American Reacts to Outdoor Objects You Won't Find in the UK 

In UK, we tend not to fly our flag because we don't forget which country we live in. 😆

The concrete block isnt the firehydrant, it's a marker indicating where the firehydrant is. There is normally a plate in the pavement that is lifted to access water. EDIT: Typically they are not even concrete blocks anymore, they are just a sign attached to a wall.

Our water towers are really cool because they're all different designs. Also because they're made of concrete those that aren't needed anymore have been converted into homes. :) We don't have school buses. They're just ordinary large buses with special times for schoolchildren within their time tables. Adults can use them too but there generally isn't much room for other people as they're choc-a-block with children, lol.

Our school buses in the UK are either chartered from local companies, or the kids use a regular service,,, but they aren't yellow and no door to door.. !!

When I was in Secondary School, I would have to get the train from school to home, most mornings my dad would drive me to school. On his why to work. Some mornings I would have to get the train to school as well.

No School buses here in Swansea, Wales UK. Children have to walk to school or use the regular general public buses and yes, they have to pay for a bus ticket too.

In Northern Ireland, around 12 July (The Twelfth) and 1 or 2 months before, there are flags everywhere, the Northern Ireland one, the UK Flag and sometimes the Scottish flag.

Bus wise, the majority of kids (in my case) will just use normal public transport buses and/or other public transport methods alongside the general public, unless the school provides their own bus (some private schools do this). The buses are different in shape to yellow buses, taking a more generic rectangular bus shape, be it single or double decker.

Fire hydrants are marked by the H - obvious, the top number relates to the size of the water main and the lower number is the distance to it in metres. I have seen one yellow school bus locally, maybe the bus companies colour? School buses are sourced from the main bus companies, Arriva, Stagecoach and First to quote 3 supplemented by smaller private bus companies so you can have a variety of liveries in any location. The bus route number locally is 3 digits with the first one being 6, I don't know if that's the same UK wide

That IS NOT A FIRE HYDRANT that is a marker letting the fire brigade know the distances to the nearest fire hydrants UK fire hydrants are actually under the ground marked by a small flat peice of metal which is opened and the fire brigade can then attach the water pipe too that sign looking thing is literally a SIGN LOL

The water does not come out of it its a sogn post telling you where the fire hydrant is located. That tells you size of the connection and the distance away in the case 100 over 1 its a 100mm connection and its 1 metre away in the 2 over 80 itsva 2 inch connection and it 80 feet away The hydrant is in the pavement or in the road under a cover

It a maker for the fire officers to connect to the water main in the ground.

I have never seen a water tower full stop

How are mailmen able to put mail in your mailbox but neighbors/strangers unable to steal it?

we rarely have water towers not in the north anyway

Don't think many school buses exist in the UK much like Australia

We dont have school buses its public transport or walk. some schools what a minibus like a 10 seater

13:42 Why is uk "post" delivered by royal mail. American "mail" delivered by united postal service.

With an outdoor mailbox, I would be paranoid that someone might steal my stuff.

The UK fire hydrant isn’t a fire hydrant. It’s a marker for the fire officers to locate the water main. Usually it’s under a metal flap on the pavement that gives access to the water pipe valve underneath. Also there are extra separate flaps in the pavement that can turn off the water to a section of houses in case of leaks.

I very much doubt that the lack of roadside billboards in the UK is anything to do with safety. It's likely to be aesthetics. You'd never get planning permission to splash billboards all across the countryside.

Hi Steve. I'm always amazed at Americans assuming that their world is universal. Why would you think school buses are yellow, fly flags or have the same fire hydrants. I'm Irish but I would never assume I would go to the local park in the USA to watch a game of hurling or cricket or go to a bar in America and expect to see people drinking Guinness and playing darts. (well, maybe in New York).😂

I grew up in a rural area and most kids from outlying towns and villages went to school in the nearest large town by bus. However it was a regular bus. It would normally be under contract from a commercial bus company by the local council. No special colours or markings. There are a number of bus companies now where regular passengers will travel on a "school bus". Its only regarded as a school bus because of the timing of the service, being convenient for kids to get to and from school.

Water towers are relatively rare in the UK, as virtually all water supplies are collected in reservoirs and piped in from many miles away to Cities, Towns and Villages, via regional water companies. Often, water towers may still exist on farm land for use by farmers, but the tower may have originally been a local water storage facility for a community decades before a regional water company was set up, or was able to connect the local community to the Mains Water system.

I have never seen a school bus, the regular public transport is pretty good. I used trains for my high school years . More recently the local public bus services will add routes that are specifically intended to service a school primarily but are still open to any user who wants to use them.

