My bungalow (newish, purpose-built,functional but bland) has both meters in the covered porch, but in the old coach house I grew up in it was a hoot when the gas/electric man came. In the large square hall, which was laid with parquet, there was a square of flooring which, if you looked carefully, it was able to insert a Special Tool to lift it. If you didn't know, you'd miss it. SO, to access the meters, the men came armed with said Special Tool plus a mirrored viewer at the end of a long stick. 1st man lay on his tum, viewed the meters and called out the numbers to his mate who wrote them down, then helped him to get up.