here’s an incredible piece of wartime engineering - the grand shaft in dover. built between 1806 and 1809 during the napoleonic wars, this triple spiral staircase was used as a rapid route for soldiers making their way from the clifftop barracks to the town of dover and its harbour below. without it the troops had to navigate badly maintained winding roads from top to bottom.

a huge 140ft shaft was dug into the ground to house the 3 intertwined staircases, the inner shaft peppered with windows to ensure light from above reached the soldiers running down to possible battle. engineer william twiss was adamant that a single staircase wouldn’t provide a big enough route down for a huge volume of people so he wrapped 3 stairways around each other, the 3 exit points meeting at the bottom where a tunnel leads to the town of dover.

photo sources, clockwise from top: whibs, jelltecks and conundrum37

apparently at one point, after the wars had subsided and the shaft wasn’t needed by troops, each of the 3 staircases was only to be used by certain people, as pointed out by the sign at the top of each…

1. officers and their ladies
2. sergeants and their wives
3. soldiers and their women

below is the top of the grand shaft as seen on google maps. here’s the direct link.




sources: 1, 2