Pole to pole

I was more nervous than a professional German salad spinner this week, when I was sent to the top floor flats of Northampton’s Fire Brigade HQ. This soon became annoyance though when it was explained that the derelict flats fireman’s lift was out and I was going to have to walk the 8 flights of stairs with a toolbox and other H & S paraphernalia in a ‘Its a knockout’ style. In fact I could almost hear Stuart Hall chuckling over Herb Albert and his bloody Tijuana brass theme tune as I sweated my way up to the top. Once at the top there is a caged walkway not dissimilar to the type you have in prisons, which I presume was there to stop over enthusiastic fire people diving off the top floor to get a good seat in the engine when a ‘shout’ went up. This jumping option in my opinion was definitely not as much fun as the correct procedure of taking the pole down. Yes, (I kid you not) on each floor there were two lift shaft type structures which apparently have poles in to slide down to the ground floor. I say ‘apparently’ because the entrances had been bricked up, due to possibly misuse by the new potential residents of exotic dancers and batman and robin lookalikes!