[General] What does "over the stairs to the flat" mean in this excerpt?

[gary17]

So here's an excerpt from The Thirteenth Tale written by Dianne Setterfield:
"Father had finished for the day, switched off the shop lights and closed the shutters; but so I would not come home to darkness he had left on the light over the stairs to the flat. Through the glass in the door it cast a foolscap rectangle of paleness onto the wet pavement,...."
I don't quite understand where the light is located. It seems to me that the "flat/pavement" means a "porch". Since the light casts paleness onto the outside porch, the light must be inside the shop. But what does over the stairs mean? Does it mean there are lightbulbs above the staircases in the shop which extend to the door/porch/flat/pavement?
I'm really confused... :-?

 

[SoothingDave]

A "flat" is an apartment. There are stairs that lead up to the flat. There is a light outside that shines light on the stairs.

 

[Rover_KE]

In future posts, Gary, please name the author of your quotations as well as the source. In this case, Dianne Setterfield.

Rover

 

[gary17]

Thank you for reminding. I've just added the author to my post.

 

[gary17]

What about "Through the glass in the door it cast a foolscap rectangle of paleness onto the wet pavement.."? If the light is outside, how does it go through the glass in the door and cast paleness onto the pavement?

 

[BobK]

A "flat" is an apartment. There are stairs that lead up to the flat. There is a light outside that shines light on the stairs.

Not sure why it has to be outside. I imagine it hanging from the ceiling directly over the stairs. The flat is over the shop, so they are not public/external stairs.

b

 

[SoothingDave]

Not sure why it has to be outside. I imagine it hanging from the ceiling directly over the stairs. The flat is over the shop, so they are not public/external stairs.

b

I was assuming an outside set of stairs.

 

[emsr2d2]

I assumed an indoor staircase, leading up to the first floor of the building, on which was the door to the flat. If the main door out to the street was partly made of glass, the light over the indoor staircase would indeed shed some light onto the pavement.

 

[gary17]

"The flat is over the shop" meaning there's an apartment on the second floor?

 

[gary17]

I assumed an indoor staircase, leading up to the first floor of the building, on which was the door to the flat. If the main door out to the street was partly made of glass, the light over the indoor staircase would indeed shed some light onto the pavement.

Do you mean there are two doors?

 

[gary17]

According to the book, the narrator then finds a letter on the stairs. It seems to me that the stairs is outside.(unless her father took the letter and left it on the indoor stairs)
My question is with this sentence: "Through the glass in the door it cast a foolscap rectangle of paleness onto the wet pavement..". It makes me think the light is actually inside...:-?

 

[emsr2d2]

I think there are two doors. There is the main front door to the building. There might be stairs leading to that door. We don't know. Then there is the front door to the flat on the floor above the shop. There are stairs leading to that door. The letterbox is probably in the outer door. Post would fall just inside the main front door. Someone might pick up an envelope and put it on the internal stairs so that the person in the flat upstairs would find the envelope easily.

As I said before, I think it's an internal light which illuminates the indoor staircase and some of the light falls onto the pavement outside through the glass of the main front door.

 

[BobK]

I think this is a cultural thing. In the UK, when a flat is over a shop the staircase is usually internal; entry can be through the shop (perhaps with no door at the top of the stairs). My brother owned and ran two such shops, and the way to each flat was exclusively through the shop. From what I've seen on US crime dramas, external staircases are the norm.

b

 

[gary17]

So now I get it! The staircase which leads to the flat is inside the shop and someone (in this case, her dad) had placed the letter on the staircase lest she should miss it.
Thank you all for replying.