In the Lousy last night (the Princess Louise by Holborn for those not up with rubbish made up Freaky Trigger slang) and the talk turned to one of the pubs more unusual fittings. Not the grand mirrors, or the intricate tin false ceiling. Not even the wonderfully appointed Victorian toilets where you can rest assured that it probably is Dickens piss that you are still smelling to this day. No, at the bar just by the til there are two large brass square hoops. Similar to the hooped aluminium bannisters attached to the steps on the sides of swimming pools, these as yet have never performed a function in all the time they had been there. What were they for?
I had always assumed they were for disabled customers, them no being dissimilar to the acoutrements provided in disabled toilets. It was instantly pointed out to me that they would cause nothing but a hinderance to a blind punter, so I change my catagory description to someone in a wheelchair. But after mere moments of thought this seemed unlikelu. Ina disabled toilet the bars aid shifting over on to the pedastal. Here it would allow someone to pull themselves up, but to go where. On to a handily supplied bar stool? Unlikely.
Any suggestions? I still stick by my idea that it was in place as some sort of aid, but potentially put in by someone who, like me, did not really think things through.