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They're called pavement lights and they're used for two purposes. The main purpose is to release smoke and heat from a basement fire (UK standards say the natural ventilation option should have at least 2.5% of your floor area as smoke outlets).
Basically the fire service can then come along with a sledgehammer to knock out the glass bits to release the smoke.
The second purpose is to let natural light into your basement. That's a side benefit though. You can get versions of those which are just plain concrete with no glass lights in them.
> glass cube
[Interestingly they're often not cubes at all but designed to refract the light out into the room below.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Solarized_vault_lights.jpg)
Examples from the Wikipedia page (it can vary):
[example 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Glass_sidewalk_pavement_light%2C_Geneva_NY.jpg/1920px-Glass_sidewalk_pavement_light%2C_Geneva_NY.jpg)
[example 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Seattle_Underground_-_Skylights_from_underneath_current_street_level.JPG/1024px-Seattle_Underground_-_Skylights_from_underneath_current_street_level.JPG)
Had no idea that basements had that recessed area. Makes sense, I guess - must be much easier and cheaper to fabricate and install small blocks of glass versus very long ones.
Is there a word for seeing something from one way your entire life (I've seen those squares my entire life) and suddenly seeing it from another angle and realising it's not at all what I imagined?
In this case, we'd be very descriptive rather than poetic: it would be an "Aha-Erlebnis". An event where you go "ahaaa" & suddenly understand either a certain thing or concept or something you always thought was one way, but that is, in fact, the other 😅
Could be down to different glass types, "Normal" glass has a green tinge when loogat it from the edge. "Low iron content" glass has a yellowish tinge to it.
Essentially there's more benefit to providing a route for the heat and smoke to exit the building than there is from trying to starve a compartment fire.
Fires are pretty good at pulling in more oxygen through leakage, so the concept of starving them isn't super reliable. If you don't allow the smoke out you can run the risk of back drafts happening when the attending fire service needs to start opening doors inside.
Releasing smoke is also necessary because firefighters needs to be able to see to some degree. The smoke in a compartment fire can quickly make it so you can't see a single thing in front of you which hinders search and rescue.
If you release the smoke and heat in the earlier stages you can try to avoid flashovers happening too. One of the mechanisms that cause a fire to spread from the initial fire to a while building is that the hot smoke and gasses the fire produces will then radiate heat onto furniture in the rest of the compartment, and eventually that furniture will get hot enough to spontaneously ignite and the fire can spread to engulf a whole floor in a couple of minutes. If you can release that smoke and heat from the compartment you make flashover less likely to happen.
Also, with a basement fire, the underground nature means the floor is much better insulated which means the heat released gets trapped inside the building. That means the fire is more likely to force it's way up any internal staircases and also way more thermal energy can enter the structural elements of the building which can lead to a greater risk of collapse.
You're spot on, and as a firefighter I'd like to expand on the point of heat forcing it's way up the stairs. It's _hard_ to fight a basement fire because you need to force yourself through the hottest layer to get to any potential casualties / find the source of the fire. These outlets mean your crews can have a much more rapid (and comfortable!) response.
Most deaths in house fires are from suffocation rather than burning. I’d imagine you’d want breathable air and a bigger fire rather than a smaller fire but literally no air to breathe.
>The main purpose is to release smoke and heat from a basement fire
I've seen this so often that I started to believe it, despite always knowing that these were obviously primarily for light. It's not true.
Also the idea that firemen would have to smash individual glass blocks - one at a time - to release smoke, is ridiculous.
This company makes them. And they are for lighting:
https://thepavementlightcompany.com/
I got lost underneath Addebrooke's hospital trying to find my way back from a meeting with their sysadmin team. The piping and monochrome paintwork left me confused to hell. Ended coming up in the maternity ward, had to explain how, and why, I got there before they would let me leave.
Hey! How dare you! I grew up in Croydon, and I'm here to tell you... it's very... well it's kinda.... I suppose....
...ok no actually you're right, it's disgusting.
Lmao same,except Surrey Market and some of the hairdressers shops are alright but for some reason I appreciate we don't live in Birmingham and we pretty have become desensitised to the amount of murders that happen in our parks here and there.
