News

So there’s a building being built in Aldgate, London without a 4th floor….

Eagled-eyed reader Kat Elliott sent in this “interesting little piece on building site near my office” in Aldgate, London.

And here’s a transcript so you don’t have to squint

Where is the 4th floor?

Dear Willmott Dixon Team
Can you not count??

Dorsett City Hotel has been marking the floor numbers on the
slip form to the first core. (See pic).

A few people have thought that we have lost the plot and our
numbering system is something to be desired – as floor 4 is
missing!

Dorsett City Hotel is for a Hong Kong based client and the
Number 4 is considered an unlucky number in Chinese because
it is nearly homophonous to the word “death”. Due to that, many
numbered product lines skip the “4” and many buildings do not
have a 4thfloor.

In Hong Kong, some high-rise residential buildings omit all floor
numbers with “4”, e.g., 4, 14, 24, 34 and all 40—49 floors, in
addition to not having a 13th floor. As such, Dorsett City Hotel
also does not have a 4th floor — the drawings jump from the 3rd floor to the 5th floor.

Not confusing at all…!

Consulting Wikipedia for other floor numbers we might have to avoid in the future also gives us

  • The number 4 (tetraphobia) in Chinese culture
  • The numbers 4 and 9 in Japanese culture
  • Also in Japanese culture, maternity wards numbered 43, as it can literally mean “still birth”
  • The number 13 (yes you know about that one)
  • The number 17 in Italian culture

  • TL;DR: 4 is unlucky in China. Chinese money is building the hotel. Therefore no 4th floor.

    Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unlucky_symbols