When you're waiting at a train station platform, there's usually not much to do except look around at the scenery around you. And if you do this regularly, then you might have noticed the unique roof design that many stations up and down the UK seem to use.
The design is known as a "crenellation" roof, and in the case of train stations, they often take the form of small dagger-shaped metal additions that hang over the roof and are visible to those waiting on the platform below.
But are they just there to look pretty, or do they have a purpose?
That's the question one person on the Casual UK forum on Reddit recently asked, and it got people talking - with some insisting their main function is simply to add some "pizzaz" to the roof.
Alongside a picture of a train station roof, someone asked: "Why do a lot of train stations have these crenellations-type roofs? Is the design significant?"
And among the comments, one person quipped: "A bit of pizzaz."
While another questioned: "I wonder if it moderates wind whistling under there?"
However, it turns out the canopy daggerboards actually do have a purpose, and they're not just for looking at or for keeping the wind at bay - but they do help keep people safe from adverse weather conditions.
According to the official Railway Heritage Trust website, the architectural design originates from the 19th century during the industrialisation of Britain, and it even has its own name - the railway station canopy fascia daggerboard.
And their main purpose? To ensure that water would not sit on the canopy or let it wet the passengers waiting below.
The Railway Heritage Trust states: "They performed an important role in the canopy structures which were developed to serve the increasing number of passengers on the railways.
"Becoming an established component of Britain's station canopies between the late 1850s and 1930s, daggerboards primarily served the important practical function of removing water from the canopy, tempering weather-inflicted damage such as rot and by extension the structural deterioration of the canopy itself.
"In addition to their practical functions, daggerboards were recognised as having positive aesthetic qualities and were designed in a variety of patterns, contributing to the role of daggerboards in the imagination of an archetypal British railway station."
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