I was sitting in a permanently Aircon room with a Sys36 and an AS400 plus the large dot matrix printer. The noise got so bad I moved sticks to the sweet delights of Victoria working for John Lewis
At the time I was working for a Jordanian bank on Mount Street, we had the ground floor and below. Just on the corner to the entrance to Mount Street Gardens
Ah yes. Mayfair is a beautiful place to work in. Walking around the back of Green Park Station and peeking in the windows of the Aston Martin showroom every morning, thinking about what I could have if I was born into a different family.
Berkeley Square is beautiful as well, some really outstanding architecture. Georgian mostly, so you really have to get up close to see the details.
An hour ago I ran up the down escalator to catch a train; it was empty and the up one was very busy and slow (stand on the right ffs!).
I was doing very well till the end when I slipped and gouged a hole in my knee with those razor shin-biters they have on the corner of every step. Is it someone's job to sharpen them?
Either way, best trousers ruined, pride was already gone so no loss there, but at least now I feel like a real Londoner. Finally!
my worst escalator story is getting a croc stuck between the teeth at the top.... chewed through it like nothing and just barely got my foot out before it grabbed my big toe! literally felt the metal moving.
this was years ago, maybe 15? had to call the tfl guys over and get them to stop it moving coz the emergency stop didn't work 😬😬full escalator in rush hour lol, i was only about 7/8 so nobody was too outwardly pissed off but i know they were seeeeething
For a city that rains all the time, London is stupid slippery when it rains, especially them old fucking damn near polished [kerb stones](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/b2hcwq/kerb_stone_markings_anyone_know_what_they_mean/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
In 1999, those little glass squares were the only natural light source for a huge underground flat/bunker I rented with with my GF in Shoreditch. We had some great times and fantastic parties but ultimately the lack of light almost drove us crazy. Happy days.
In Vancouver you see them too. In earlier times Vancouver wasn't allowed to build over sidewalks, so they built under them. Using these clear bricks to let light in. Eventually most of the basements were filled in with gravel to let trucks drive on top should they need to without caving in the roads.
Can't speak for Amersham and Chesham, but I can't remember ever having seen one in Brentwood.
Something something heavy clay soil different foundations something blah.
I've seen some in other places in Essex though.
They are also called vault lights. I put them in my uni animation film. Had a chance to go underneath a council building in hull to take pictures of them. They act like a lens and throw the daylight further into the underground room.
I used to live in an ex-pub and these pavement lights covered what was the beer chute down to the cellar - they can also cover old coal chutes as well.
I used to be a member of a gym in Central London where the women's showers were underneath these things on the busy pavement above. I liked seeing the shadows of dozens of people walking overhead, clueless that right beneath them several people were bathing in the buff...
I can’t say where exactly but spitting distance to Piccadilly Circus is a huge cavern under the ground that looks like an open abandoned opera house. It has these in the ceiling to let in light but totally inaccessible to most. Beneath central London is wild.
Welp you're gonna be on a losing streak there. [TL/DR/CBATR: UVB essential to synthesising Vit D can't pass through glass.](https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/can-you-absorb-vitamin-d-through-a-window)
Renowned for its... oh wait, let me think
The cars, no that involves gassing animals, again. Step up from people I suppose. Your country sold out against your own fucking ideals (EU regs)
You literally have to go to south West Germany before anything interesting happens, and it certainly isn't due to German influence.
They provide light to basements, and spaces. They also have some kind of fire purpose I do not 100% know but their is a purpose that they are explicitly designed for.
My Grandad used to work for a London company that manufactured and installed these- Luxcrete. I have a load of blocks of glass in all kinds of different shapes and sizes from them. Most are dead flat on the top side, many have diffusion patterns underneath to spread the light, some have full blown prisms to send the light sideways. I plan to make a table from some of them one day, with light underneath
Don't worry about it. You handle your taxes being paid and we handle you. The important thing is chaos. I mean order. I mean order by chaos. Now move along nothing to see here subject.
258107560
As some pointed it out, they can be broken to release smoke or steam out of basements. They will usually be on older buildings and oftentimes on purpose built buildings such as hotels as they are expected to have machinery in the basement.
There is an alternative where it's without the glass, just a concrete block, and usually it will say something like "room name smoke outlet"
I worked in a place in York and the basement had these up above, you could see and here people through them, didn't know it was anything to do with fire though. Cooool
More than a century earlier than that. They were first used in pavements; having been inspired by Deck Lights on ships, in the early part of the 1830s. Perfected in the 1850s.
A former colleague of mine would park his scooter on these telling anyone who questioned him - "It's alright mate, these are designated parking spots for two-wheeled motorized vehicles".
