A shocking video taken in Croydon’s Whitgift Centre recently shows a man risking a two-storey fall to climb on top of a glass lift as it goes up and down between floors. He clambered on to the glass lift at the Superdry end of the shopping centre after forcing open the doors when it was at the lower level.
According to onlookers, he then balanced on it for around 30 minutes as it travelled up and down. One witness who got in touch with MyLondon claims security did not notice or do anything to stop it.
They added: “The people doing this were not workers or contactors. They were members of the public who had come into the centre to play with the lifts.”
The incident was likely a stunt for social media as the daredevil and another man standing close by are both carrying cameras. They may be taking part in the ‘lift surfing’ trend, wherein people ride on or hang below elevators to garner online fans.
However, the people of Croydon didn’t seem particularly fazed or impressed by it. The video shows multiple people ignoring the precarious act as they use the adjacent escalators, with only a handful stopping to look from across the mezzanine.
Lift surfing is said to have taken off in New York in the 1990s, particular in social housing complexes and university campuses. A resurgence took place in the late 2010s when it became popular to post footage on YouTube.
Past participants have broken bones, become tangled in the machinery and been crushed to death in the lift shaft.
The Whitgift Centre has been contacted for comment.
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