Scarborough Spa Cliff Lift: History of Britain’s oldest funicular cliff lift that has closed after 150 years
A cliff lift in Scarborough which is believed to be Britain’s oldest funicular cliff lift has been closed by the council due to ageing infrastructure.
The Scarborough South Cliff Tramway Company Limited, founded in 1873, originally ran using sea-water but in its recent history powers on electricity.
Its main goal was to connect the South Cliff Esplanade to the Scarborough Spa, which at that time was the most popular music venue outside of London.
North Yorkshire Council has closed the cliff lift with immediate effect following an independent engineering assessment which identified a number of issues affecting the lift’s ageing infrastructure.
The council will continue to assess the evaluation findings and offer further updates in due course, it was reported.
The cliff lift - considered the country’s oldest funicular railway - cost around £8,000 to build and was designed by a London-based engineer called Mr Lucas.
It was then constructed by the Crossley brothers of Manchester, with the two cars on the funicular system able to carry around 20 passengers at a time.
The Spa Buildings at the bottom of South Cliff were the inspiration for building the first seaside cliff lift in Britain.
The Metropolitan Railway Company of Birmingham provided two cars designed to run on a Funicular system, where a cable attached to both cars on the rails would move them up and down a very steep gradient, the ascending and descending vehicles offsetting each other.
In the 19th century, the original hydraulic operating system pumped water through the central pipe by two gas engines, which filled the water tank of the upper car.
The car increased the weight and this resulted in releasing the gravity of the brakes which ensured that the upper car descended, whilst at the same time the lower car with the empty tank ascended.
Once it reached the bottom, the car’s water tank would be emptied, and the process would start again with the car now at the top.
The gas engines did not prove satisfactory and were replaced in 1879 by coke-burning steam pumps which remained until a major renovation in 1934-1935 by Hudswell, Clarke and Company.
This refurbishment included the replacement of the two 19th century cars, with new cars that have not changed much until today, and the installation of a 90hp electric winding motor replacing the hydraulic system.
The Spa Cliff Lift was finished in 1875 and on July 6, 1875, the lift was opened to the public with great success. 1,400 passengers paid the fare of one old penny for the novelty of using a cliff lift for the first time.
The Scarborough South Cliff Lift attracted wide interest and served as a guinea pig for others being built in Britain. This included four others built in Scarborough at North Cliff, Queens Parade Cliff, St Nicholas Cliff and the Central Cliff Lift.
Within 14 months of being open, a fire engulfed the Spa Saloon and this impacted user numbers on the lift until the Spa Grand Hall was rebuilt and opened on August 2, 1880.
By 1888, the Cliff Lift was carrying up to 250,000 passengers a year and during the 1945-46 season, the lift hit its peak with a total of 1.2 million people travelling.
Scarborough Borough Council bought the Cliff Lift from its owners in 1993 and in 1997, the lift was modified to be completely automatic.
A decade later, the cliff lift was closed for a nine-week period for essential maintenance and repairs. During this time, the rails and sleepers to both tracks were renewed and the two carriages were modified to provide easier access for users.
Last year was the Scarborough Spa Cliff Lift’s 150th anniversary, to mark this date, a weekend of special community events took place at Scarborough Spa.
These events were backed by North Yorkshire Council in conjunction with Animated Objects who created a specialised logo to commemorate the milestone.