History of the St James End National Lift Tower

The National Lift Tower in St James is used as an abseil tower and is currently the UK’s tallest lift tower.

Before it was used as an abseil tower, it was originally created to test lifts for the Express Lift Company.

The tower stands at a great 418ft with a 48ft diameter.

It has been an important recourse to the research and development industry.

There are 18 floors in the national lift tower and had four working lifts.

The first lift is an engineer’s lift which runs from the ground floor to floor 18, a high-speed lift which runs from the first floor to floor 17, a medium speed lift from floor 12 to 15, and a training lift which goes from floor seven to nine.

The lift tower also has a variety of other test projects that happen here.

These include drop testing and sharp edge testing; this allows for safety devices to be tested.

It was originally called the “Express Lift Tower” and was designed by architect Maurice Walton of Stimpson Walton Bond.

The construction of the tower started in 1980, and then on the 12th of November 1982, it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

This is the only lift-testing tower in Britain and one of two in Europe.

On the 30th of October 1997 it was granted Grade II listed building status thus making it the youngest listed building in the UK at the time.

This means that the structure is of special interest which warrants every effort to preserve it.

It was granted this after the tower was out of use due to the closure of the Express Lifts.

In 1999, the tower and the surrounding area was sold to Wilcon Homes for development.

The National Lift Tower is where the Northampton Abbey used to be, this was founded in 1104-05.

During the redevelopment of the former Express Lift factory between 1999-2000, there had to be evacuations carried out. These were to try and locate anything remaining of the old Abbey.

While doing this, a cemetery was uncovered. There were found to be c.300 burials in this site and when the bones were sent off to be tested, it was discovered that they were from late-medieval Northampton.

It was then reopened again in October 2009 and then became known as The National Lift Tower, which is what we know it as today after it became privately owned.

Then in 2014, planning permission was granted for abseiling from the top of the tower which would be on a more permanent basis.

The tower holds many abseils each year which have raised thousands of pounds for many different charities which are for local and national causes.

Since the 12th June 2021, a transmitter has been on the top of the tower. This broadcasted Revolution Radio.