Petitcalator: The World’s Shortest Escalator

Why is it like this?

The arrangement began with a practical problem. In 1989, Kawasaki More’s was being connected to the neighbouring Kawasaki Azalea underground shopping area. The passage met the building between basement floors, leaving a height difference to negotiate.

The plan was a down escalator. The building then raised an objection.

During construction, a thick structural beam was found beneath the floor. The planned escalator would not fit.

Abandoning it altogether was considered. Instead, the escalator was fitted into the space available, with ordinary stairs handling the rest. It also goes up.

The stairs and the escalator divided the work. The stairs received considerably less recognition.

Shortening the journey does not remove the need for moving handrails, circulating steps or safety equipment. All of that machinery, for a rise of less than a metre.

A structural beam had accidentally produced a world record.

The escalator appeared in the 1991 Guinness Book of Records. It also acquired a name through a public competition: Petitcalator, combining petit and escalator. A compromise between two shopping areas had become something people came specifically to see.