Where things belong, part 2

[ellarien]

In conversation on the way home, I was reminded of another of those odd little cultural differences. In the UK, the default place for the main phone in a home is in the entrance hall/lobby. I have no idea why, unless perhaps it's there for the greater convenience of strangers knocking on the front door and asking to use it, or because that's where one deals with outside incursions in general. If there isn't an entrance hall, or (as in the case of my London flat) the entrance hall is unfeasibly tiny, the phone will probably be in the living room. (There might be an extension in the master bedroom.) Around here (I have to be careful about generalizing, because my personal experience of people's homes in the US is limited to Arizona and Colorado), the main phone is most likely to be in the kitchen, which I suppose was handy in the days of stay-at-home, sink-bound housewives, though there'll be a phone jack in each bedroom as well. Of course, I've not seen many -- if any -- establishments in these parts with what I'd recognize as a hall.

Does anyone have any insights? Other places where the phone might be considered to belong, in the pre-cordless days?