The Leas Lift, including waiting rooms, pump room, lower station tanks, track, cars, wheel houses, tank room, upper station tunnel and railings

The Leas Lift, Folkestone

A cliff lift comprising waiting rooms, pump room, lower station tanks, steeply inclined track, passenger cars, wheel houses, upper station tank room, tunnel and cast iron railings. The lift was constructed in 1885 by Messrs Waygood and Co for the Folkestone Lift Company. The waiting rooms were designed in Domestic Revival style by architect Reginald Pope, with John Newman as builder. A pump room was added in 1890 in similar style, together with a second lift which was removed in 1985.

The waiting rooms on Lower Sandgate Road are single-storey brick pavilions with concrete plinths and hipped tiled roofs to the centre. Splayed bays at the ends are surmounted by terracotta ridge tiles and finials. The two waiting rooms are linked by a lower single-storey central entrance block with a gabled verandah supported on six wooden piers. The arched entrance has two three-panelled, rail-mounted sliding doors flanked by two narrow casement windows. Each waiting room has a tall casement window adjoining the entrance and a tall canted bay under a projecting gable with wooden bargeboards. When the second lift was added in 1890, the main entrance was relocated from the central lobby to a new double door which replaced one of the windows in the eastern waiting room, with a flight of steps built up to this door and turnstile access removed at the same time. The interior of the waiting rooms and corridor retains original joinery including dado panelling with fielded panels, moulded architrave doors with fielded panels, and wooden railings to regulate access to the cars.

The pump room is a single-storey brick building with concrete plinth and tiled roof, hipped to the west and splayed to the east with terracotta ridge tiles and finials. The principal front has a projecting gable to the west with a three-tier six-light square bay, a blank circular window, a four-tier four-light splayed bay and a single-light window in the side bay. The interior includes the two pumps, automatic belt control mechanism, a unique cast steel herringbone gear wheel, vertical pump pistons and pipework under the floor.

The lower station tanks originally comprised a brick-lined round reservoir built under Lower Sandgate Road, with a second tank built alongside in 1899. The track consists of cast iron laid originally on sleepers that spanned wooden longitudinal beams running vertically up the track bed and coated in tar. These were replaced by concrete within a couple of years due to harsh coastal weather. The tracks, each 164 feet in length, have emergency braking systems in the middle.

The passenger cars, built in 1885 to a modified goods-wagon design, are fitted above purpose-built undercarriages containing water tanks. They run on standard Victorian wagon wheels of approximately 28 inches diameter consisting of wrought iron spokes and cast iron rims. A cistern valve between the two tracks fills the cars with water. The cars have segmental-headed roofs, four windows to the ends and five windows to the sides, with half-glazed doors on the centre of the outer sides. The Leas Lift is the only cliff lift of this era built with side door access to the cars. The interior features slatted wooden benches.

The upper station was originally provided with open air platforms and a driver station, but the Board of Trade required driver stations to be covered. Two concrete wheel houses were consequently built, one for each platform, approached down flights of steps with continuous casement windows and hipped roofs. A third wheel house was built for the 1890 second lift. The wheel houses retain the original driving controls. This was the only cliff lift ever built with dual controls, although they were disconnected after a couple of years, they remain in situ. The lift mechanism was originally provided with a separate brake wheel fitted lower on the shaft of the balance wheel, replaced by a combined balance and brake wheel in 1887. Most controls were provided by standard railway components: the brake wheel was a level crossing gate wheel and the water lever was a signal box lever.

The upper station tank room, built under The Leas in 1890, is fitted with two cast iron tanks linked to form a single reservoir of the design used on railway water towers. A second tank to different design was built alongside in 1899. The upper station tunnel, built under The Leas and extending the whole 40-foot length of the upper station as defined by the cast iron railings, is accessed down a flight of stairs from the wheel house and gives access to the upper station tank room. It houses the brake wheel mechanism, control rods, original dual controls and water pipes.

The 40-foot frontage to The Leas is bordered by cast iron spear railings with dog rail and urn principals and a gas lamp standard. The waiting rooms, pump room and structural elements are constructed of brick cavity walls with tiled roofs. Materials include cast iron for railings, tracks and machinery; iron, wood and glazed construction for the cars; and concrete and glazed construction for the brake houses.