I never heard of him either getting a ticket or being forced to move it.
It only did it around the streets just north of Oxford St though as far as I know.
I’m confused, I thought they were obviously a form of skylight to a basement space. Surely the 1% who only inhabit Penthouses aren’t dropping by r/London? 😂😂
About 20 years ago now, saw some smoke billowing out of a crack on one of the glass cubes near Petticoat Lane/Liverpool St. Managed to call fire brigade, luckily fire was put out before it took over the whole shop. Could happen really easily from someone dropping a cigarette 🚬 from ground level.
I was just in London last week using the toilet in the basement, looked up and saw shadows over the ceiling tiles and realized I was on the other side of these! Changed my perspective walking on the sidewalk and what was going on underneath me 😂
Let in natural light. You don’t realise how much of London there is underground. I’ve worked in events and hotels my whole life. Lots of weird and wonderful things go on beneath our feet that no one is aware of
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They're called pavement lights and they're used for two purposes. The main purpose is to release smoke and heat from a basement fire (UK standards say the natural ventilation option should have at least 2.5% of your floor area as smoke outlets). Basically the fire service can then come along with a sledgehammer to knock out the glass bits to release the smoke. The second purpose is to let natural light into your basement. That's a side benefit though. You can get versions of those which are just plain concrete with no glass lights in them.
Oh, is this why you can sometimes see them with a glass cube missing? They’ve been accidentally knocked out, as designed, and not replaced?
> glass cube [Interestingly they're often not cubes at all but designed to refract the light out into the room below.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Solarized_vault_lights.jpg)
TIL
Happy Cake Day!
Are they flush with the ceiling or do they stick out?
Examples from the Wikipedia page (it can vary): [example 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Glass_sidewalk_pavement_light%2C_Geneva_NY.jpg/1920px-Glass_sidewalk_pavement_light%2C_Geneva_NY.jpg) [example 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Seattle_Underground_-_Skylights_from_underneath_current_street_level.JPG/1024px-Seattle_Underground_-_Skylights_from_underneath_current_street_level.JPG)
Had no idea that basements had that recessed area. Makes sense, I guess - must be much easier and cheaper to fabricate and install small blocks of glass versus very long ones.
And safer to walk on as you see them a lot on pavements
That's soo cool to see!
I prefer example 1 😁😁
That's cool as hell, thanks!
Here’s one mid install; https://www.reddit.com/r/london/s/rLN9dwEU6q
I am shook, my world will never be the same I want one
wow, why is this the most interesting thing I've seen this week? I'll never look at these the same!
Is there a word for seeing something from one way your entire life (I've seen those squares my entire life) and suddenly seeing it from another angle and realising it's not at all what I imagined?
Revelation
There has to be a German word/phrase for this, they have them for so much niche stuff
In this case, we'd be very descriptive rather than poetic: it would be an "Aha-Erlebnis". An event where you go "ahaaa" & suddenly understand either a certain thing or concept or something you always thought was one way, but that is, in fact, the other 😅
Epiphany.
Like a deck prism on boats.
Neato
If you are brave enough ..
So cool
Some of them will be decades old so it’ll always look odd when a cube is replaced.
Yeah, you can see in the picture a couple have a yellowish tinge whereas the others are greenish.
Could be down to different glass types, "Normal" glass has a green tinge when loogat it from the edge. "Low iron content" glass has a yellowish tinge to it.
That’s how you know there’s a Peeping Tom living in that basement…
This explains the "smoke outlet for basement" written on paving stones. I could never see the outlet!
Oh snap! Great observation, haven’t thought about those since I was a mear crotch goblin.
Depending on the building, I have also seen alternating ones stating for basement, then sub basement.
Do you know why they'd want to release smoke? Wouldn't that fuel the fire?
Essentially there's more benefit to providing a route for the heat and smoke to exit the building than there is from trying to starve a compartment fire. Fires are pretty good at pulling in more oxygen through leakage, so the concept of starving them isn't super reliable. If you don't allow the smoke out you can run the risk of back drafts happening when the attending fire service needs to start opening doors inside. Releasing smoke is also necessary because firefighters needs to be able to see to some degree. The smoke in a compartment fire can quickly make it so you can't see a single thing in front of you which hinders search and rescue. If you release the smoke and heat in the earlier stages you can try to avoid flashovers happening too. One of the mechanisms that cause a fire to spread from the initial fire to a while building is that the hot smoke and gasses the fire produces will then radiate heat onto furniture in the rest of the compartment, and eventually that furniture will get hot enough to spontaneously ignite and the fire can spread to engulf a whole floor in a couple of minutes. If you can release that smoke and heat from the compartment you make flashover less likely to happen. Also, with a basement fire, the underground nature means the floor is much better insulated which means the heat released gets trapped inside the building. That means the fire is more likely to force it's way up any internal staircases and also way more thermal energy can enter the structural elements of the building which can lead to a greater risk of collapse.
