That building used to have paternoster lifts when I was an undergraduate there. Basically it was like a dumb waiter - holes in the wall with cubicles that continually moved upwards on one side and downwards on the other. It terrified me and I refused to use it and always used the stairs. There were all sorts of horror stories about students going over the top and getting crushed because the cubicles folded into 'flatpacks' when they went over the top.
My friends eventually got me into it by throwing my bag into one of the cubicles and I jumped in after it - the bag had fifty quid's worth of text books in it.
Once I had become a confident user, a couple of my friends persuaded me to go over the top having convinced me that the cubicles didn't 'flat pack' but they did invert. All you had to do is brace yourself with your back against one wall and your feet against the opposite wall and 'walk around the wall and onto the ceiling as it became the floor. The day of the inverting adventure came and two of us jumped in at the bottom floor and immediately braced ourselves for the invert. Beads of sweat broke free on my brow as we approached the top and I was close to panic as the last exit passed by.
The bastards!
The cubicles didn't invert. They maintained their vertical position as they went over the top. I was a hot sweaty stressed out but mightily relieved bunny as I exited at the first opportunity.
Another paternoster myth busted.
The paternoster is no more. I called in at the Roger Stevens' Lecture Theatre several years ago and the entrances are now blanked off.
This is the view of the building that I am more familiar with.
Its the 'I'm here to work' approach from the Engineering Departments where I was based.
@Berk on a Bike's picture is the "I'm here to sleep of the beer' approach from The Faversham, erswile haunt of The Gang of Four and Marc Almond.
