Lifts are a part of the UKs heritage that is ignored and forgotten. People often want to preserve old buildings but not the lifts (a car from the 1930s would not just be scrapped, but lifts from the 1930s get replaced without considerition). Building owners often just replace/modernize lifts thinking a new lift is better but don't think of the heritage thay are replacing.

Old lifts are often modernized to make them more up to date, but this loses the lifts character. If the motor is replaced you lose the original sound, and lift won't have the nice old feel, clunky motors and not stopping accurately makes lifts intresting. As for replacing the buttons and indicators this loses the lifts identity. A lot of generic companies remove the lifts orginal name plate.

Even in old preserved buildings the lifts are often replaced with new lifts that just look old, or keep the old lift but replace its motor so it runs smoothly but still looks old - people don't relise that this loses the lifts character, it is far better to have a genuine old lift.

Lifts (new or old) are always best when they are how the original manufacturer intended.




GUIDE TO LIFTS IN THE UK
I have made a guide to what lifts can be found in the UK. I made this guide because there is very little information about lifts.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE GUIDE HOME PAGE


Past Companies
Aldous and Campbell - MY FAVORITE LIFT COMPANY, full of character, hardly any left
Bennie - did a lot of lifts in flats
Deve - Swedish company, not many in england
Etchells Congdon and Muir - nice single speed lifts, taken over by A&C
Evans - Classic lifts with great motors
Express - Classic lifts with great motors
Furse - A company that makes ducting. decided to make lifts for a while
General Hydraulic Power Company - Pumped high pressure water arround london to power lifts
Hammond and Champness - An old lift company, later merged with Dover but kept the name
J&E hall (Hallford) - Big dartford company also made buses and refridgerators (includes Medway lift company)
Keighley - Hydraulic lift company
Marryat Scott - great lift company, got taken over in 1979, but some people left to form ALS
O&K - A german train company, fled abroad in WW2, then made escalators and lifts
Wadsworth - Not many of these about


Past Small Companies
Becker - Small hydraulic lift company
Jensen - Very small lift company
The United lift company - Nice small retro lifts


Present Day Large Companies
Otis - The biggest and oldest lift company
Kone - A large company famous for their ecodiscs
Schindler - started as Platt-Schindler, had some great designs
ThyssenKrupp - A large company famous for their twin lift (2 lifts in 1 shaft)
Mitsubishi - Posh, snazzy, futuristic lifts


Present Day Small Companies
Lutz - mainly european lifts, mainly on boats
Pickerings - A small indipendant company that has survived to the present day
Stannah - Famous for stairlifts, also make proper lifts
Small Generic Companies - All the small companies that just assemble lifts from bought in parts