Paternosters look fun, but (as far as I know, at least in Western Europe) they have almost all been replaced by regular elevators for safety reasons.
Are there any publicly-accessible paternosters left I can ride in?
Wikipedia mentions a few, but they seem to be in private buildings.
If you can give a site where I can find them that would be appreciated.
(Animation from Wikipedia by RokerHRO; CC license)
As of 2024, I'm aware of two German-language sources, one still in operation and one defunct:
Paternoster-Count.de. As of 2024, it listed 965 paternosters, of which 596 were in Germany. Most likely, elevators in other countries are under-counted due to the website being primarily for a German audience. Google Translate works well for it. They provide the following breakdown as to the current status of the listed paternosters:
Of the 85 that are publicly accessible, their locations were in the following countries:
PatList (original website is dead, so this is a Web.Archive link). As of 2019, it listed 300 paternoster elevators in operation, of which 50 were freely accessible to the public. Google Translate sadly doesn't work with Web.Archive pages well, but you can copy-paste the text and translate individual entries.
Overall, your best bet would be to travel to Germany or the Czech Republic, as they have the bulk of the world's remaining paternosters in operation, though these stats might be biased by the paternoster lists being from Germany. I used to ride one every morning back in Prague — it was a nice experience.
The paternoster at the Arts Tower in the University of Sheffield, UK (Universities web-page, BBC video) certainly used to be open to the public. These forum posts from 2012 and a number of more recent Tripadviser reviews suggest that this is still the case. The university also publishes a self guided tour (pdf) which includes the tower and its blurb does talk about the paternoster but also states that there is "Limited access to inside building".
Alternatively you could book yourself onto a public event inside the building. Monday to Fridays 15th to the 29th of June an architectural exhibition is taking place in the arts tower. Or you can view their full list of events. The university has also traditionally opened one building up to members of the public to tour in September each year as part of the heritage open days scheme, the arts tower opened in 2012 and the university didn't take part last year (2017). Weather or not they will take part in 2018 and which building will likely be known around mid July (Source). Obviously there is no guarantee that the paternoster will be running on any given day/time. But i'd image its most likely to be the case from around 9-5 during term time. The building does feature other normal lifts which may be in use instead - something which I would imagine is more likely going to be done for a late evening event or on a weekend/event out of term time. You could send an email and try and ask the exact opening times.
Finally, you could also visit on an open day with potential students, there are a handful of dates over the summer or the students union offer more regular tours to non-students. They note that "Although the campus tour will take you past most of the academic buildings, if you wish to visit a specific department and speak to a member of staff then you will need to contact them directly, at least two weeks prior to your visit to the University." you could ask if there tour includes the Arts Tower, or ask if they would be willing to while you are there. While these tours are open to the public, they will of course be designed for prospective students of the university.
Similar to Hilmar's answer, the city hall of Stuttgart, Germany also has a Paternoster that is publicly accessible and frequently mentioned on TripAdvisor.
It was opened in 1956 and was temporarily shut down in 2015 due to legal issues. You can watch it being re-opened on YouTube.
You can visit the Paternoster during the opening hours of city hall, usually from 8am to 6pm on weekdays.
Image by РБМК-1500 from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Bochum in Germany has one in city hall that's a local city favorite. It was closed in 2013 for legal reasons but re-opened in 2015 by the mayor herself.
Vienna city hall, active and publicly available Paternoster, open from 06:30 a.m. thru 4 p.m. local time on working days. North entrance #6 (Felderstrasse)
https://club.wien.at/magazin/lifestyle/paternoster-im-rathaus/
They celebrate its 100th birthday this year.
There are a few Paternosters still operating in Prague - the most accessible one is located in New City Hall, and there are others (I am not sure if they operate) in the buildings of CTU Campus.
The government building in Copenhagen, Denmark has one; although I'm not aware of how many hoops you'd have to go through to obtain access.
Somebody posted this video from the Christiansborg elevators -- I would not have filmed it in 90* rotation!
Not sure if the one in the GrossMarkt Halle (in Ostend, Frankfurt am Main), now the ECB is still working and accessible. When I worked in the building (had an office there) I used to ride it everyday.
You can visit three of them in Brno. They are at these locations:
There is also a paternoster in Szeged, Hungary, in the Country hall (location). It's hard to find anything about it online (except a video and a news article in Hungarian), and what can be found is in Hungarian, but as a local I can assure you it's there and - to my knowledge - still operational.
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Rathaus Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany has 2 Paternoster (in the back part of the building) that anyone who visits the building can use.
The two publicly accessible paternosters were manufactured in 1914 by the Carl Flohr company (later Flohr-Otis).
It was shown in the television series Babylon Berlin, where many of the scenes of the Interiors of the police headquarters were filmed.
When I worked there, they were faster to use than the 2 lifts situated in the front part of the building.
An attempt to close them down in 2015 was made, but after only 3 weeks the ordinance was revolked.
Das Bundesarbeitsministerium hat mit ihrer „Betriebssicherheitsverordnung“ im Jahr 2015 ein erneutes Paternosterverbot auf den Weg gebracht, das am 01. Juni 2015 in Kraft trat und das Fahren mit Personenumlaufaufzügen nur noch betriebsangehörigen eingewiesenen Personen erlaubte.
In 2015, the Federal Ministry of Labor launched a renewed ban on paternoster lifts with its "Industrial Safety Ordinance", which came into force on June 1, 2015 and only allowed people to use the passenger lifts that had been instructed by the company.
Die Verordnung stieß auf heftige Gegenwehr und wurde schon gute drei Wochen später vom Bundeskabinett und dem Bundesrat wieder gekippt beziehungsweise geändert. Wenn die Betreiber sich verpflichten, “durch zusätzliche Maßnahmen Gefährdungen bei der Benutzung zu vermeiden”, dann könnten die Paternoster wieder genutzt werden.
The ordinance met with fierce resistance and was overturned or amended just over three weeks later by the Federal Cabinet and the Federal Council. If the operators undertake to “avoid hazards during use by taking additional measures”, then the paternoster could be used again.
Sources:
I used to study in Frankfurt University. One of the building, the Campus Westend (also called I.G. Faber Haus) has lots of it! I rode on it many times. Afaik you don't have to be a student to access the building.
