OLD SPITALFIELDS MARKET
Brushfield Street, London E1
TONY WARREN LIMITED
Ballymore Properties
Fulcrum Consulting
Jestico Whiles
Elan
Four new passenger lifts
Client:
Commissioned by:
Architect:
Lift Contractor:
Scope:
Technically a street, this covered but exposed market is a listed building on the border between the City of London and the East End.
Four lifts were required — one serving the ‘Kinetica Museum’, one for one of the Pavilions only, one to bring the market traders’ tables up from the overnight basement storage area, and one for public use This meant that three different types of lift were required — the Museum and the Pavilion lifts being relatively standard, the traders’ lift needing to withstand knocks and be suitable for hosing down at the end of the day, and the public lifts suitable for misuse and vandalism.
The Kinetica Museum was unusual enough for its opening night to make the BBC National News, but only after some ‘persuasion’ on the telephone company to ensure that the line for the lift alarm was working, to allow ‘CE’ certification, to allow Building Regulations approval, etc, etc. ‘Kinetic’ means relating to motion and the museum presented moving art — robots playing instruments, light that responded to human presence, and much more.
Although only two floors high, the overall cost of the public lift was very high. Not because of the lift itself, or even the builder’s work associated with it, but the £200,000 spent on the moving image display screens cladding it on all four sides (the lift is inside the bright red enclosure in the top left hand picture). It has to be said that the lifts fit the bill in a very trendy market in more then one way.
© 2010 TONY WARREN LIMITED
