We don't have those over there in the UK anyway

Yeah, those of us with Victorian terraced houses constructed entirely of brick-and-plaster walls can only dream of such things. When electricity, gas, and running water are retrofits, you can't expect the original builders to have paid much attention to structured network cabling.

Having said that, the house does have this bizarre thing, running the full height of the house, called a chimney -- which seems to have been the Victorian word for Cat5 plenum...

Peter