‘The only way is up' wrote Johnny Henderson and George Jackson. I wondered if they'd stood at the foot of the Key West Lighthouse and pondered the climb. It's not that tall, 73 ft (22m) officially, and the spiral staircase has only 88 steps. But it's iron, and it wobbles. Of course, once you're at the top, the only way is down. I was taught at a young age that when climbing you should stick to the inside when passing someone coming down at the same time. Your toehold on the climb is more secure than placing your heel on the narrowest part of the step as you descend. Of course, most people don't encounter spiral staircases in their everyday lives so the thought just doesn't occur to them. If you're a spiral staircase aficionado, you'll recognize that this one spirals anti-clockwise as you climb. Either it was commissioned by a ‘leftie' else the keeper didn't foresee a need to defend the light from marauding knights. As for Henderson and Jackson, Otis Clay recorded their song in 1980 but they had to wait till 1998 for Yazz and the Plastic Population to take it to the top of the UK charts.
The Only Way Is Up, the staircase inside the Key West Lighthouse, Florida.
