Do you know what a Paternoster lift is?

[Pinksands1]

I dont know how I had never heard of this type of lift before. The wikipedia definition says 'consists of a chain of open compartments that move continuously I'm a loop up and down a building without stopping. Passengers can step on or off at any floor they like'.

Anyway, they look bloody terrifying. I am so uncoordinated, I just know I would faff about trying to get on quickly and do myself an injury! Has anyone used one? Are they as scary as they look?

I certainly do. I used the one at Rummidge University to trap and apprehend the lunatic professor who resented me so much he tried to kill me.

Tbh I was more worried about who's wife I'd be bunking with that night. My own wanted to cut my balls off and Professor Swallow's was looking decidedly thin lipped too.

@Silvercatowner

Presumably there is a safety feature to stop the lift if anyone trips and falls half in and half out of the lift? Else you risk being chopped in half...

Just an emergency stop button on the outside I think, they are quite old, before anything like that was standard. But it might be that they are designed not to keep going past resistance which is why they jam easily.

Yes - but only because there was a discussion on here about them a while back. Have never come across one in real life!

Used to work at Northwick Park. I hated those lifts but did use them. It was just a worry about what would happen if you got it wrong.

There was still one at University of Essex in the 2000s, it was a bit strange. I used to be scared of going to the top floor in case I missed and had to go over the top. 😂

I was at Essex university in the 80s and there was a paternoster lift in the library. I hate normal lifts and won't use them, but I loved the paternoster. It was so quick and you could always see part of the storey below/above so it didn't feel claustrophobic.

I'm glad to see from the link earlier in the thread it is still there and is currently being refurbished. It says it's only one of two left in the country.

DP went to uni at Essex and remembers the lift fondly. I sort-of want to have a go but it sounds really scary.

Yes but only because I went with DS to an offer holder's day at Leicester Uni 3 years ago. I was terrified in case they made us go in it as part of the guided tour. Thankfully they didn't as I'm not good at stepping onto moving things and definitely wouldn't have wanted to do it with a captive audience. DS didn't choose that Uni in the end (but nothing to do with the lift!)

We used to have a go on ours at Leeds for fun. Simple pleasures. I think they're fab.

Essex University still have one in the library; its currently being renovated (or was before everything closed for covid-19). I don't like normal lifts (got stuck in one when I was a kid) but would happily use the paternoster when I was a student there. I never went "over the top" though, although several others claimed they had.

The one at Sheffield University put me off applying there - no way I could use that every day!

Only because I read about them on another thread on here a few months ago!

I used to work where we had a paternoster. It was fab!

No waiting for lifts, or crowding in, and it was no more dangerous than an escalator.
In all the years I worked there, there were no accidents.
It left the lifts free for company visitors, and goods and it was much quicker to nip between floors.

Yes, Ipswich Borough Council had one in the civic centre. It was great, so much quicker than the lift. And you could go up and over the top 😁

I did my postgrad at Essex in the 2000s. Once, in a daze after reading too much Kant I missed the ground floor and went all the way round at the bottom. It went dark and rattley for a few seconds before I emerged again, but not as nightmarish as I’d expected. It did used to break down all the time with people stuck between floors though.

I used the one at Newcastle Uni back in the 80s.
Tales of intrepid wheelchair users, but never saw that.

I used the Birmingham uni one years ago, always found it a bit scary.

I certainly do. I used the one at Rummidge University to trap and apprehend the lunatic professor who resented me so much he tried to kill me.

I was so hoping someone would mention this - but you're Morris Zapp, so of course you would! One of the funniest scenes in a very funny novel.

Back in the 80s the uni I was at had one, and it really was terrifying. You had to get the timing exactly right - he who hesitates risks getting himself killed.

We have one at work which is quite a feature of the building (hospital) but they have it off so its staff coded access only (though its handy to avoid the public/goods/beds lifts at peak times)
you have to remember to step down into it - eg start your step before it is level with the floor, and step up out of it - start the step before it levels with the floor you are exiting at. I havent seen or heard of anyone having a problem with ours, but as I say, its self selecting and physically mobile staff members only
I have never gone all the way round at top or bottom of it though
maybe for my next nightshift....

Essex University Library's was still there when we went back for the 50th Year anniversary celebrations, which must have been about seven years ago now. They had already changed the Library round, and mucked up what was classic 1960s Brutalism archictecture in a corridor to the stairs but they hadn't taken the lift out.

Brutalist architecture, as with the Barbican also, quite fashionable in some areas now. The library had been designed all of a piece, now with bits tagged on and things changed round, it was all becoming a bit higgledy-piggledy.

More posts came while I was writing - I see the one at Essex is still there.

De Montfort university in Leicester had 2 still interest early noughties, I used one daily! Great fun stopping your friend getting out so they had to go under the bottom or over the top!

I certainly do. I used the one at Rummidge University to trap and apprehend the lunatic professor who resented me so much he tried to kill me.

Tbh I was more worried about who's wife I'd be bunking with that night. My own wanted to cut my balls off and Professor Swallow's was looking decidedly thin lipped too.

@MorrisZapp, now now, you know your only true love is Jane Austen.

I think knowledge of them is pretty widespread -- there was certainly a lengthy thread on here fairly recently. The University of Leicester one certainly survived longer than the 80s, because I was in it at some point around 2000, but the Leicester Poly (now De Montfort) paternoster has been decommissioned for a while.

Fair fax House in Bristol was a coop department store when I was a young teen .
I remember the security guards throwing us out at regular intervals because we loved riding over the loop .
It’s no more scary than an escalator!

@EmpressJKRowlingSpartacus

Essex university library used to have one too, no idea if it’s still there.

Yes it is - I believe they've just been doing some work on it.

I was there 1977-1980.

It was terrifying the first few times you used it, but you did very quickly get used to it. Occasionally we'd stay in it right the way to the top till it came back down on the other side

Then we used to laugh at the first year students when we were 'mature' second and third years

I did not even know there had been one at Newcastle University @Bumply ! I was at Newcastle Uni in the 80s. I see it was closed down in 1989.