Client: View Tube
Contractor: Stannah
Architect: Urban Space Management
Type of works: supply of Stannah Midilift SL vertical platform lift.

It’s lime green and made entirely from recycled shipping containers. It’s also the funkiest location yet for a Stannah Midilift SL vertical platform lift. It’s the View Tube – a social enterprise and community centre located on The Greenway in Stratford, East London – home to the best views of the Olympic Park as it gears up for the planet’s biggest sporting event: the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In use since the View Tube opened in November 2009, the Midilift SL operates over a distance of 2,900mm between the entrance foyer and the first floor. It brings easy access for all visitors and staff, whatever their level of mobility, to the venue’s facilities. These include the award-winning Container Café on the ground floor, the first-floor education area, and the all-important viewing balcony of the Olympic Park, the Velodrome, Aquatics Centre and Stratford City.

Once again, Stannah Lifts was first choice for the View Tube architects, Urban Space Management. This London-based practice has used Stannah on the majority of their creative and economic regeneration solutions for which they are so well known, as USM Project Manager, Ebru Buyuksural, explains: “The View Tube is a fine example of our Container City™ system of innovative, modular solutions for low-cost housing, retail, workshop and community uses. In common with the majority of our projects, we specified Stannah Lifts because they always have the best lift to fit our purpose – well designed and engineered, delivered and installed on time and in budget, performing to the required standard, and with a Lift Services capability to maximise the lift’s lifetime. The Midilift SL in the View Tube is no exception – a cost-effective, hydraulic platform lift that is bringing easy access to the many facilities on offer in this distinctive community centre with outstanding views of the Olympic Park and surrounding area.”

Supplied within a structure-supported enclosure, the Midilift SL is easy to install. It is also simple and safe to operate. With a rated load of 400kg (four persons), the platform is controlled by constant pressure buttons and has a maximum travel of 5m at a speed of circa 0.08m/s. A range of optional extras ensures maximum design and performance flexibility to suit any application. As with all Stannah passenger lifts, the Midilift SL ensures the premises’ owners meet with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

Stannah has helped the View Tube prepare for the upcoming Olympic & Paralympic Games by providing an accessible venue and by supporting the View Tube community gardening project, which will be supplying herbs and vegetables for the on-site Container Café, as View Tube Manager, Rosie Murdoch, comments: “Stannah has contributed to the development and success of the View Tube – for the local community and beyond. Not only is the Midilift SL helping everyone access our first-storey facilities – especially the Olympic Park viewing balcony – but their generous donation towards our landscaping will certainly help showcase this unusual container-built community centre, making the whole View Tube experience even more enjoyable. Thank you, Stannah!”