I’m a firefighter in the uk, the hydrant plate indicates the size of the water main and the distance from the plate the water main is.

We either walk, or bike, or take the bus...but its usually just a normal bus. School kids, old people, adults going tonwork (anyone can use them)

We usually divide our back gardens with 6 foot wooden fences in Britain. We paint them in different colours and often have climbing plants growing up them. We tend to like our privacy in Britain.

Fun fact, the reason why we mainly use brick in the uk it’s because we learn during the London fires. The great London fire where the buildings were made out of wood, very tightly packed together, so we allowed the fire to travel quickly throughout the city. This is why we mainly use break to reduce the spread of fire.

Growing up in a rural area of the UK, our school buses were usually normal public buses on a school schedule. They did the school run and then for the rest of the day operated on a normal timetable.

Really enjoy your channel, but when I click on and see that bloke, " lost in the pond ", I switch off without watching. He is so wrong on almost everything. He's so out of touch, I think he drowned in the pond years ago. From what I gather his fan base in USA believe all he says and hang on his every wrong word. So annoying. Sorry. Have a good day. ✌

Water towers aren't really common here because our reservoirs are higher than the towns they provide for. Towers provide a small quantity of water storage (relative to a town) but they primarily provide a head of pressure to provide the water should power to the pumps fail or the demand for pressure suddenly increases. In that way, they act as an accumulator.

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, hydrants are in the ground. Yellow "H" hydrant signs mounted on a small post or nearby wall indicate the location of the hydrants. The two numbers indicate the diameter of the water main (top number) and the distance from the sign (lower number). Modern signs show these measurements in millimetres and metres, whereas older signs use inches and feet. Because the orders of magnitude are so different (6 inches versus 150 mm) there is no ambiguity whichever measuring system is used.

The Fire Hydrant. As a retired UK Firefighter I can tell you that was not a fire hydrant you depicted, but a very visible sign plate indicating where the hydrant is. The letter H stands for hydrant, the top number indicates the size of the water main in millimetres and the lower number the distance for the plate to the hydrant in metres. In the UK, hydrants are in pits below ground level covered by a metal plate. This means they are not subject to damage from say passing traffic or tampering by anyone who wants to do such a thing. The metal hydrant plate is easily lifted using a metal hydrant bar carried on all fire appliances and a standpipe is screwed onto the outlet which is below ground. The hydrant bar also acts as a key to turn the hydrant on via a valve . UK hydrants are much more quicker and efficient as the do not require hose to be screwed in which is a lengthy process and also require a firefighter to carry a special spanner. to tighten the hose coupling. All UK fire hose couplings are instantaneous and only require pushing into each other to become locked. Neither will the coupling break apart under pressure as pressure makes them lock solid.

15:35 In his videos "Lost in the Pond" makes so many howlers when it comes to British culture and life, and here is another one. This is not a hydrant it is a sign that indicates where the hydrant is. Hydrants in the UK are built into the pavement (sidewalk) and sometimes have a yellow painted metal cover. The hydrant sign shows how many metres the hydrant is from the sign and how big the pipe is. So the sign in your video is an 80mm pipe that is 2 metres from the sign (nowadays the signs sometimes have arrows below the distant indicator to show the direction it is in.)

He did make the hydrant thing very confusing. Our 'hydrant' shown is not a hydrant, but a sign to tell you where the hydrant is. The top number is the size of the water main (mm), the bottom number is how far from the sign the hydrant is in meters. The hydrant its self is just a small metal cover on the sidewalk or in the road which you flip up to reveal the mains connection.

Only around 5% of schoolchildren in the U.K. will use a dedicated school bus and it’s usually a double decker of any colour depending on which transport company it’s being hired from. Due to the much shorter distances involved in the U.K. the children will either walk, driven by parents, catch a normal bus on a regular route or go by train.

I’m in Northern Ireland and the yellow school buses are used for kids who are transported by the education authority to schools for kids that have additional needs.

We actually have a LOT of tall brown (natural coloir) wooden fences around homes and between gardens. This is very common. You see more stone on regional areas like Cotswolds

I’ve lived in south London for almost 50 years and the only school buses I’ve personally ever seen were for children with disabilities

Most of us live within walking distance of school to be honest, it's not usually until you start secondary school at 11 that you need to travel a bit further. My secondary school was 3 miles away but I still walked it there and back because all the horrible rough kids used to get on our bus.

Most school children walk to school in the UK, we also have very good public transport, unlike the US.

Love your videos. It’s lovely to see an American interested in non-American stuff. Carry on the good work.

