William Tell re-enactment ? Except the lad on the wall has dropped the ‘apple’.
Thought it was The Stump in the background for a moment, but of course it’s Liverpool.
Liverpool’s tower’s a bit taller than the Stump’s but a great deal wider, actually making it look more squat. I’ve not climbed it (Liverpool) but I imagine, being 20th century, it doesn’t have the, um, quirky medieval attitude to safety which makes the Stump’s ascent, especially the upper sections, such an experience.
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I’d love to climb the Stump, but not sure my head-for-heights is up to it!
I think they only let the public up to the first (external) balcony these days. When I was a kid anyone who was brave enough could carry on up to the second balcony, but the narrow uneven spiral stair was essentially unlit beyond the first, and the dark was popular with pigeons who could startle you when that was the last thing you wanted.
Here’s one of the four narrow walkways which circle the tower at first balcony level (photo from here)
The balcony itself is 180ft above ground level (picture is a still grabbed from here)
For scale, the stone parapet is about thigh-high and the iron rail (added in Victorian times) reaches about to the bottom of an adult’s ribcage. The walkway’s barely wide enough to squeeze past another person. So you’re necessarily very close to the edge of a genuinely vertiginous drop. After a minute or two with their back pressed against the tower’s stonework most people find they start to get used to it.
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Not for me, the last thing I did like that was climb up the inside of the Statue of Liberty. Going up was fine but as it’s a double helix staircase going back down it feels like the railing is much lower than your waist although it isn’t. This was back in 1998.
The dark lord always looks like eros
Love it! Must do it at some point. I have a strong love/hate relationship with heights - open heights (cliff edges, flat-topped buildings, &c) I can’t do at-all: I’m bricking it just watching other people doing it on telly, never mind reality. But give me the false sense of security of a rusty old railing attached to crumbly, weathered stonework and I can usually manage it fine.
I’d make a terrible steeplejack!
The little square holes in the buttress stonework, visible in the first pic, were for the 15th century timber putlogs used by the scaffolders who originally raised the tower. No-one’s ever filled them in (and they’ve been re-used a few times by more recent scaffolders). If you think being on the tower is scary, imagine being on the scaff or, worse still, having to assemble and then disassemble it.
While the railing is somewhat reassuring, it’s perfectly possible to clamber over it or, if you try hard enough, to squeeze under it. Sadly, people have. A larger number than you’d expect land in the vicarage garden, apparently.
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Been up top when I was a choirboy there a lifetime ago. The building is riddled with secret(ish) corridors and balconies.
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Acclimatisation is definitely real.
When the NatWest Tower (Tower 42) was built they got to a level in the mid 30s and needed to recruit more labourers and other workers and had a real problem getting and retaining people.
A lot of them were experienced construction workers and weren’t scared of heights per se but coming in at that level was very difficult and they didn’t stay.
Workers who had ‘grown’ with the building had no issues at all.
Me too, a couple of times. Not something I’d want to repeat. Far too much like this
OK there is a continuous parapet, but the handrail on the access side is higher than it and you have to climb over that. And then you’re on timber planks with gaps between them. And you can see through those down to the belfry roof, 60-70ft below. Not good for the confidence.
When were you there ? I was head boy (Cantoris) in 1973.
That balcony on the inside of the tower.
Eek.
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Early 60s.
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I’m the same - if there is a railing I’m fine otherwise forget it.
Talking of bricking it watching other people climb - have you seen Free Solo about Alex Honnold’s ascent of El Capitan ? I thought that was the most mental thing I’d ever seen until I watched this last week.
It’s a film from 2021 about then 23 year old Canadian free climber Marc-André Leclerc.
I’ve never seen anything like it but I’m just glad there are still people like him in this world.
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I went thru a phase of watching that kind of thing, and that inevitably led down the wormhole to vids of the ones who fuck-up and fall-off, and then that led to all the poor cunts who became permaposicles atop the really big peaks like Lhotse, and that depressed the living shit out of me and cured any interest in the whole topic of climbing… 
Thanks for reinforcing Barracuda that I’ve had stuck in my head for three solid days.
That’s just great 
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There was a time in the mid 80’s where it was near impossible for me as a kid to walk the lenghth of all Saints Rd (Front line Ladbrooke Grove) and not get robbed and or accosted. Taking this as a personal challenge was dim, the place was furiously exciting however.
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‘Hey English, come here’