The Complex Lifts Of King's Cross St Pancras

M@
By M@ Last edited 159 months ago

Last Updated 20 January 2011

The Complex Lifts Of King's Cross St Pancras

Stumbling drunkenly through King's Cross recently, we decided, for incoherent reasons, to take the lift rather than the escalator. We discovered a parallel world, with a network of lift shafts so complex they require their own stylised navigation chart.

With a bit of study, the chart is reasonably clear, given that it must describe nine separate systems communicating with four different levels. But where are lifts B and I? And what the Otis would happen if we took lift A up to Regent's Canal?

The situation is likely to get even more complex when the new western concourse opens in about a year. So, any design tips for TfL to make their lift maps as legible as the Tube map? And are there any stations (Bank, perhaps?) where the elevators are even more fiendish?