Children don't get indoctrinated into a pledge of alleigence or saluting the flag, it's kind of culty don't you think? Patriotism doesn't require overt signs of adherence to banal ritual. That's not to say it's wrong to have pride in your nation and it's flag, but to force a daily ritual of swearing alleigence to it? Really? Are you following North Korea's example?

Lawrence is a nice bloke,but he’s always wrong…his info is so out of date.

most school busses in the uk are just hired from coach companies, so can come in any colour, they are not dedicated school busses, and can be hired by anyone.

I recently found out about my (UK) town's water tower. Tower Road is named after it. It was in place for over 50 years and was a more decorated versionof the first example (being Victorian) and demolished in 1936. We've had mains direct plumbing ever since. It caused a big typhoyd outbreak in the 1890s.

Most urban population zones in the UK have underground reservoirs. Water towers are for areas that are too flat to create water pressure, as water pump power has increased in the last 50 years the towers are slowly being phased out. They have an interesting looking one in Blackpool.

Cant understand why Americans are shocked when they are told other countries do things differently to them! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 19:12

Ahhh, Laurence and his outdated information.

Steve, water tower construction in the U.K. varies, and as others have suggested, some may have been converted for residential use. The structure may have internal stairs for maintenance, but generally, the whole thing supports a metal tank within the top.

I live in the countryside in England. No water towers I can think of near me, we just have a lot of reservoirs about. My school bus was just a standard coach bus, probably did other drives when not in school season. Our fire hydrants are actually under the floor, in the video they show a marker, which says you are near one. The "80" is the size if the water main, the "2" is distance in meters to the hydrant from the sign.

Fire Hydrants in the UK are normally in a covered pit, covered by a cover. The numbers above identify the size of the water main and the number(s) below show the distance to the hydrant. Usually, a marker plate will be installed in line with the hydrant to show its location but the plate may also include an arrow to show the direction to the hydrant. The hydrant is below ground and is connected to the water main. The cover to the fire hydrant will normally be cast with the letters ‘FH’ and might be painted yellow. All hydrants are also shown on the digital maps available in fire engines so that the nearest one can be identified while firefighters are on their way to an incident. This means that even if a marker plate is missing, broken, or covered, our crews will still be able to find the fire hydrant in most cases, and once reported they will be repaired in due course.

We have fewer trees (in part) because Henry VIII had a lot cut down to make ships. Since then the intensity of arable farming has limited forests. Wood is mostly therefore growing and not intended for building material! Also (obviously) a stone or brick wall will usually last longer than the house owner without any maintenance!

Our "school buses" tend to be just ordinary public transport buses that double as school buses in the mornings then again in the afternoon. On one of my local routes, the 8.30 am bus misses, as does the 3pm bus because, at those times it becomes a school bus. The rest of the day it comes every half an hour as a regular service bus.

He's lived in the USA too long some of his takes are well out of date.

Living in a village in UK a lot of children just catch a normal bus, alongside adults.

In the UK we often rely on public transport as a means of getting to school etc. Also schools look at the distance pupils are when allocating places so if you live nearer to the school you've more chance of getting a place, as as its close your more inclined to walk there. Some schools in more rural areas may provide minibus transport, but that would be in instances where there was no public transport available for some pupils.

Wooden fences are quite common particularly between back gardens but normally they will be close boarded and 6 feet or more high. No, we don't have so many trees because first we cleared them for agriculture, then for early industry, then to build ships and finally to build WW I trench props!

Hello Steve . I was born in 51 so some of what I knew may be out of date now. On the water tower not all towns have them some use reservoirs on or in high ground. A side note when I was a child, with the tales of the war I thought the first one I saw was an old Ack-ack tower. School transport was the problem of the parent, meaning the local bus service, in my town you got a free bus pass if you lived 3 miles or more from the school, at 16 we all got a half fare pass so we could travel to school and back on a child's fare. The laws on bill boards is that they cannot be put up more than 3 miles from the town centre on ordinary roads .On Motorways the law is :- No sign can be raised !Only Ministry of Transport signs can be shown. Contractors have been known to leave an old wagon with their name on, in a field near by . The "fire hydrant" that drongo showed was in fact the plate telling the Brigade the distance to the out let which is set in the Pavement or road and the laws are like U.S. laws ;park by or on at you peril. I hope that was not to much of a bore.

Kudos to you for some of your comments, it's easier to understand American culture from here than vice versa, possibly because American films have been marketed so globally. Still hope - one day - to visit America. I know I'd love it.

