Drainspotting – the art of ‘collecting’ manholes | Whatever destination we explore, we always hope to satisfy our drainspotting addiction, too. If a manhole or drain cover catches our attention we take a snapshot of the desired object. Some drain covers are pretty spectacular, especially the older ones.
England is a good source for drainspotting. Still, we haven’t been to Japan yet, the country said to have the most amazing drain covers. Our very secret source claims: 95% of the municipalities in Japan have their own customized drain covers! But ok, since we haven’t been to Japan yet, these are our finest examples so far ->
This inspectional cover we found in Hastings, England. Winser and Co. are recorded as sanitary engineers at Buckingham Palace Road in the 1915 Post Office London directory.
Our second manhole is from The Bund in Shanghai, China.
Ductile Iron Manhole Cover, Stanton & Staveley. We also drainspotted this on in Hastings, England.
Germany is not half as interesting as the United Kingdom when it come to customized drain covers. But we caught a few here and there. This rare one we snapped in Leipzig.
Another nice example of a customized manhole in England. When hunting for drain covers it’s not long before the name of ‘Hayward Brothers’ starts to crop up with regularity. The Hayward Brothers (William and Edward) where part of a notable family of glaziers and glass-cutters, who made the move into the ironmongery trade.
For tourists Taiwan might not have much to offer, except a few manholes maybe? This one we stumbled upon near the Beitou Hot Springs on the southern edge of Yangmingshan National Park.
Not too spectacular, but shiny: over for drink water pipes in Brugge, Belgium :)
Welcome to Malaysia! Drain cover spotted in Putrajaya.
Manhole in Landsberg, Germany.
Another rare drainspotting success in Malaysia. Gas pipe cover.
What drains in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Drainspotting. By Chili & Tshirp | Hugging horizons since 2004 | Visit our Travel Alphabet.