That's absolutely true. All those 1900 lifts only go up unless they've been fitted with all new controls. This one was actually completely rebuilt in 1958 but still only goes up.
Yeah, the construction of that place is something.
The cellar walls are close to 1m thick I think.
The concrete ceilings must have been a very modern thing back then, the house where I live is almost 10 years "newer" and it still has the old fashioned mix of wood beam ceilings and brick vault ceilings.
Those floor tiles in the stairway are full 2cm thick! Today replacement tiles of that kind kost 70-110 Euro/sq m!
Hanging ceiling lights to those ceilings is a pain though. They simply nailed some reeds to the bottom of those concrete structures and plastered over. So where there's a cavity the ceiling won't hold anything, and if you hit a concrete "rib" it's rock hard. I tried to do one using a standard hammer drill... it was a pain. Should I have to do more I'll definitely use my Bosch hammer.
Here in this place you can screw into a beam, or lightweight fixtures even screw into the lathe (like for example the famous chinese rice paper balloons). Besides, there's usually a strong hook screwed into the old gas light line. Tested to hold up chandeliers that have to be carried by two strong men...
