Saturday, January 26, 2008

What's missing in this picture?

This is a photo of the front door to our temporary flat. Many front doors that I have encountered are missing the same item, seen as essential in the US...namely, a doorknob. If anyone can tell me why the Brits are opposed to doorknobs, I would be thrilled to hear it. Bathroom stalls and front doors never seem to have them, whereas interior door sometimes do. Many doors have a small metal hook on the bottom of the key whole, I assume for allowing you to pull the door closed, by sliding your finger in the hook. We've used our to open bottles of beer, so it is quite useful. Just odd.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope someone has the doorknob answer. Our front door doesn't even have a "bottle opener" on it. It just slams shut. I do know that all doors close automatically for fire code reasons. Maybe no door handles so you can rig up something to keep them open against fire code? But wait...that is what door stoppers are for!