‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
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Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#2Hate to be a downer but I think this idea would be a fire hazard. The stairwell just isn’t made for this use or capacity. It’s a transient, liminal space.
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#3Hate to be a downer but I think this idea would be a fire hazard. The stairwell just isn’t made for this use or capacity. It’s a transient, liminal space.
Then don't use it? What if we put a big sticker on it with your comment so everyone is aware of the risk?
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#4Maybe it's because I'm American, but my first thought was ... there's a separate building and it's just the stairs? So if they sold it, how would the people in the building next door get up and down?
How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold? The entire premise of this is so incomprehensible to me.
Brits -- is this a common thing?
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#5Maybe it's because I'm American, but my first thought was ... there's a separate building and it's just the stairs? So if they sold it, how would the people in the building next door get up and down? How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold? The entire premise of this is so incomprehensible to me. Brits -- is this a common thing?
Agreed, it seems like the article is missing some background that most people won't have.
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#6Hate to be a downer but I think this idea would be a fire hazard. The stairwell just isn’t made for this use or capacity. It’s a transient, liminal space.
Then don't use it? What if we put a big sticker on it with your comment so everyone is aware of the risk?
Fire codes are not just about users. Think of responders. One cannot opt out of fires codes meant to protect the firefighters who may well have to rescue people from stairwells. For instance: no clutter like office desks to trip them up. Or, no combustibles in an open, vertical, space that fire could use to spread.
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#7Maybe it's because I'm American, but my first thought was ... there's a separate building and it's just the stairs? So if they sold it, how would the people in the building next door get up and down? How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold? The entire premise of this is so incomprehensible to me. Brits -- is this a common thing?
> How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold?
You can sell any subdivision of land. Happens all the time, e.g. a house on a large plot of land is demolished and the land divided into land for multiple new houses. Or two neighbours might exchange some land if the border is not convenient. Is this not a thing in the US?
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#8Maybe it's because I'm American, but my first thought was ... there's a separate building and it's just the stairs? So if they sold it, how would the people in the building next door get up and down? How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold? The entire premise of this is so incomprehensible to me. Brits -- is this a common thing?
> How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold? You can sell any subdivision of land. Happens all the time, e.g. a house on a large plot of land is demolished and the land divided into land for multiple new houses. Or two neighbours might exchange some land if the border is not convenient. Is this not a thing in the US?
It certainly is.
What parent is asking is whether selling just the stairs in a building, or happenstances to that effect, are common in Britain.
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#9Hate to be a downer but I think this idea would be a fire hazard. The stairwell just isn’t made for this use or capacity. It’s a transient, liminal space.
Isn't made to be used in what capacity?
“One idea I’m playing around with is: someone starts at the bottom of the stairs and pitches their idea to me and if, by the top of the stairs, I like it, I fund their business.”
Re: ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How does a structure that's just stairs have a separate title that can be sold? You can sell any subdivision of land. Happens all the time, e.g. a house on a large plot of land is demolished and the land divided into land for multiple new houses. Or two neighbours might exchange some land if the border is not convenient. Is this not a thing in the US?
It certainly is. What parent is asking is whether selling just the stairs in a building, or happenstances to that effect, are common in Britain.
It’s not common, that’s why there’s a news article about it.
But they aren’t buying the stairs. The stairs are worthless. They’re buying the land underneath.
As far as I understand the stairs are disconnected from the adjacent property and unused.
edit: here’s the first article when it was still up for sale: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/30/step-to-rich...