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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:
NellePorter · 29/07/2020 09:33

I was not a big fan of the one at Sheffield Uni

PracticalTacticalBrilliance · 29/07/2020 09:47

Yes! But only as our Uni library had them. They terrified me and I never used them throughout my entire time there. Which was silly really as my subject's section was on the top floor.

Jeremyironsnothing · 29/07/2020 10:06

My uni had one too.

sweetkitty · 29/07/2020 10:10

Genetics Dept at Glasgow Uni had one in the 90s it scared me

moonbells · 29/07/2020 10:19

Engineering at Oxford had one too. Only went there for a week in the 80s on a 6th form WISE residential to try to get more girls into engineering. It was fab and loved going on it. I actually thought briefly it would be a reason to apply to do eng. there, but my first love was always physics so I didn't. Not there any more :-(

MissMatchedClaws · 29/07/2020 13:50

we do have the standard type of lift at Sheffield too! Just opposite the paternoster, for all you who want to or have to avoid them!

UncleShady · 29/07/2020 16:25

Going over the top in the Attenborough Building. There's loads of videos on YouTube.

rockingthelook · 29/07/2020 20:49

We had them at the Birmingham College of Food and Domestic Arts, brilliant, great fun, we used to stay in them and ride over the top or below the bottom and have a snog in the dark with the boys :)

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 29/07/2020 21:12

Yes - Leicester University had one until last year.

I did my masters there in the mid 90s and I was terrified of it. I only used it on a few occasions

Lemonmaid · 29/07/2020 22:55

@UncleShady

Going over the top in the Attenborough Building. There's loads of videos on YouTube.

Terrifying Shock for someone like me with a bad fear of heights, going up more than a few floors in one of these would be very frightening, especially all the way to the top!
lesleyw1953 · 29/07/2020 23:07

There used to be one in Kirkcaldy College - one poor lady with dementia got stuck going round and round. Very distressing

Davespecifico · 29/07/2020 23:11

I went in one at Leicester University in 1988 during an open day.
I was terrified I’d fall below it while climbing In or out.

PanamaPattie · 29/07/2020 23:13

There was one at ICI HQ in the 80's. It rocked from side to side and was fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

BikeRunSki · 29/07/2020 23:26

@moonbells, that’s interesting
I went on a WISE summer school at King’s College London in the late 80s, which inspired me to study Physics too. I also toyed with engineering, but enjoyed the purity of Physics. I’m now a civil engineer!

Oakmaiden · 29/07/2020 23:30

I couldn't cope with these. I find it hard to step onto an escalator...

polkadotpixie · 30/07/2020 06:47

Yes, I went on the one at Leicester Uni, not sure if it's still there. It was fun 😊

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 30/07/2020 09:04

Yes, because there was one in a university building when I was a student many, many moons ago. At first I used to have nightmares that I’d never be able to get off because it was going too fast.
Later a friend and I found that a cheap No. 6 fag would last us a complete circuit from our floor, up, down and back again.

KayakingOnDown · 30/07/2020 09:58

Fascinating. I'd never heard of these before.
They're a great idea, so much more efficient than conventional lifts!

moonbells · 30/07/2020 10:04

@BikeRunSki I'm still a physicist... Wink

igivein · 30/07/2020 10:22

There was one in Bergkamen Town Hall in Germany in the 70s (don't know if it's still there). It was great fun!

sarahC40 · 30/07/2020 10:26

Went for an open day at Sheffield back in the day. We saw that lift and sacked it off and went to a pub for lunch and a walk instead. That lift, crowded with inexperienced open day visitors... It was a lot.

TawnyPippit · 30/07/2020 10:40

Howells - I was coming on to say they had a paternoster in one of the Chemistry buildings in Oxford in the 1980s. I did an arts subject and was always intrigued by it but never intrigued enough to seek it out and have a go. My mates who were chemists all said you flipped over when you went over the top, which as a credulous undergraduate I always believed!

ProfYaffle · 30/07/2020 10:51

@BikeRunSki - was that BNFL? I temped there in the early 90s and remember the paternosters. A friend of mine told me she worked there in the 80s and used to do handstands while going 'over the top' so she came back down upsidedown!

IntermittentParps · 30/07/2020 17:18

Are they really big enough to do handstands in?

Lemonmaid · 30/07/2020 17:21

@IntermittentParps

Are they really big enough to do handstands in?
I'd be worried about falling out or unbalancing the mechanism!