I don’t see many United Kingdom flags, I see plenty of English flags, in Scotland see many Scottish flags in wales see welsh flags never been to Ireland but I know they flew the Irish flag, guess we’re not so United

You won't see many Union Flags being flown in the UK....but during a world cup you'll see many many England flags flying. Same goes for Welsh and Scottish flags on the rare occasion they are in a World Cup :-)

Regarding the flag issue, there’s a difference between patriotism and jingoism. We just don’t feel the need. I actually have a flagpole, I will raise the union flag for special events, the english flag on st.George’s day and my county flag occasionally for something like a sporting event but most of the time it’s just an empty pole!!!

In the Isles of Scilly close to Cornwall, the school bus is a boat. The school children line up on the quay side in their uniforms

Flag flying in the UK is mostly saved for National occasions or sporting events. I would hate to see the flag flying everywhere , everyday. I think it cheapens it, Just like I don't like to see Union flag hats and underwear!! I also don't like it when sports fans put flags on their cars and leave them there until they are dirty and almost shredded Ok, rant over..

Oh Steve, your failure to crack a smile suggests you have yet to learn tongue-in-cheek, dry British humour. This guy has it in spades, so listen and learn!

The Flags we don't at school swear allegiance to our flags, unlike Americans . But that doesn't mean that we are less patriotic to our country..

The newer towers are concrete. Croydon, where I grew up has a beautiful red brick Victorian water tower

When I went to school, there was a service that ran a few times in the morning, from normal bus stops, using normal buses that has 'SCHOOL' on the destination board. In villages and the countryside, stone walls are new (last 3 or 4 hundred years. Many hawthorn hedges are old - planted 1500 to 2000 years ago but, if fields and boundaries change, they'll be replanted and only a few hundred years old.

For a Brit (though living in the US) Lawrence gets some things wrong about the country of his birth. Things have changed since he was last in the UK.

UK infrastruture is different to the US. Most of our things are in walking distance. Schools, doctors, pharmacys, bakers, shops, bars, hair dressers etc. We don't have to drive miles for the basics (its only if you choose to go somewhere else you need to travel in most cases)

Here in Italy I never saw a water tower so the first time I saw one abroad I had to ask what it was :) We go to school by normal city bus or by car with the parents, no school bus exists. You guessed wrong. We also don't have billboards on motorways, they're too distracting to be safe for drivers. Mail is delivered in a box attached to the wall, as you say, and in the most common condos (we don't have many one familky houses) someone takes it and divides it in the "casellario" (I can't find an english translation!) one small box per family, in the common area at the entrance. If there is a doorkeeper, he/she does it, if not, the first tenant who finds it usually takes care of the mail and divides it.

We don't have yellow school buses in NZ either. Sometimes local bus companies are hired to take the odd group of kids to school and back home again but usually kids go on foot, bike, public bus or by car.

The only water towers I've heard of were on the railways in the days of steam locomotives,used for filling the boilers or tenders.

Most kids have legs you walk on them. When I was a kid parents gave me bus fair to get a normal bus. I would walk and spend the money on something more important like chips.

The fire hydrant isn't that sign, it just tells firemen where it is (I can't remember how to read it, but I think the number on the top is how far the hydrant is.). The hydrant is under the road with an access panel over it, much like most services.

Some years ago ( perhaps 20 or so ) I was wandering around some rather genteel neighborhoods of Valencia, Spain - admiring the splendid ( and huge ) terraced town houses. I noticed a most peculiar thing : The letterboxes were fixed into the front doors at a height of about 9 to 10 feet off the pavement. I suppose these days they receive their mail by text, but when those houses were built ( I later learned ) the houses received their mail by the Postman on Horseback.

My secondary school was a unusual case, it's catchment area not only included the town it was in, but also the next town over. As such a local coach company was contracted to bus the kids in from over there. Those of us who lived in the local town would either get a lift from parents, walk, or catch public transport. All other schools didn't have this weird catchment area, so no weird school buses.

You will see literally tens of thousands of flags flown all year round in Northern Ireland UK, practically every lamp post has a flag

We do have school buses in the UK but they're rare. To be eligible you have to more than 2 miles away if your child's under 8, or 3 miles away otherwise. Most kids meeting those requirements live out in the countryside, and there just aren't usually enough of them to require a bus, so a minibus might be used instead.

Water towers are an interesting topic. There used to be water towers in towns and cities in Poland (there's still a historic one from 19th century in my town) but nowadays we all get our water from an underground system of pipes and pumps. You usually see these towers near train stations or train tracks but never in residential areas. No one uses them anymore and they're more like monuments of historic infrastructure

The biggest reason we don't have wooden houses is because theyre not great at insulation. All our houses are designed to trap as much heat in as possible in winter, and to a lesser degree to keep it out in a heatwave. Almost every house is insulated along with every window being at least double glazed if not triple glazed.

