When Batman gets in the way!
St George’s Hall Liverpool, UK, goods lift modernisation.
St George’s Hall is a building on St George’s Place, opposite Lime Street railway station in the centre of Liverpool, England. Opened in 1854, it is a Neoclassical building which contains concert halls and law courts and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. On the east side of the hall, between it and the railway station, is St George’s Plateau and on the west side are St John’s Gardens. The hall is included in the William Brown Street conservation area.
In 1969 the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner expressed his opinion that it is one of the finest neo-Grecian buildings in the world, although the building is known for its use of Roman sources as well as Greek. In 2004, the hall and its surrounding area were recognised as part of Liverpool’s World Heritage Site until its revocation of World Heritage status in 2021. The Liverpool Register Office and Coroner’s Court have been based in the hall since 2012.
The site of the hall was formerly occupied by the first Liverpool Infirmary from 1749 to 1824. Triennial music festivals were held in the city but there was no suitable hall to accommodate them. Following a public meeting in 1836 a company was formed to raise subscriptions for a hall in Liverpool to be used for the festivals, and for meetings, dinners and concerts. Shares were made available at £25 each and by January 1837 £23,350 (equivalent to £2,169,220 in 2020) had been raised. In 1838 the foundation stone was laid to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria.
Knowsley Lift Services were tasked with providing a reliable, efficient cost-effective replacement solution for the hydraulic goods lift which has had many reliability issues given age and increased demand.
In addition, because the motor room was too small for the goods lift hydraulics, the lift frequently overheated due to heavy use when used for functions.
The original OEM design of the lift was such that it saw the installation of over sized automatic doors which over time, had taken its toll on the sills/door operator & door panels.
Following discussions with the main stakeholders, and undertaking many technical surveys with the suppliers, a solution was found.
During the technical survey Knowsley Lift Services felt a change to a traction MRL with manual shutter gates would be more suited to the environment and use and would present a more reliable lift which would be able to sustain the impact of the trolleys/goods and not overheat.
Working with our supply partners, DOPPLER, and specialist gate manufacturers, Earlswood, Knowsley Lifts Ltd installed:
· 2800kg ECO2i Traction MRL, with a 4:1 roping arrangement, through car serving 4 floors
· SAFEGUARD heavy duty car and landing gates
· SASSI , G400T2 , Φ360, VVVF gearless machine
Throughout the project the building had to remain open and was in fact the set of the new Batman movie for a period of time. Working within set time frames, and ensuring the protection of the building’s Grade I listed architecture, Knowsley Lift Services completed the project on time and on budget (even when we had to stop work to let Batman get to work!)
This article first appeared on https://www.knowsleylifts.com/st-george-s-hall
