Member Article

A little lift goes a long way: How long would it take to get to the top of London's highest buildings via stairs vs. lifts?

When commuting to an office several days a week, taking the stairs might be considered healthier, but it is not always an option when there are over five floors. Even with bearing in mind safety guidelines in the context of the pandemic, lifts are still the quickest way to reach the top. In the spirit of ongoing innovation, that has nothing short of peaked this year, Sheridan Lifts, an independent family-owned lifts company in the UK, celebrates an invention that makes people’s lives easier: lifts. How does one get around buildings in nowadays’ vertical cities without them?

Tony Sheridan, managing director at Sheridan Lifts, says, “Our passion for elevating transport is something that’s been impressed upon us intergenerationally. And rightfully so, as this form of transportation is fascinating, and there is little doubt that life is unimaginable without lifts. Can you picture the time when accessibility was more of a problem for people and the only way of going up was by taking the stairs? We sure cannot, especially with building construction evolution which has developed vertically across time. We decided to try to, however, by looking at hypothetically how long it would take a person to climb to the very top of some of the tallest, most popular buildings in the UK without catching a lift ride.”

Experts estimate that the average person can climb between 2,28 and 2,75 steps per second, depending on one’s athletic condition. Taking into account the minimum time required per steps and based on the reported numbers of steps for the following buildings, Sheridan Lifts estimates that this is how long it would take the average Joe to climb them:

The Shard

Where: London Step count: 1,479 Floors: 68 Climb Time: a minimum of 10 minutes and 48 seconds Lift Time: approximately one minute (6.0 metres/second)

The Leadenhall Building

Where: London Step count: 1,258 Floors: 52 Climb Time: a minimum of 9 minutes and 11 seconds Lift Time: approximately 90 seconds (21-person passenger lifts 5.0 m/s and 17-person passenger lifts 1.0 m/s)

The Gherkin

Where: London Step count: 1,037 Floors: 41 Climb Time: a minimum of 7 minutes and 34 seconds Lift Time: approximately 30 seconds (6.0 m/s)

Tower 42

Where: London Step count: 932 Floors: 47 Climb Time: a minimum of 6 minutes and 48 seconds Lift Time: approximately 26 seconds (7.0 m/s)

The Walkie Talkie

Where: London Step count: 828 Floors: 37 Climb Time: a minimum of 6 minutes and 3 seconds Lift Time: approximately 27 seconds (6.0 m/s)

The strenuous activity of climbing stairs right after breakfast, just before coffee, or after too many hours of work does not sound very enticing, does it? To the lift it is!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sheridan Lifts .