Preserving Heritage and Maximising Lift Capacity at Grade II-Listed Milburn House

Challenge

Milburn House’s central atrium has a circular layout with part of the building on a steep slope. It has various floors and four entrances. The highest bay has a large sundial, and the bay next to this has a commemorative bust of Admiral Lord Collingwood, who once lived in a house on this site.

The lifts to be replaced were over 60 years old and despite being a triplex group of lifts, the arrangement consisted of separate lift motor rooms below and adjacent to the lift shafts.

Unusually, the floor levels are designated by letters rather than numbers, matching the floor levels of a ship.

The lift shafts follow the building’s arc, resulting in a unique ‘thick end of a wedge’ shaped shafts, with machine rooms adjacent to the lowest floor. The scheme was complicated further by the position of several structural beams in the areas of the lift pits.

The existing lifts had relatively small internal dimensions, so the challenge was to utilise the unusually shaped lift shafts to maximise the internal dimensions of the new lifts.

Solution

We delivered bespoke lift designs to accommodate the irregularly shaped lift shafts and maximise the internal dimensions of the new lifts using a bespoke counterweight position and guide arrangement.

We replaced the lifts with machine-room-less lifts to maintain the building’s design and follow the requirements of the local authority and Listed Building Consent. 

False pits and inspection doors were provided due to the presence of the structural beams compromising the existing pit space, safe working area and overruns.