Issue 44 winter 24 - Journal - Page 19
Elevating safety and
accessibility inside a
well-loved global landmark
UK designed and manufactured lifts take pride of place in the Elizabeth Tower restoration project
By David Saunders, Head of Major Projects Division at Stannah Lifts and John Newbold,
Director at SVM Associates
For many decades, the Elizabeth Tower, the worldrenowned historic landmark adjacent to the Houses of
Parliament in Westminster, has been displaying signs of
age and exposure to pollution.
While the clock tower is often affectionately referred to
as ‘Big Ben,’ this is actually the nickname of the Great
Bell located atop the Elizabeth Tower. The neo-gothic
tower was officially unveiled during Queen Victoria’s reign
in 1859. It was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1987
and named Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark Queen
Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.
Throughout its 162 years of existence, the clock tower
has been subjected to weathering from the elements,
heavy pollution, and Second World War bomb damage.
Although several projects have been undertaken to clean
and refurbish the tower in the past, 2017 marked the
beginning of the first complete restoration of the tower
from top to bottom.
Sir Robert McAlpine Special Projects (SRM), appointed
main contractor to the restoration of the iconic building,
had to repair the building’s external fabric, renovate
the clock, improve internal areas, add energy-efficient
lighting, and oversee the installation of two lifts.
Finding space for a lift
Building a lift within a Grade 1 listed building is no simple
task. Modernisations must be as inconspicuous as possible, and the addition of new building materials should
under no circumstances damage the existing historic
fabric of the building.
Prior to 2017, the only way to reach the top of the tower
was by walking up a narrow spiral stone staircase. The 334
steps have posed a daunting deterrent for clock keepers,
and the lack of lift access meant that it was extremely
challenging for maintenance teams to carry equipment
and parts up to the belfry.
An existing ventilation shaft measuring just 4.9m by 2.4m
ran from the base of the tower to the belfry at the very
top. The challenge was to design a lift that would fit into
this extremely narrow ventilation shaft, which had not
been accessed since the tower’s original construction in
Victorian times.
Not only did the teams have to contend with very
restricted space and limiting any intrusion into the fabric
of the building, but the whole tower has a slight lean of
0.23 degrees to the northwest. This means that the top
of the tower is out of alignment by 0.22m, which is a
Above, view of bespoke Stannah 13-person passenger lift positioned by clock mechanism at Elizabeth Tower, London