3:Charles Sq - Tour of Bracknell's car parks and lifts
4,284 views · Published 16 September 2008 · 8:20 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: mrmattandmrchay · 2008 · Education
--Matt's tour of Bracknell's car parks and Lifts (UK)-- Why Bracknell? My Nan lives in Bracknell. During my childhood (early to late 80s) she used to take me round all the lifts. Most of them scared me but may be this is how my interest evolved!? Today (Sept 2008) I went back round them all to see if they still exist. Being Bracknell, nothing ever changes. Town centre is dead, 60s/70s buildings. The whole centre is in need of knocking down and modernising! Not many major brand shops - most have moved away. Apologies for poor quality. In hindsight I should have taken my Fujifilm camera (movie mode), but all I had with me is my HTC710 phone! ---This video--- Charles Square is a very 70s/80s looking area of the town centre. There is a balcony level which has a ramp in the middle of the square and a couple of lifts and separate escalators. The old escalators are still there for a direct trip to the hotel on the 2nd floor and along to Charles Square Car Park (I think this was originally called "Car Park 4") To get to the car park, you had to travel to level 2, walk around a hotel and on to the car park. The first set of lifts were from Charles Square. Two Otis lifts with the machine room on the Ground floor, beside lift 2 (lift 1 ropes must have travelled over the shaft of lift 1). These were one speed, slow with a noisy constant sounding machine. I travelled in these back in the 90s, they smelled of leather (as did the disabled lift in the High Street car park video!) Unfortunately, they have been board up, probably never to be used again! Charles Square car park is a short walk from the square. As above, you walk around a hotel on the 2nd floor, over a foot bridge and into the car park. When I was about 8 years old, I remember these lifts being like the ones in my other video called 'hospital lifts' with the pop out buttons. They were modernised in the early 90s but haven't been touched since! I remember going up to the roof and seeing the motor room through the air vents in the door. The lifts would always slow down, then SCREEECH and stop dead. I remember seeing the whole machine (motor and gear) in the motor room move as the brakes came on whilst the lift was still moving! The screech is still there today, so is the door. Only difference is now there is a netting which prevents a good view! These lifts reflect the town centre's whole appearance - still in the 80s!
