Constructing the Staircases

[Michael Gallagher]

The first picture is D Stairway from Upper Deck to Quarter Deck under construction. The lift casing is there. And this would have become the entrance to the Columbia / Mauretania and Caronia Restaurants over the years.

The second photo is E Stairway under construction: Boat Deck downwards. The four lift casings in place.

The third photo is a great one of E under construction.

[Bob C.]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say #64 is  Stairway D taken from the Boat Deck looking at the theater balcony entrance? It could be Q Deck looking at the Columbia Restaurant entrance (sorry, I'm old school).  Hard to tell with nothing built topside yet.  It's definitely Stairway D though.

Given the two types of metal in #66 (classic colors of unpainted steel and aluminum surfaces)  and the four openings on the back bulkhead, I'd say we are looking at Stairway E between Quarter Deck and 1 Deck.

Given the shape of the stairway well, #14 could be A or E Stairway but I think it's E again because of the 2 lift openings behind the man in the picture.  Counting the decks and since the well formed by the stairs in Stairway E goes from a rectangle to more of a sqaure between 2 and 3 Decks, I think the man is standing on 2 Deck (see this photo taken of the Stairway E from the Boat Deck - http://farm1.static.flickr.com/217/515292863_ba2a8f3a0e.jpg).

Any other takers?  This makes for a great game - ID the spot on QE2!

[Twynkle]

More great images!

....and the four openings on the back bulkead, I'd say we are looking at Stairway E between Quarter Deck and 1 Deck.
....

Bob - these must be the entry 'spaces' (eventually sliding doors) to the lifts (elevators!!) on E Stairway!
It was often the busiest place, (designed before the days when the need to accommodate wheelchairs became obligatory!)

In the early days (?) didn't one (or more?) of the staircases have a sort of panelling (pale wood colour) parallel beneath the bannisters?
Rosie

[Bob C.]

In the early days (?) didn't one (or more?) of the staircases have a sort of panelling (pale wood colour) parallel beneath the bannisters?
Rosie

None of the balustrades were wood colored or grained; all were colored plastic.  A, D and G were blue, white and red, respectively and B, C, E, F and H were the same orangish color.

[Twynkle]

As in the VADS publication (3rd and 4th from the top left!)
...some had ochre coloured cladding.
http://vads.ac.uk/diad/article.php?title=244&year=1969&article=d.244.39
I thought that originally they had been a sort of veneer look-a-like!
There's a good photograph in one of the copies of Architecture Review (?date)
sorry that I can't show you - it was taken at roughly the same time that you travelled on board!

[Bob C.]

Rosie, if you are talking about the small inset photo on pg 51, that's Stariway E.  Its orange but the grainyness of the photo makes it look wood-grained.  Here is a photo of Stariway E from 1974.

[Twynkle]

That's the one!
Thank you!

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Forgotten which of the minor stairways this was, but I have a July 2008 photo showing the orange plastic re-appearing beneath the paint :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/2702725689/

[Twynkle]

Isabelle, this is good!
I remember thinking when you posted the sticky bits on the cabin door handles, here's someone who has an eye for detail...
Your powers of observation and sense of the need to preserve the memory of QE2 is nothing short of fantastic!

The VADS description of the colour is definitely 'ochre' - rather than orange.

http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/diad/article.php?title=244&year=1969&article=d.244.39

Ochre is a sort of 'natural' colour, (used by the earliest painters 'Egyptian, Italian etc') and not as harsh as orange
My guess is that the staircases of QE2 were designed to resemble a rich post-war sense of 'mod', safe and 'natural'.
Ochre goes better with teak!!

These are in complete contrast to the steps/stairs around the crew areas - does anyone have any images of these?
 

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Thank you, Rosie, for bringing us back to the VADS journal :

Colour has been used as an identifying factor throughout the public part of the ship. The colour of the handrail and the double GRP ribbon - ochre, red, blue or white gives each of the four main staircases serving the public rooms an identity and relates to the surrounding colours (the interior colour of the lift cars follows that of the adjacent balustrade).

The picture I took was definitely on one of the minor stairways. Such a pity I never recorded which it was... But I seem to remember that orange was underneath the paint on all of them, which puzzled me at the time, as I had (mis)remembered reading in the journal that each stairway had its own distinctive colour. Re-reading the paragraph quoted above, that must have been true for the A, D, E and G stairways only.

[Michael Gallagher]

I think the staircase in Isabelle's photograph was C?

[Twynkle]

Staircase C is/was very narrow, 'fraid I can't remember either!

Here you can just see the white beneath the green.
Difficult to imagine that any of the balustrades were kept white for long...
(Bit cold, and easily subject to marks!)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/watch_keeper/4629892792/

What would you think of the balustrades if they were white here?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/watch_keeper/4629892794/in/set-72157623686397634/

I wonder what other earlier images of staircases might have be visible in the brochures....
I'll have a look....sometime!

[Bob C.]

Forgotten which of the minor stairways this was, but I have a July 2008 photo showing the orange plastic re-appearing beneath the paint :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/prondis_in_kenya/2702725689/

I'm going to say that the stairway in question is Stairway B (my favorite after Stairway D below 3 Deck).  Compare the limited background clues to this photo in my "QE2 Stairways and Lifts" photo set on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/33120597@N03/sets/72157610831811386/

[Michael Gallagher]

Bob

I thought B at first but they the way the handrail is suggests the picture is back to front for it to be B. I think this is C at One Deck level (outside the Princess Grill Bar and the top of the stairway).

Anyone with any other suggestions?

Flagship

[Twynkle]

Here's C stairway!
Wasn't it one of the few 'single' stairways?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lightbody/3107843685/sizes/l/
Did C stairway go from deck one to five, past the Pursers office?