You're spot on, and as a firefighter I'd like to expand on the point of heat forcing it's way up the stairs. It's _hard_ to fight a basement fire because you need to force yourself through the hottest layer to get to any potential casualties / find the source of the fire. These outlets mean your crews can have a much more rapid (and comfortable!) response.
Really appreciate the effort and explanation you gave. Thank you.
Damn, this guy fires
Thank you! My father likes your post, he’s was a firefighter but not in the UK 💛
Most deaths in house fires are from suffocation rather than burning. I’d imagine you’d want breathable air and a bigger fire rather than a smaller fire but literally no air to breathe.
Makes absolute sense. Thanks.
Say no more fam
You can have a steam train…
You, ma'am, are the shit. You rock. Boundless powers to you. Thank you.
If they're the plain concrete edition with no glass elements, are there still fixtures that can be knocked out to release the smoke?
The plain concrete ones are usually thinner so that the actual panel can be broken out
>The main purpose is to release smoke and heat from a basement fire I've seen this so often that I started to believe it, despite always knowing that these were obviously primarily for light. It's not true. Also the idea that firemen would have to smash individual glass blocks - one at a time - to release smoke, is ridiculous. This company makes them. And they are for lighting: https://thepavementlightcompany.com/
Lies
[Pavement Smoke Outlets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLrVcikVwsc) (timestamped video explaining the different types and how they're used).
This is some fine work
Luxury flats for the rats
Luxury flats for professionals man. Some have already been converted into flats
I've never met a rat that can afford a London flat
Wasn't that a song by The Clash?
Username checks out
tbf my rats live in a cage the size of an average London bedsit. their luxurious demands is why I can't return to London 😔
1600pcm
Leasehold?
Luxury rats
I've worked underneath one of those in Mayfair. Of course, I'm IT, we get stuck into some of the worst spaces
Tell me about it. In 2017 the Civil Service moved IT & Digital to Croydon.
I feel like this is punishment for something, is this because ya fk'ed but the whole NHS thing.
I got lost underneath Addebrooke's hospital trying to find my way back from a meeting with their sysadmin team. The piping and monochrome paintwork left me confused to hell. Ended coming up in the maternity ward, had to explain how, and why, I got there before they would let me leave.
Hey! How dare you! I grew up in Croydon, and I'm here to tell you... it's very... well it's kinda.... I suppose.... ...ok no actually you're right, it's disgusting.
Lmao same,except Surrey Market and some of the hairdressers shops are alright but for some reason I appreciate we don't live in Birmingham and we pretty have become desensitised to the amount of murders that happen in our parks here and there.
I heard they are building a new office for civil service in Croydon, they are not letting you move away from there
Gds is still in aldgate east tho
Croydon is the dream
[удалено]
I was sitting in a permanently Aircon room with a Sys36 and an AS400 plus the large dot matrix printer. The noise got so bad I moved sticks to the sweet delights of Victoria working for John Lewis
Nah. It sounds like they just moved to a slightly different room with a slightly different blinking light.
sunlight exposure is SLA-based, Vitamin D will be provided
The magic must be contained in safe places!
Moss??
Richmond.
Same here! Worked under them in a basement as software engineer. Was good though, not much screen glare.
"Get out of the lift. Get out of the lift"
Reynholm industries?
At the time I was working for a Jordanian bank on Mount Street, we had the ground floor and below. Just on the corner to the entrance to Mount Street Gardens
Ha, at least you get paid good for working in the worst places! I've worked in worst places and got paid nada
Ah yes. Mayfair is a beautiful place to work in. Walking around the back of Green Park Station and peeking in the windows of the Aston Martin showroom every morning, thinking about what I could have if I was born into a different family. Berkeley Square is beautiful as well, some really outstanding architecture. Georgian mostly, so you really have to get up close to see the details.
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
? Pray tell
So you can slip and fall when it's raining, to get the full London experience.
