie, with a similar confusion over range of forms (mostly crispy vs soft)

To add to your list, a "pudding" is very rarely a pudding if you order one for dessert.

Chips/fries: if a menu specifies fries then you know they mean thin cut. Day to day though you will almost never hear a British person use the term fries. The conversation in a restaurant is more likely to go ‘What kind of chips are you getting? Thick cut or fries?’ Fries are a chip descriptor.

Agree with most of what’s been said here but feel the need to make a few clarifications-
-normally when you order water you will be asked “still or sparkling”
-there are two types of lawyers in the UK, barristers and solicitors. Barristers argue in court and solicitors are more for legal paperwork (like when you buy property, need a will, etc)
-it’s true that trousers mean what people in the US call pants but people should also be aware pants in the UK means underwear
-I think only older people call tv “telly,” I don’t hear it very often
-agree with the chips/fries distinction above! You do see “skinny fries” on menus a lot

I can’t see if this has been mentioned yet but the actual light switches in the UK are different- in the US you get the kind that stick out from the wall and you flick up and down. In the UK they are flatter and you press them into the wall if that makes sense. Tho I suppose you get both.

Something else that is quite different about bathrooms generally is the separation of the toilet from the shower/sink in different rooms and lack of mixer taps in many bathrooms. I was once told this came from a time when the water from the hot water tank wasn’t potable so needed to keep the cold separate. When we bought our flat the first thing we did was buy a new sink and install a mixer tap!

there are two types of lawyers in the UK, barristers and solicitors. Barristers argue in court and solicitors are more for legal paperwork (like when you buy property, need a will, etc)

A Solicitor can represent you up to a Magistrates' Court. Crown Court and above needs a Barrister. This is in England and Wales of course, Scotland has a different legal system. The Scottish equivalent of a barrister is an Advocate.

In many British houses, including mine, the only water that you are really supposed to drink comes from the 'rising main'. That is, water taken direct from the water main in the street outside which usually goes to the cold tap in the kitchen. Other cold water goes via a cold water tank in the loft (attic) - and this may not be clean (think dead birds) - and all the hot water goes via a hot water tank in an 'airing cupboard' near the bathroom where bacteria can cook up for days.

That said, we have mixer taps and I clean my teeth with water from the cold tank (they're covered) but really shouldn't.

Newer houses often omit the hot water tank but I think they still have cold water tanks as British bathroom fittings aren't build to deal with mains water pressure.

Chips and French fries are worlds apart. You should never get a traditional serving of fish and chips with any sort of fries. Whilst neither are in any way health foods chips are better for you as there is more potato and less surface area to soak up the fat. In my view fries are only any good for soaking in mayonnaise in the Belgian way.

Having said that the terms are rather more confused these days as the various American terms for fries become more common here. But you will still see the vast majority of people here refer to chips first and then maybe make a sub choice after that.

Reading Bills719 discourse on water, am I correct to think there is more than one water line that goes into a house from the public main in the street?

Why would one need a cold water tank? And why would it be in the attic/loft? And how would dead birds get in?

Not from the UK, but I know the type of system he is referring to....

am I correct to think there is more than one water line that goes into a house from the public main in the street?

No, just one cold water line, but it must have been common to branch off the main to provide a cold water tap in the kitchen. The other part of the line went to a holding tank.

Why would one need a cold water tank? And why would it be in the attic/loft? And how would dead birds get in?

Mainly to improve water pressure. Water could slowly fill the tank, then it was available at a higher pressure and volume for something like a shower or bath. Being in the attic uses the highest point, produces the greatest pressure, like a water tower. The tank is not pressurized, so at least needs to be vented, I suppose many had an open top, maybe meant to have a lid.

Not sure how common this system is in modern builds, many cities probably have higher pressure mains, so not an issue. But cold water holding tanks are common in multi-floor apartment buildings all over the world, many used to be tanks on the roof.

Dead birds wouldn’t get in, but in older houses (basic structure of mine dates from 1915, and many homes were built between the wars) the sealing of the attic to the outside may be less than perfect. Squirrels looking for nesting sites don’t help either.

A bird gets in and can’t get out; there’s a reason the term “birdbrain “ is an insult. It could end up in the cold water tank.

it’s true that trousers mean what people in the US call pants but people should also be aware pants in the UK means underwear

This can cause confusion when your doctor asks you to take your pants off to examine a knee injury.

As a child I was always told not to drink from the bathroom tap because ‘there might be a dead bird in the tank’. I don’t know how often that ever happened but many Brits still won’t drink from an upstairs tap even though it’s now exactly the same water.

