5 storey building in city of London how people manage to live without an elevator?

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Hello Londoners,

I was in the middle of street viewing the city of London and found this area on photo below (Shaftesbury avenue, London). This area must have been established since 1930s something.

So this is a 5 storey building, I am curios to know how do people live in level 4 and 5 since I guess there would not be an elevator in this old building. I am thinking to carry heavy stuff perhaps cylinder gas or luggage? not to mention the furniture.

I am also curios to know, this is a business area. The first level is for business, who are usually live in 2nd - 5th level? if they are different tenants where is the entrance for their respective premises?

So can somebody give me a light about it.


Thanks

[Maurice Leakey]

Winbert
The following may not answer your question, but I thought it might be interesting.
The buildings were part of a slum clearance scheme.

Shaftesbury Avenue - Wikipedia

[Dominique De Bast]

Winbert, I don't believe it's specific to London. You find old building in Paris without lift as well.

[Steve Klare]

-hopefully the people on floors three and higher are young with small, lightweight furniture!

(-and hopefully not a lot of it...)

[Douglas Meltzer]

Until 1968, 5 story buildings in NYC were not required to have an elevator. The current law is that buildings that are 5 stories and taller must have one. I have lived in walk-ups and getting that couch up the stairs was reminiscent of The Music Box.

[Paul Adsett]

Very common in the UK, and probably one reason Brits have much lower cardiac deaths than Americans. I have lost count of the number of times that I have registered at B&B's in the UK, only to be directed to the 4th floor with a heavy suitcase in hand!

[Dominique De Bast]

This diagram shows the differences of prices (June 2017) between flats in a building with a lift and flats in walk up building, in Paris. I don't know how many buildings without a lift still exist but, as said before, they are not rare at all in the French capital. The way the floors are numbered is, of course, the European one. The RDC is the British Ground floor and the American First floor. The second floor (=the third floor in the US) is the reference for the price. There are two 6th floors on the diagrams to show the difference between a building with a normal flat at the last floor and a building (in black on the diagram) with "chambres de bonnes" (maid's rooms), which is a current situation in Paris.

[Brian Fretwell]

Of course in the 60's and 70's tower blocks of many more than 5 stories spent long times with lifts broken down and people having to carry heavy shopping up to their flats.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Thanks guys for the insight.

I guess we are now spoiled with an elevator. When I was in New Caledonia even when looking for a 3 stories apartment, I would ask if an elevator existed. If not I would skip it. That when I was 45 yo something, still young according to the WHO's standard.

I have been from Amsterdam and almost every building with more than 3 stories will have a sort of beam or pulley to lift up the heavy stuffs but it seems it does not exists in London (or NYC/Paris?).

One I still don't understand, are the tenants betweeen the floors different? If yes, where is the entrance?

[Dominique De Bast]

In Amsterdam, from what I understand (a Dutch member will know better), they use the pulley system since the houses are too narrow to move large pieces of furniture in the stairs. The reason I was told for the houses being narrow is that the taxes were calculated on the width of the buildings, so they constructed during that period deep narrow houses.

[Graham Ritchie]

Glasgow was well known for its tenements. I remember my mother once telling me a story, of when the German bombers came over one night, while the bombs were being dropped, she placed my brother and the budgie under a table for safety, and described to me of the sky and surrounding area near the docks where they once lived in a tenement, being all lit up, as the ships at the nearby docks opened up.

Reading above about shopping, my mother did have a small shopping basket, that she would take with her every day "walk to the shops" and buy what we were going to have for tea that night. I don't ever remember us having a fridge or anything like that to keep food hence the daily walk.

Living in a tenement did mean you shared the toilet on the landing with other families. My auntie and cousin were in one of the last of the tenements in there area, just above a pub before it was finally demolished, they were reluctant to move. She had a little flower box attached to her outside window, that was her garden. Interesting enough, it was when they moved people into the so called modern high rise flats, that's when the social problems started. The tenements might not have been up to much but they did have community spirit and that to a large extent vanished with the move to the high rise.

My father once told me that in 1938 they applied to the Glasgow corporation for a place on the housing list. In wasn't until the early 1990s that they got a letter back from the Glasgow corporation, to say that there name was now on top of there list, and were they still interested, now that's after 50 years My parents went to have a look at the flat, but decided not to take it. My father did say to them, that if they don't take it, would there name go back to the bottom of the list the reply was, it would not.

Its interesting to note that in later years the remaining Glasgow tenements have all been done up and look really good.

[Dominique De Bast]

The USA vs Uk Floor System #Shorts - YouTube

[Lincoln Thorn]

What a fascinating thread! I always seem to come away with some sort of knew knowledge from this forum, film related or not!

[Steve Klare]

That's the Joy of General Yak, Lincoln!
-We can talk as human beings here about everything else, and keep the format sections strictly for film.

My Aunt and Uncle in Germany live on the top floor of a four story walk-up (They own the building.). They are on the leading edge of their 80s, so after a couple of decades of climbing the spiral, they are considering installing an elevator.

[Brian Fretwell]

A costume lady at my amateur theatre was up and down the stairs between parts of the wardrobe storage areas in her eighties. She lived until her nineties, we all thought the exercise must have done her good.