UK Cares Not For Fire Hazards!

The door opens inwards! Why!

The Expat and HRM took in Cirque Du Soliel at Royal Albert Hall this past week and had a fantastic time. By fantastic time, I mean that the evening provided hours of nightmare fodder and mind melting images of people hanging from the ceiling and clowns dying. Yes, that's right, the people at Cirque thought it would be a good idea to go to intermission with a mass death of clowns. Needless to say, the Expat hasn't slept well this week.

But the nightmare fodder didn't just come from the contortionists and acrobatics laced with a soundtrack of music sung in an entirely made up language, NO! The scariest part of the evening is when we were Locked Into our box seats. I figured this out at Intermission as I was, not surprisingly, the last person at the bar to proceed back to our seats. As I approached the box, I noticed that door was locked and looked blankly at the usher approaching. The nice lady unlocked the box and let me in, then promptly closed the door. I presume the lock was allowed to open from the inside, but seriously, isn't this a fire hazard?

This isn't the first time I've been baffled by the doors here. In many cases when one would expect to push a door open when leaving, one has to pull the door open. I'm so confused, I've actually gotten into the habit of looking at the door jam before I apply pressure in either direction. I thought this door situation was merely a curiosity until it all came together at the Royal Albert Hall (box seats, did I mention that?)

As I watched men and women being thrown through the air from rope to rope, I realized that there doesn't seem to be a fire code here in the UK! In the states, most doors have to either be capable of opening both ways or push outward in case of fire. Not so much here in the UK. I'm fascinated by this and if anyone has any sort of insight, please comment below.

I took this picture above as an example. I'm sure the lady was wondering why I was taking a piciture of the outdoor seating, but ultimately I'm trying to save her life so I don't think she'll mind.