Water towers - never ever seen one in the UK at all. Highway billboards - would ruin the countryside, we like to keep our countryside looking beautiful. School buses - Don't tend to have them at all. Some rural country villages might have a regular buses doubling as a school bus just for the school run. Usually you would walk to school. Plus public transport over he is usually quite good so there may be a regular buses that goes close to where you want to be. But no dedicated school buses at all really. White picket fences - you do see them, but they are rare. Like he said fences are usually normal stained wood, or brick/stone or more commonly hedges. Wire fences around a home would be considered tacky. Mailboxes - yes 99.99% letterboxes in the front door. I suspect that mailboxes like in the US would be frequently vandalised and/or robbed if we had them here. Fire hydrants - here they are underground covered by a rectangular metal cover about 300mm*200mm. What he showed you was just a sign to tell the fire brigade where the hydrant is. The top number is the size (in millimetres) of the water main serving the hydrant and the the bottom number is the distance (in metres) from the sign that you will find the hydrant. You may find some older signs that are in old imperial measurements, but you can easily tell by the size of the top number (3 as opposed to 80). Flags - over here it is rare to see them outside of London, but they are becoming more popular. I don't know if it is still the case, but it used to be illegal to fly the flag without royal consent, which is silly in my opinion. Back in the early eighties they was a news story of an ex Naval Lieutenant that was prosecuted for flying a flag without royal consent.

Its not about access the wood... its the fact making houses out of wood is stupid. Fires, damp, wood rot, hurricanes and tornados are just some of the reasons why we laugh at the fact you build wooden houses in line with a natural tornado paths.

I don't think I've ever seen one of those water towers. Our local water "tower" looks like a castle on top of a hill, complete with crenelations and turrets. Sadly, it isn't in use any more but still looks awesome overlooking the lake, so much better than those Brutalist style towers. I wish I could post a pic for you.

The real reason Americans build everything out of wood is that it is cheaper to rebuild after a Hurricane or Tornado

No way we having ugly billboards near our roads it would ruin the countryside no thank you from uk

Our school buses are just service busses. The sign at the front where it normally says where its going says school on it. Then it drops the kids of changes the sign and is a normal buss the rest of the day .

Water towers??? I’m from the UK and I’ve never seen a water tower period 😂

American fire hydrants and UK fire hydrants differ primarily in their design and operation. American fire hydrants are usually above-ground, with a visible barrel and brightly colored tops, while UK hydrants are often underground, accessible via metal covers. In the US, hydrants have a valve connected to an above-ground nut, whereas UK hydrants have a valve within the underground chamber, operated using a special key. American hydrants often have multiple outlets, designed for high-pressure water systems, while UK hydrants typically have fewer outlets and cater to lower water pressures, reflecting variations in firefighting practices and water supply infrastructure in each country. that sign he showed shows there the access cover to the hydrant is.

There are no school busses only private hired coaches

I thought they were for directions to the hospital

You should google Shelton water tower, it’s a very interesting building. We don’t use water towers anymore, quite a few have been made into houses.

The UK doesn't have school buses as a wide spread organised thing. Private companies are contracted (using standard buses) by county councils (sometimes) to provide services that align to school times and routes.

We have wooden fences in back gardens and have great legal arguments over which neighbour owns each fence. Sometimes people make land grabs by moving their fences a few yards onto someone else's land and then claim ownership after twelve years if the illegal fence remains in place. We have a newspaper called the Daily Mail which gives publicity to boundary disputes between householders and readers can argue aggressively about which neighbour is in the right and post thoughts like, "If he was my neighbour, I would go round and give him a jolly good thrashing".

This one is recent and well made video.

School buses are rare here - those that do exist are typically normal coaches use for all sorts of other purposes. Kids get to school by walking, bike, regular public buses, and being driven by parents, often causing traffic chaos at start & end times.

The fence around my house - a rental property - is made from hard-wearing wrought iron which you would think would be a great security boundary except it only comes up to mid-thigh height. It's more of a symbolic boundary than an actual security measure. Also, the gate is also iron, the same height and has no lock.

11:23 The reason you see more stone and brick than wood in UK homes is not a lack of wood, it's more down to climate. We're a lot further north than the US, the vast majority of the UK is at a higher latitude (further north) than Winnipeg! We have cold, wet and windy winters with a LOT of storms. We're also an island, so we have a marine climate, wet and humid most of the year so any exposed untreated wood quickly rots. Wooden houses just get too cold (or cost too much to heat) and take too much work to maintain in our weather.