Do you know about the little tiles on pavements?

[HanarCantWearSweaters]

Walking to school yesterday and the 4 year old DTs start noticing the little access tile things on the pavement. There’s so many of them once you start looking! Some are obvious what they’re for but others I’m not sure about. So far we have:

W - water
Gas
Telegraphs
Electricity
Ground wire - ?
CATV - Internet?
BT - internet?? Phone?
L or maybe a T - ?
And other ones that seem to just be company names

Does anyone work in the industry or know what they’re all for? And why are the telegraph ones so close together? We walked down one residential street and they were every 3m or so, but none on the next street.

Perhaps some of the company name ones are for broadband?

In towns with a lot of "old build", such as in some parts of London, there are all sorts of fascinating ones: old coal holes in the pavement, access to underground rivers, sewer vent poles, windows over some underground rooms.

We have decorative ones around our town that have pictures on. Words too. I remember years ago actually looking at one but quite honestly I've completely forgotten what was on it. Probably a note of history or something. I may send the kids out one day with a camera and get them to get some pics.

What’s a coal hole?? for storing it? I’m very ignorant of any of them, have lived in London a few years now but from NZ originally and our footpaths aren’t nearly as interesting.
The DTs liked spotting the water ones yesterday, to the point they sounded uncannily like Happy from Hey Duggee.

Coal hole: in the days of coal deliveries, some houses had a small hatch in the pavement or the front garden, with a chute leading into the cellar, where coal could be delivered. Some coal holes were big enough to climb down: I’m sure a few 1950s stories (e.g. Five have plenty of fun) use this as a plot device.

CATV - Internet?

OP are you young? Cable TV was once the kind of alternative to Sky, mainly NTL. At that point most internet was dial up on the phone line.

(By young I mean I had cable TV 20 years ago)

Coal hole: in the days of coal deliveries, some houses had a small hatch in the pavement or the front garden, with a chute leading into the cellar, where coal could be delivered. Some coal holes were big enough to climb down: I’m sure a few 1950s stories (e.g. Five have plenty of fun) use this as a plot device.
It was used in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase as well. Great story, that, I must dig it out for my kids tonight.

@CactusAndCacti, I’m 28; I don’t think we called it cable tv in New Zealand (or at least in my rural part) as I remember watching American sitcoms that mentioned it and thinking it sounded quite exotic.

I like the sound of the coal hole very much. All sorts of shenanigans could be had I imagine

When I was growing up in S.W. London, we had a coal hole. It was in our step, just in front of our front door. It had a cast iron cover in a kind of filigree pattern, and was about 12 inches in diameter.

As we had central heating, and before that, gas fires, it didn't get used for it's intended purpose. However, my dad found it very handy for getting long pieces of wood down to the cellar!
His leg fell down it once though, and he had to have it strapped up for a while! I think he'd torn some tendons or something.

survey markers (geotech) around here are 4" across round slightly domed with some letters and numbers. always embedded.

@HanarCantWearSweaters Here is a lovely picture of a coal hole (from the Woodland Happy Families card game).

As a child, I too was fascinated by all the many things in the pavement: as adults, we don't see these things from our lofty height. There was a footpath we used to walk along regularly that had lots of manhole covers, under which we could hear rushing water. When my brother and I tried to put small stones through holes in these, my dad used to make up stories about a troll underneath who might climb up, or say "I'll sail away in my little boat and you'll never see me again".