Stair-Rods

~ beetleypete

When I was a child, fully-carpeted stairs were almost unknown. There would be a central strip of carpet running up the stairs, with varnished or painted wood either side. I presume this would be there to deaden the sound of footsteps on the stairs, especially in a house like ours where someone else lived on the ground floor. The carpet would be held in place by metal rods (usually chrome) secured either side to stop it slipping.

In our house, those rods also gave rise to a common expression. Whether or not that was a family saying, a London saying, or more widely-used, I never found out. But on days when it was raining heavily, and in a particular way where the rain comes straight down vertically, and is so torrential it appears to be almost solid and silvery in appearance, the first one of my parents to notice this would say, “It’s coming down in stair-rods”.

I was reminded of this earlier today, when the sound of particularly heavy rain woke me up, and I got out of bed and opened the curtains.

It was coming down in stair-rods.

56 thoughts on “Stair-Rods”

  2. I don’t recall every hearing the expression, but I didn’t live in London for any length of time. Although perhaps it was used in other places but before my time (or by the older generation). I do remember stair rods though. Here they aren’t at all common, apart from in pretty huge and grand buildings with thick carpets.

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  8. Your memory is better than mine! I remember we had stairs, but couldn’t tell you if they were carpeted or not, or if we had such a thing as stair rods. I only remember the stairs because of the time or two I went down them head-first!

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  16. I’ve always been familiar with stair rods; both the articles & the expression, and I’m from the ‘deep south’ 😉 It might be as much a generational understanding, as I think stair rods went out of fashion in the ’60s or ’70s, with the advent of cheaper fitted carpets? Cheers, Jon.

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