National Lift Tower facts for kids
Quick facts for kids National Lift Tower |
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The Lift Tower in 2009, surrounded by houses.
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| Former names | Express Lift Tower |
| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Type | Tower |
| Address | Tower Square, Northampton NN5 5FH |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°14′19″N 0°55′19″W / 52.2385°N 0.9220°W |
| Construction started | 1980 |
| Inaugurated | 12 November 1982 |
| Renovated | July 2010 |
| Client | Express Lifts Ltd |
| Height | 127.5 m (418 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Diameter | 14.6 m (48 ft) |
| Other dimensions | Diameter at top 8.5 m (28 ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Maurice Walton of Stimpson Walton Bond |
The National Lift Tower is a special tower in Northampton, England. It was built to test lifts (also known as elevators). The Express Lift Company, a part of the General Electric Company (GEC), built it.
Construction started in 1980. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the tower on 12 November 1982. It's now a Grade II Listed Building, which means it's an important historical structure.
Contents
About the Tower
Where is it?
The tower is located in an area called St James End, west of Northampton town centre. This area is named after an old monastery called Northampton Abbey. When the land around the tower was being prepared for new houses, workers found an old cemetery with about 300 burials from the past.
How it was Built
The tower was designed by an architect named Maurice Walton. It stands 127.5 metres (418 ft) tall. At its base, it's 14.6 m (48 ft) wide, but it gets narrower towards the top, where it's 8.5 m (28 ft) wide.
This tower is the only one of its kind in Britain. It's also one of only two in all of Europe used for testing lifts. In 1997, it became a Grade II listed building. At that time, it was the newest building in the UK to get this special status.
The small, oval-shaped windows on the tower were a special design choice. They matched the control buttons and floor displays found inside the lifts made by the Express Lift Company.
What it was Used For
The tower stopped being used by Express Lifts in 1997. This happened after another company, Otis, took over Express. Otis usually used its own testing places in the United States.
One of the tower's shafts was used by the British Standards Institution (BSI). They tested lift safety parts there. For example, they would test safety brakes to make sure a lift would stop safely if it ever went too fast. They also tested buffers, which are like giant shock absorbers, to make sure they could cushion a lift if it dropped. The goal was always to keep people safe inside the lifts.
The Tower Today
The building is now privately owned and is called the National Lift Tower. After a lot of repairs, it reopened in October 2009.
Today, lift companies use the tower for many things. They do research, develop new ideas, test new lifts, and even use it for marketing. It's also a great place for companies that need a very tall space. For example, they can test safety equipment for people who work at heights.
The tower has six different lift shafts. They vary in height and how fast lifts can travel in them. One shaft is 100 metres tall and can test lifts going as fast as 10 metres per second!
The tower's renovation was finished in July 2010. There were plans to build a visitor's centre with a cafe, but the local council did not approve this in 2012.
Fun Facts
Abseiling and More
Since May 2011, people have been able to go abseiling down the tower. This is a fun way to raise money for charity. By May 2012, over £140,000 had been raised! The local council has given permission for abseiling to happen up to 24 times a year.
As of 2015, the tower is also used for something very unique: it's the world's tallest facility for testing drainage systems!
Famous Mentions
The tower has been mentioned in a few interesting ways:
- The famous broadcaster Terry Wogan jokingly called it the "Northampton lighthouse." He even wrote about it in a book called Icons of Northamptonshire.
- The local newspaper, Northampton Chronicle and Echo, played an April Fools' Day joke in 2008. They claimed the tower would be torn down, which made some people upset! Another April Fools' story suggested it would become a place for airships to dock.
- The tower also appears in a science fiction novel called Time to Repair by Mark Gallard.