Very few houses have the cold water tank now. My house did when I bought it (literally just a large fibreglass tub with a pipe coming out the bottom) but then it hadn’t been renovated since 1964. We removed it and put in all new systems immediately.

Helen: we lived in Edinburgh as children and were told that too about birds in the tanks!

I would still hesitate to fill anything to drink in the bathroom too, but it's 40 years since I lived anywhere with a cold (or hot with an immersion heater that you had to switch on an hour before having a bath) water tank.

In my visit to Scotland this year, in two of our lodgings we had difficulty trying to turn on the shower. It seemed there were two parts you would have to maneuver to operate it. In one instance, we had to call the proprietor and had him explain it over the phone. It was not intuitive to me.

Leonard, some of the showers over there are confusing. One place we stayed had three different valves that you turned, one for water pressure, one for temperature, and one for switching between bath, shower, and handheld faucet. They worked in an unexpected way too, I could never get it exactly right.

This reminded me of another thing I noticed. Water pressure tends to be very high from all the faucets and the water gets very hot. Out of habit I would turn a sink tap on all the way and end up splashing water everywhere. With the temperature if i turned a tap slightly towards the warmer side it would come out scalding. I don't know what the standard water heating setting is there, but it seemed much hotter

In hotels you have to insert your room key card into a slot on the
wall in the room in order to turn on the lights.

This is common in many hotels around the world—including many in the U.S. Sorry if this was already brought up, I didn't read through all the replies.

Also, I know in the U.S. that lights in a bathroom have to be on a separate circuit than the outlets. So if an electrical device malfunctions and trips a breaker, it shouldn't also take out the lights in the one room you are most apt to be wet, naked and using electrical devices.

I have lived in a modern (2001) house for only 14 years - sealed hot water system and high pressure mains - but before 2011 I was for many years in a 1960s house with a large open cold water tank in the loft (attic) which had a styrofoam lid floating on top, not really fitting. I definitely had to fish out a bird once. Not very pleasant. Ran the taps for absolutely ages after that.

I don't think the gas combi boiler for hot water and central heating is as common in the US as it is here.

"Water pressure tends to be very high from all the faucets and the water gets very hot. "

That is because in commercial properties of the stringent Legionella prevention regulations that exist in the UK.

Where hot water has to be stored at a minimum 60c and be at 50c within a minute of opening the tap/outlet. Conversely cold water has to be stored and distributed at no more than 20c, with a preference of mains water over stored water.

Also, all potable water has to be mains supplied.

Cold taps throughout the house will be fed directly from the mains water supply and safe to drink. The tank in the loft is used to top up and provide pressure to the immersion heater for the hot taps and is considered not for drinking. Hence the two separate taps for hot and cold, and the avoidance of mixer taps that could result in someone accidentally drinking from the hot supply.
As for the electrics, the UK has Minature Current Circuit Breakers (MCBs) on each circuit to provide overcurrent protection, and Residual Current Devices (RCDs) covering the whole installation to provide earth leakage protection. There may be one , two or even one on every circuit (combined MCB/RCDs called RCBOs).

I have mixer taps both in the kitchen and in the downstairs bathroom (and the downstairs bathroom was a 1990's extension long postdating the house).

I suspect a large number of properties have moved away from immersion heaters and water tanks and moved over to combi boilers. My 1930's house has mixer taps for all sinks.

Light switches for bathrooms are typically located outside of the bathroom. This is, I think, some sort of (possibly outdated) safety regulation?

The light switch for both of my bathrooms are right outside the door. Pretty normal in old New England homes.

I was surprised when I heard the term "loaded fries" at a pub in Essex this year, but I suppose it is an example of American terms becoming more common, as someone says in an earlier comment.

The biggest difference that trips me up (literally) is that the floor of a shower or the bottom (interior) of a bathtub seems to be several inches above the level of the bathroom floor just outside it. Especially when getting out of a bathtub (as opposed to a shower), whether in a private home or hotel, it is very disconcerting to have the floor NOT be where your foot expects it to be, and sometimes I've lurched forward. I've taken to (when I remember, which is usually the second or third time this happens!) holding on to something before clambering out of a bathtub.

The biggest difference that trips me up (literally) is that the floor of a shower or the bottom (interior) of a bathtub seems to be several inches above the level of the bathroom floor just outside it.

This is usually because space is required beneath the bathtub or shower tray to enable waste fittings to be fitted especially in houses that were originally built without bathrooms.