National Lift Tower

Designed by architect Maurice Walton of Stimpson Walton Bond, the tower is 127.5 m tall, 14.6 m in diameter at the base and tapers to 8.5 m at the top. The only lift-testing tower in Britain, and one of only two in Europe, it was granted Grade II listed building status on 30 October 1997, making it the youngest listed building in the UK at the time. The building's small, obround shaped windows were a design motif of the Express Lift Company, whose lift control panels featured control buttons and floor indicators of the same shape. In January 1997, the tower fell out of use after Express was taken over by Otis (who typically used its test facilities in the United States). In 1999, the tower…

The tower is in St James End, west of Northampton town centre. The area is named after Northampton Abbey, an Augustinian monastery dedicated to St James, which was founded in 1104–1105. When the former Express Lift factory, which included the lift-testing tower, was redeveloped for housing in 1999–2000, excavations were carried out to determine the location and remains of any parts of the abbey. A cemetery of burials was excavated during winter 2000–2001. The bones were analyzed to determine the health and burial practices in the late-medieval population of Northampton.