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.