British Things I Had NEVER Seen Before Moving to the UK

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Hi! I’m Kalyn, an American expat in the UK, and I’m super glad you’re here (yes, I’ve lived in the UK for almost 10 years and the word “super” is still very much part of my vocabulary!) Whether you’re thinking about moving to the UK or just visiting, I have plenty of information and other resources for you below, so make sure to find your section and let me help you make the most of your trip or your move to the always-sunny, beautiful, and historic UK (okay, two of those things are true, but if you squint really hard at the lights when the London Underground is coming into station, you can kind of pretend it’s the sun?)

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[GirlGoneLondonofficial]

Turns out a lot of you have pullcords in your bathrooms still...I'm surprised as the houses I've been in in the UK have all had a light switch outside of the bathroom to turn on the light within the bathroom with no pull cord, but clearly this is still a big feature in UK bathroom electric design!

[aaronbeat]

The plant @09:54 is Gunnera an ornamental relative of Rhubarb, but it's not the edible Rhubarb (Rheum).

[JuneSteel]

A pull chord in a bathroom is a safety measure, water and electricity do not mix so a pull chord stops the chances of electrocution.

[LindaRolph-eg]

You don't have to lock the window every time you use it. It's a security measure for when you leave the house empty, just leave the key in the keyhole or in a pot on the windowsill and yes, I do have a pull cord in my bathroom.

[albin]

I tried to write a romance novel on a US keyboard, but when I printed it out, it was a history of Arizona. It was quite good.

[Yorksbloke]

Tomato is a fruit which we treat as a vegetable.
Rhubarb is a vegetable which we treat as a fruit.
It thrives in Yorkshire (site of the “Rhubarb triangle”) as it likes slightly damper, cooler weather.

[rgoonewardene]

The sliding windows are called sash windows. Lot of old houses have them.

The parking brake, also known as the hard brake must be used with manual cars, because when the car is in neutral, there is less of a load on the wheels, so it will roll away.

[andrewwatson]

I lived in a village in the UK in my younger days.
The next door neighbour was a very keen gardner and one day I saw him collecting horse manure off the street with a shovel after some riders had gone by.
I asked him why and he said to put on his RHUBARB.
I told him we have custard on ours!

[paulharvey]

Your picture at 09:54 is not rhubarb, it is the much-larger (though similarly structured) gunnera. Rhubarb grows to only about 15" off the ground and does not have those large spikes on it's underside. When ripe, the edible stalks turn the familiar red colour, whereas gunnera remains green or yellow.

[mothmagic]

You'll also find that many American kettles are set to switch off at about 90 degrees Celsius which is crap for making tea. You must have boiling water for decent tea.

[julieturner]

We have regs about having a switch in the bathroom because if you touch a switch with wet hands ( it’s a bathroom ) you could get a shock, so you’re not supposed to have a switch in a bathroom/en-suite/ cloakroom but can have either a pull cord ( in the room ) or a switch outside the room . Older houses tend to have pull cords, new builds have switch by the door outside .

[juliamaitland]

The combo washer dryer will only dry a half load at a time to dry properly.
The two button on the toilet is for a long flush or a short flush in an effort to save water.
The pull cord switches are to prevent getting an electric shock if you have wet hands.

[paulgeorge]

10:29 A 3KW kettle in the US will boil just as fast as a 3KW kettle in the UK. The element will have lower resistance and draw more current.

[davidisherwood]

The electric light in the bathroom is switched by a pull-cord because in the UK we have 230v which is considered dangerous in a small bathroom. In the US you have 110v which is considered less so. The hand brake [parking brake] is used in the UK because most cars have manual gearboxes. With an auto the gearbox is "locked" in Park.

[caroletraynor]

Rhubarb used to be a treat years ago all over the uk, You could dip the end of the Rhubarb in sugar as a treat for children. Nowadays, it's used in various foods, like puddings or fruit pies.

[chrissmith]

The dual flush toilet is to save water, pressing the small button for a number one ( wee ) does press both buttons in, but by pressing the small button it pushes a bit out the back of the large button that prevents the button going fully in, you can actually push the small button in, and when you stop pressing it the water stops - if you press the large button in it locks in and will not release until the whole cistern is empty.

[pleasestandby]

Just one little thing. The plant you showed isn't the rhubarb we eat (Rheum palmatum), it's gunnera manicata, a cool topical looking plant but not very edible

[patjackson]

Canadian here, and your comparison highlights our still close relationship with the UK. Common to Canada: KETTLES, rhubarb, crumpets, and we do have roast chicken crisps

[coradesune]

What surprised me the most was when you said you'd never even heard of rhubarb before coming to the UK

[alexmctear]

As a child when going out to play, my mother would tear off a square shaped piece of newspaper, make a cone shaped receptacle put a couple of spoons of sugar therein and we would dip rhubarb into the cone, it was a well loved snack when we went out to play: this was during WW2 and the likelihood of getting poisoned by printers ink was not thought of it was very popular among my playmates.