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Original poster

Do you know what a Paternoster lift is?

238 replies

Pinksands1 · 28/07/2020 05:41

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? Smile

OP posts:
JacobReesMogadishu · 28/07/2020 12:12

Is the one at De Montford, Leicester still there does anyone know?

The main benefit of a Paternoster is that they are far more efficient at moving people than a regular lift. They did an experiment at one of the unis once.

Put 100 people in the paternoster lift group and 100 people in the ordinary lift group. Same building, the lifts are opposite each other. All the Paternoster group got to the top much quicker. The other group could fit more in a lift but were limited by capacity and then had to wait ages for a lift to come back. The people in the paternoster group just kept walking on.

They don't flip you upside down at the top btw, it moves sideways and down. But it's always good for giggles in Oct to go over the top and do a headstand as you come down the other side and scare the Freshers! Grin

Blueuggboots · 28/07/2020 12:13

Oh yes!! They had one at the old dental hospital in Birmingham. It was great! Except when it frequently stopped between floors!! 🤣🤣🤣

JacobReesMogadishu · 28/07/2020 12:14
BIWI · 28/07/2020 12:32

@Peregrina

It wasn't all orange and brown in the Seventies at Essex when I was there. The floors in the Library were colour coded. Social Science, which I was doing, had one wall painted red, with pink chairs. One floor was yellow, one blue, and one another colour, and I don't now remember which was which.
I wonder if you and I were there at the same time? 77-80 for me, lived in Keynes tower in my first and third year.
vampirethriller · 28/07/2020 12:34

There was one at Leicester uni when I was there 20 years ago, I don't know if it still is though. I wasn't a fan.

MrsMoastyToasty · 28/07/2020 12:42

There was a shop in central Bristol called Fairfax House that had one. One of my earliest memories is taking the lift with my mum to go and see Santa.

keiratwiceknightly · 28/07/2020 12:47

BIWI and peregrine - I'm also an Essex alumni - 1991-1995 for me.

keiratwiceknightly · 28/07/2020 12:47

I was in BillMo tower

FreshfieldsGal · 28/07/2020 12:55

There was one of these in M&S in Liverpool, for staff only. I worked there while I was a student nearly 30 years ago. I used to love the novelty of it, went all the way round in it but just faced with a brick wall. Wonder if it's still there?

FreezerBird · 28/07/2020 13:07

I have just discovered that they are so called because the compartments are like Rosary beads. ‘Our Father etc’.

I'd assumed it was because you pray in terror for the duration of your ride.

Papergirl1968 · 28/07/2020 13:11

I was at Sheffield uni for just a couple of days, taking some exams, but wasn’t a student there.
The uni arranged for students to man the lifts and tell us when to get in or out, or push/pull us if necessary.
It was impressed upon us that we MUST get out at the top floor otherwise the lift would turn over. It was about 20 years later that I discovered they were pulling our leg.

Peregrina · 28/07/2020 13:20

77-80 for me, lived in Keynes tower in my first and third year.
I was in BillMo tower

70-73 - Rayleigh Tower first year.

FourEyesGood · 28/07/2020 13:22

@ArriettyJones My bad - it was a thoughtless flippant comment.

Iwalkinmyclothing · 28/07/2020 13:26

(Haven't rtft so if the conversation has moved on ignore this entirely)

I do know, but only because I took my little brother to some of his uni open days and at one (Leicester I think) he got stuck on one of these and I laughed so much we were asked to move on from the place we were in.

Flatpackback · 28/07/2020 13:32

Yes. They had one at Leicester University. I remember using it on an open day with my DD.

PuppyMonkey · 28/07/2020 13:39

I was on the Sheffield uni one with my friend once and it stopped. We had to jump down to get off. Which was nice.Grin

Great memories.

MeadowHay · 28/07/2020 13:41

@JacobReesMogadishu Hi - my DH started DMU in 2013 and there was no paternoster by then. I don't know when it was removed though.

PhilCornwall1 · 28/07/2020 13:42

@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? Smile

Yep I know what one is and stairs look a far better option to me.
MeadowHay · 28/07/2020 13:42

@vampirethriller the Leicester uni one was removed a couple of years ago. Sad

Doje · 28/07/2020 13:48

I was also at Essex Uni (William Morris Tower!). Thankfully I only really used the first floor of the library so didn't use it much - I preferred the stairs!!

A friend did make me go over the top and the bottom too. Terrifying. 😬

NainAGP · 28/07/2020 13:49

I encountered one 50 years ago as a nervous 17 year old on my way to a university interview. I managed it but still remember it was far more frightening than the interview. When I heard about the children who travelled by train from mid Wales to Birmingham and were stumped by the escalators at New Street I knew how they felt!

mejon · 28/07/2020 13:53

I'm another Leicester Poly alumni and used one there in the Fletcher building. I hated it but hated the thought of climbing 9 flights of stairs several times a day more Grin

Ifartglitterybaubles · 28/07/2020 13:56

Yes! There used to be one in my old student nurses accommodation, it was changed not long before I started living there, many of the students who were living there then used to talk about it.

garlictwist · 28/07/2020 13:58

I do because I work somewhere that used to have one. It was well before my time but I've heard stories and seen photos.

howells · 28/07/2020 14:06

There was one in the Biochemistry Dept at Oxford University. We had a normal lift as well. The Paternoster was always breaking down - I never got stuck in it but occasionally saw people being hauled out when it broke down with the sections between floors. We loved it because it was much quicker than waiting for the lift, but they replaced it with a second normal lift in the early 90s, because it broke down so often.

You could go right over the top- it went up into the roof space (and presumably into the foundations as well). It was said to turn over because someone had supposedly done a handstand while up in the roof space and come down upside down. It didn’t though- it just shunted across and came down the other shaft same way up.

It was scary at first because it moved quite fast- somewhat faster than the London Eye IIRC. To get on, I used to stick a foot out and let it take me with it, and getting out you had to think of it like it was the last in a flight of stairs, put your foot out and move once your foot made contact with the floor.