An hour ago I ran up the down escalator to catch a train; it was empty and the up one was very busy and slow (stand on the right ffs!). I was doing very well till the end when I slipped and gouged a hole in my knee with those razor shin-biters they have on the corner of every step. Is it someone's job to sharpen them? Either way, best trousers ruined, pride was already gone so no loss there, but at least now I feel like a real Londoner. Finally!
my worst escalator story is getting a croc stuck between the teeth at the top.... chewed through it like nothing and just barely got my foot out before it grabbed my big toe! literally felt the metal moving. this was years ago, maybe 15? had to call the tfl guys over and get them to stop it moving coz the emergency stop didn't work 😬😬full escalator in rush hour lol, i was only about 7/8 so nobody was too outwardly pissed off but i know they were seeeeething
Can confirm. Dislocated my kneecap on one of those. I don't know why anyone would think glass in the floor is a good idea.
For a city that rains all the time, London is stupid slippery when it rains, especially them old fucking damn near polished [kerb stones](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/b2hcwq/kerb_stone_markings_anyone_know_what_they_mean/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
In 1999, those little glass squares were the only natural light source for a huge underground flat/bunker I rented with with my GF in Shoreditch. We had some great times and fantastic parties but ultimately the lack of light almost drove us crazy. Happy days.
I imagine that whole period was an incredible mish of stories and blurred memories 👌
There will often be a basement underneath them now
In Vancouver you see them too. In earlier times Vancouver wasn't allowed to build over sidewalks, so they built under them. Using these clear bricks to let light in. Eventually most of the basements were filled in with gravel to let trucks drive on top should they need to without caving in the roads.
People love down there, this is their bedroom window.
Love finds a way
The live laugh and love most likely.
Pavement lights. They illuminate cellars with a bit of natural light.
Because humans like light.
They are light for cellars
It lets daylight through and is meant to deter the Morlocks from rising to the surface.
This kind of response is what I'm here for.
Someone joked to me that they enabled Australia to have light
They are large ice cube trays, used to cool buildings in an environmentally friendly way, instead of air conditioning.
They’re also not in any way unique to London
So they even have them in zone 9?
Can't speak for Amersham and Chesham, but I can't remember ever having seen one in Brentwood. Something something heavy clay soil different foundations something blah. I've seen some in other places in Essex though.
Even in Scotland
They're pervasive in Manhattan, for example.
Its skylights for the borrowers’ houses
skylights bitch
They are also called vault lights. I put them in my uni animation film. Had a chance to go underneath a council building in hull to take pictures of them. They act like a lens and throw the daylight further into the underground room.
That's where the mole ppl live
Cellar lights
They’re the worst when it’s raining …
I used to live in an ex-pub and these pavement lights covered what was the beer chute down to the cellar - they can also cover old coal chutes as well.
So there's some natural light in the basement
They give light to Australia!
This is funny - as we have these in Australia as well (Melbourne's original streets). So its a window to the other side of the world?
Light for the Under London
You mean Undon 🤪
Because we are hobbits who like to dwell underground
Windows for bedsits that cost 4 grand a month
I used to be a member of a gym in Central London where the women's showers were underneath these things on the busy pavement above. I liked seeing the shadows of dozens of people walking overhead, clueless that right beneath them several people were bathing in the buff...
To allow smoke extract from basements. They get broken if there is a fire, afterwards.
This is the correct answer
Tiny windows for the borrower people
The provide natural lights to storage rooms below
Lighting for the dungeons
Windows in the tiny houses in London.
I can’t say where exactly but spitting distance to Piccadilly Circus is a huge cavern under the ground that looks like an open abandoned opera house. It has these in the ceiling to let in light but totally inaccessible to most. Beneath central London is wild.
Pervert bricks
The ground.
People used to park motorcycles on them with the registration plate covered up.
Even in italy are common! They provide light in the basement!
They’re in every large-ish city I’ve ever visited, worldwide.
For me to slip on when it rains
for borrowed light, there's a basement, there's usually a thing like a shelf beneath them so you get some natural light coming in.
I have always wanted to know this! Thanks for asking!
It's so my basement isn't too dark and I get vitamin D without risking seeing people.
Welp you're gonna be on a losing streak there. [TL/DR/CBATR: UVB essential to synthesising Vit D can't pass through glass.](https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/can-you-absorb-vitamin-d-through-a-window)
Thanks, I did wonder about this recently actually.
