I went on the “vertical tour” of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine yesterday with a friend who was visiting from out of town — up into the clerestory, the space between the ceiling and the roof, and then onto the roof.
The wildest thing, for me, though, even beside being that close to an installation of Guastavino tile and the surprise, gorgeous, a cappella choir concert that was going on in front of the altar, was how *easy* it is to go up and down the narrow spiral staircase when the risers of the steps are perfectly even and the treads haven’t been worn down with seven or eight centuries of use. When I’m in Europe (or, when I used to go to Europe before the pandemic) I’d usually limit myself to one bell tower climb per trip because coming down, in particular, I would find really taxing; and I realized that it’s very much about the minute differences in the depth and evenness of the stairs .
One woman on the tour said she was worried about coming down, and I told her: “Look, I’ve been up and down a lot of these things, and worst case scenario, you can just sit down and scooch. It’s not elegant but it works.” She made it all the way down on her feet, in the end, though.
