Working of lifts

I vaguely remember lifts operated by internal staff from my childhood, but have not seen one for years.

It would be interesting to know when the last one was replaced (assuming they all have).

Many lifts were operated by ticket collectors from inside the lift. Their controls closed the lift doors often of the bostwick type and started the lift which automatically stopped at the correct level.

One exception was Wapping where my father worked. The ticket collector stopped the lift as well. For this reason he was not supposed to travel in the lift but use the stairs in case the Ticket Collector overshot the stop mark. If this happened the lift had to be hand wound by opening and closing a big circuit breaker from the machine room. The cable had a mark to indicate when the lift was at floor level. When the training centre was at White City we were trooped off to Edgware Road, Bakerloo, to learn hand winding.

Another thing with lifts was when out of service they were left on the upper landing to reduce strain on the cable because the counter weight was heavier than an empty lift.

At at least some stations where the primary access is by lift the lifts can be operated by a staff member operating controls from the lift landing. In my limited experience this happens at very busy times so I presume that it is done to maximise the throughput.

The old Otis lifts could be worked from either inside (Car control) or outside (landing control).Hampstead from memory worked as the Wadsworth or similar. The Wadsworth were the same but could also be left to operate by the passengers.

I'm sure someone who knows Hampstead better will be able to give a better explanation.

First time I've seen an Underground lift with that type of indicator in working order.
For years, the ones at Regents Park were stuck part-way up, with slack loops of the cord showing.
When Aldwych (Strand) closed, money was spent to deliberately prevent the operation of the lifts for demonstration purposes.

Was Aldwych the last station to have attendant worked lifts from within the lift itself? If not, what was the station and when were the lifts replaced please? I can remember riding in a lift in the 1990s as a child that was worked by an attendant somewhere in London, but trying to jog my memory where it might have been.

They all had attendant-operated lifts...automatic lifts are fairly recent (post-war?)
I remember Goodge St having attendant-operated lifts until at least the late 70s.

That’s entirely what bracing is.

Given that the alternative was to remove the lifts completely, because they were life expired, I’m not sure what you expect to have happened...? Please enlighten us.

But then what do you do about the counter-weight, which is heavier than the lift; leave that at the top?

I expected one of the lifts to be retained in working order, with suitably reduced loading capacity, for occasional demonstration use.
The rest of the station has been preserved on these grounds. Historic beam-engines are often likewise preserved, along with locomotives, early motor cars and numerous other historic artefacts. It isn't even remotely unusual in the world of historic conservation.

Another knee-jerk over-reaction by the organisers, applying rules based on daily mass-transit to a niche heritage operation.

Sickening.

AIUI the issue with the lifts was not one where a reduced loading capacity would make a blind bit of difference. Approximately the same amount of money would have been required to be spent to make it safe for 2 people as for its original capacity. The only choices were short term closure for a complete replacement/refurbishment of the lifts or permanent closure, there was no third option.

I wasn't aware that the station had been in operation without the lifts. That must have reduced the already-low patronage even further!

The decision to render the lifts permanently inoperable, rather than conserve them for possible demonstration use in a museum situation, was at best short-sighted, and at worst an act of philistinism.
As time moves on, this fact will begin to become more and more obvious. I suspect that, even now, this location is the only place left on the whole of the Yerkes tube system where the original lifts are still in situ, even in butchered form.
Hopefully, a future project will see at least one of these historic machines refurbished, and made once again able to operate on a demonstration basis within this museum site.
Circumstances have bequeathed us the opportunity to preserve an entire Edwardian tube station. We must not miss it.