SKYWARD JOURNEY

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6912, 18 May 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

SKYWARD JOURNEY

LONGEST LIFT IN LONDON. Visitors anxious to obtain the glorious view of Loudon and the country round from the campanile of Westminster Cathedral will no longer have to climb the 3UO steps. A lift is to be installed, states a London newspaper. It will lie the longest lift in London, and will take the view seeker to tho beginning of tho belfry, and within 56 loot of the public gallery, which will be gained by the small spiral stone staircase. To permit of the lift being built, the architect, Mr. L. 11. Bkattoek, has to arrange for the raising of the one great bell in the cathedral, the Gabriel, which tolls only on rare occasions, such as the death of the Pope, of a monarch, or ot a cardinal. From the ground floor of the cathedral to the upper platform of the campanile, where the lift journey will end, is ISS feot. The campanile itself is 273 feet high, or 28-1 feet to the top of the cross. There will be accommodation in the life, which is being installed for the cathedral authorities by Messrs Marryat and Scott, Ltd., for ten passengers and the journey will take a little more than half a minute. This innovation will be welcomed, for never a day passes but some people toil to the public gallery, which is now protected with an iron frieze to prevent repetition of tragedies that have occurred. The campanile has provided a steady source of income since the cathedral was consecrated by Archbishop Bourne in 1010. It is not, as it often supposed, the tallest tower in London, although its top it only 7 feet short of twice the height of the Nelson column, while tho Monument falls short of it by 110 feet. Both towers of the Houses of Parliament arc higher, the clock Tower being 320 feet high, and the Victoria Tower 310 feet. One of the glories of a cathedral, which, when it is completed in the dim future, will have cost at least £2,00000, the campanile is crowned with a metal-covered dome,*surmounted by a huge double cross of bronze.