World’s biggest paternoster lift: We tried out city's strangest lift at Sheffield University Arts Tower

Anyone who has been a student at Sheffield University Arts Tower will know all about it, and as a new intake of students arrives in the city this month, thousands more will soon get to recognise its unique features.

But for many of us here in Sheffield, that building’s paternoster lift is a unique piece of engineering that has passed us by.

The structure, which has been in the building since it was first built in 1966, is the biggest paternoster lift in the world. And it is not like other lifts you’ll see in the city.

The lift works with a series of boxes which constantly move up on one side, and down on the other. You just step in the box – there is no door – and it moves you at a constant rate of one floor per 14 seconds, up or down the building. It does not stop – you just step on and step off as it keeps moving.

We met the people in charge of the building, and tried it out for ourselves.

There are 38 boxes, and they can carry 78 people at any one time, serving 19 floors from the lower ground floor to the 18th floor.

Head of engineering and maintenance at the university, Matt Godber said some loved the lift – others hated it. But there is also a conventional lift for people who prefer that way of moving about.

Queueing up

He said: “It’s like Marmite – some people love it and some people hate it. Some are nervous about using it, but every Christmas we get students queuing up to go on it because they want to say they’ve been on it before they go home. I think some people are a bit scared because it is open and it doesn’t stop. It’s a bit like escalators.”

It is high tech, having been fitted with lasers nearly 20 years ago that make sure the floors are completely level. Parts of the floor move so that people cannot get trapped it it.

I stepped on to have a go from the lower ground floor. You wait for a red light near you feet to change green to step on, and you’re off. Yes, there is a bit of apprehension about trying something new, but once you on, it feels quite relaxing. The pace is slow, as the next floor appears to come down towards you, and you watch life going on on each floor as you move up. There is plenty of space, as the platform, which can hold two people, is a couple of yards wide and must be a yard long.

Concert venue

Apparently, they once used the lift for a concert – musicians played on each platform, and were moved up and down the building as they played. Each floor could hear only one bit of the work at a time.

You can have a conversation with the person in the lift below – but you may struggle if the building was loud at the time.

Jumping off at the 18th floor was fine – it did feel like getting off an escalator, with that sense of your movement coming to a sudden halt.

And was it scary having no door? No. It meant no claustrophobia. And anything that the city has that’s the biggest in the world is worth having!