Where is the "first" floor in British buildings?
#1
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Where is the "first" floor in British buildings?
I have corresponded with a London B&B that I have a reservation in for a one week stay in two weeks. I have specified that I want a quiet room. They relpied that they have set aside a"first" floor room for us. Is the "first" floor on the same level as the entry and lobby or where might it be? I have heard that this B&B has rooms off the lobby and I do not want to be assigned there. I have written them to tell them this.
#3
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And what a clever idea it is to label them that way. If you go up three flights of stairs you're on the third floor. Sounds logical, right? But here in the US, go up three flights of stairs and you're on the fourth floor. That makes no sense at all.
#4
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Logical if you don't consider the "ground" floor to be a floor. Very few buildings in either country are actually "the ground" inside. You enter on the first, go up to the second, and so forth. Perfectly rational and right.
#5
"<i>Very few buildings in either country are actually "the ground" inside. You enter on the first . . . </i>" Huh? Most bldgs -- you walk in off the pavement (sidewalk) and are on the Ground floor.
#7
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In Georgian houses especially the ground floor is half a floor or more higher than the local terrain with a basement level not much lower than the street level.
Then there are maisonettes, colony & Tyneside flats which may have multiple floors none of which are at ground level
Then there are maisonettes, colony & Tyneside flats which may have multiple floors none of which are at ground level
#12
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..or between ground floor and basement - my friend's dining room is in the semi-basement, her kitchen in the basement, which in turn is really the ground floor if you approacjh the house from that side (sloping site again)Jings!
#13
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Dukey, I know how you have to count them in the US. I just say it still makes sense that if you go up three flights of stairs you'd be on the third floor, not the fourth. I just like their system better.
And their system is really no different than they way we count many things. If you get in your car and drive a mile you reach the FIRST mile marker. You haven't reached the FIRST mile when you start your car.
And their system is really no different than they way we count many things. If you get in your car and drive a mile you reach the FIRST mile marker. You haven't reached the FIRST mile when you start your car.
#15
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Zero is a number. Long ago western mathematicians did not think that, but the recognition that it was (by Arab mathematicians) enabled great progress.
It's a similar blind spot that caused many people to reckon the year 2000 as the first year of the new millennium, and the entry-level floor of a building as the first floor.
Americans: what is the basement? Is it level 0 or level -1?
It's a similar blind spot that caused many people to reckon the year 2000 as the first year of the new millennium, and the entry-level floor of a building as the first floor.
Americans: what is the basement? Is it level 0 or level -1?
#17
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Oh yea. Thinking of counting the "European" way, we don't say that a newborn is one year old. He has to live a full year before we say that. Just like you should have to go up a flight of stairs before you get to the FIRST floor.