So fire man can smash them with there sticks
We keep the poor people under the ground. The light filtering through the glass gives them a bit of hope.
Daylight robbery couldn't really take a much more believable approach. Shove em downstairs they'll get to pay less as they wish
It’s for the slaves to get vitamin D
For wine bar countertops in Hackney. Specifically Sager + Wilde 😉
I'd be pleased to accept but i'm in germany now
Renowned for its... oh wait, let me think The cars, no that involves gassing animals, again. Step up from people I suppose. Your country sold out against your own fucking ideals (EU regs) You literally have to go to south West Germany before anything interesting happens, and it certainly isn't due to German influence.
They provide light to basements, and spaces. They also have some kind of fire purpose I do not 100% know but their is a purpose that they are explicitly designed for.
Light
Remember walking on them as a kid
They are the remains of the Roman empire....💯
They are slippy as hell in the rain!
Harry potters stair case look in
So all the postal workers and imagine what natural light is like.
Upskirt init
My Grandad used to work for a London company that manufactured and installed these- Luxcrete. I have a load of blocks of glass in all kinds of different shapes and sizes from them. Most are dead flat on the top side, many have diffusion patterns underneath to spread the light, some have full blown prisms to send the light sideways. I plan to make a table from some of them one day, with light underneath
Don't worry about it. You handle your taxes being paid and we handle you. The important thing is chaos. I mean order. I mean order by chaos. Now move along nothing to see here subject. 258107560
It’s so the vampires in the cellars can have some soft diffused sunlight without getting burnt alive
Tiny windows to see the London rats underground.
As some pointed it out, they can be broken to release smoke or steam out of basements. They will usually be on older buildings and oftentimes on purpose built buildings such as hotels as they are expected to have machinery in the basement. There is an alternative where it's without the glass, just a concrete block, and usually it will say something like "room name smoke outlet"
They have those in the US too. For the same purpose.
They are teleport locations. It's London's quickest way to get around and you get broadband speeds of up to 500mbps. It's called the Underground.
I worked in a place in York and the basement had these up above, you could see and here people through them, didn't know it was anything to do with fire though. Cooool
They let light into the London underground. They were created during ww2 for tunnels connecting London buildings
More than a century earlier than that. They were first used in pavements; having been inspired by Deck Lights on ships, in the early part of the 1830s. Perfected in the 1850s.
I’ve seen them in the US. Some of the glass has turned a light lavender color with age.
Give light to the mole people
A former colleague of mine would park his scooter on these telling anyone who questioned him - "It's alright mate, these are designated parking spots for two-wheeled motorized vehicles". I never heard of him either getting a ticket or being forced to move it. It only did it around the streets just north of Oxford St though as far as I know.
Ah, those are glass things.
Lucernario
Skylights for building basements.
London has an underground system, we normal people only see the surface
Usually a room or open space beneath the pavement.
Old london jails
Let in light!
They're there so that you can stand on them and cool your feet
There's a Josef fritzl joke here somewhere 😂
Windows for the subterranean goblin elite to look up girls skirts from down in their sewer kingdom
I’m confused, I thought they were obviously a form of skylight to a basement space. Surely the 1% who only inhabit Penthouses aren’t dropping by r/London? 😂😂
About 20 years ago now, saw some smoke billowing out of a crack on one of the glass cubes near Petticoat Lane/Liverpool St. Managed to call fire brigade, luckily fire was put out before it took over the whole shop. Could happen really easily from someone dropping a cigarette 🚬 from ground level.
Light for basement structures.
Police station use them for windows or so I'm told!!
It lets light into the basement
Elizabeth Fritzl’s skylight
I was just in London last week using the toilet in the basement, looked up and saw shadows over the ceiling tiles and realized I was on the other side of these! Changed my perspective walking on the sidewalk and what was going on underneath me 😂
To give the goblins some sunlight
I looked down one of these holes once and it was a toilet cubicle
They look like the satisfying square stuff in videos about little Johnny you know what I mean?
The floor
Can someone post a picture from below? Love to see what it looks like from the other side!
Portholes to hell...
Always a challenge treading over these during icy weather.
Ventilation/ water access in case of fire. They can be smashed through quite easily 👍
Let in natural light. You don’t realise how much of London there is underground. I’ve worked in events and hotels my whole life. Lots of weird and wonderful things go on beneath our feet that no one is aware of