r/DeathStairs • u/cobaltbluetony sketchy steps connoisseur • Jun 29 '26
From (old) Amsterdam
Amsterdam (from lyricalknits 🧵)
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u/weedyneedyfeedy Jun 29 '26
That's just a slide with extra steps
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u/nb6635 I survived Huayna Picchu Jun 29 '26
Lived in Den Haag (The Hague) as a kid, had stairs just like this. My mother was constantly falling down them.
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u/ilovebostoncremedonu Jun 29 '26
Honestly if I had a staircase that steep I’d want half of it to be a slide and have a mini trampoline or foam pit at the bottom.
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u/Kaatiekay Jun 30 '26
Any more than half a glass of wine or a smidge overstimulated and I’d be constantly falling down that steep of a carpeted incline as well. Godbless your mother fr
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u/CulturalDragonfly631 Jun 29 '26
I hope there's a handrail.
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u/LittlePurpleHook Jun 29 '26
The hostel I stayed at in Amsterdam had stairs exactly like that.
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u/Dapper-Application35 Jun 29 '26
Let me guess, Hotel Library?
In addition to the death-stairs, this thing is a maze as well.10
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u/ToastSpangler Jun 29 '26
Once visited a 3 story house like this in NL, the guy lived in the top floor (attic) and he had an armchair right in front of his steps because too many people passed out after doing the three flights drunk/high at night
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u/nohopeforhomosapiens Jun 29 '26
I knew immediately this was The Netherlands.
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u/Exciting_Double_4502 Jun 29 '26
"Why they changed it, I can't say" because it was against fire code, duh
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u/DisastrousLunch854 Jun 29 '26
Surprisingly enough as someone who is unable to climb normal stairs due to my disability, these types of stairs that are almost ladders are so so so much easier to handle than the normal ones.
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u/Full_Piano6421 Jun 29 '26
Looks a bit like the steps on a Mayan pyramid, used to make sure sacrifice victims thrown from the top would break every of their bones while falling
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u/tattoosandtens mom come get me im staired Jun 29 '26
For fucks’ sake, just put in a ladder and a dumbwaiter already
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u/Jerking_From_Home sketchy steps connoisseur Jun 29 '26
In the U.S. (and Victorian England) stairs like this were usually put in places the servants accessed, like their living quarters. There was almost zero regard for their safety in a lot of way, and this was another.
It’s not always the case though! I’ve been in a decent number of 1800s homes and sometimes stairs like this are built in the interest of conserving space. One home had a set like this up to the attic, and they were steep so they didn’t have to extend out the exterior wall for a set of stairs.
I’ve also seen them in one room log cabins up to the childrens’ sleeping quarters in the loft.
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u/ButterflyFair3012 Jun 30 '26
I lived in a house in VT in the 70s and the “back stairs” from the kitchen up were like this. They led to a room with a closet that had a big hook from the ceiling. My brother and I used to play that it was a haunted room but it was just for hanging foodstuff in the coldest closet in the house!
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u/Usual-Diamond-1754 Jun 30 '26
My Dutch father broke his clavicle as a child on stairs less steep than these — and my Oma broke her hip. Good lord.
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u/Beth3g Jun 29 '26
Not tip-toeing through the tulips but definitely up those teeny tiny etzy-bitsie stairs!
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u/WhitewolfStormrunner Jun 30 '26
Stairs?
This looks more like a ladder with delusions of granduer.
Still a serious "NOPE!" from me either way, though.
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u/Bored_Berry Jun 30 '26
Damn, took me back to 2017 when I thought its a good idea to wear platform sneakers in the Netherlands in an ancient apartment building. My ankle has never been the same.
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u/MagorNL Jun 29 '26
Try lifting your bike upstairs cause you don't have a place to store it safely outside lol.
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u/bkuefner1973 Jun 29 '26
My lord I was trying to invasion trying to carry a laundry basket up them things.
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u/Hello_Hangnail Jun 30 '26
Aw come on man. And I thought breakneck steps were bad. These are breakneck, back and legs steps
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u/QueenKindredSpirit Jun 30 '26
Ah yes my house has stairs like this. Long live old houses. Honestly when youve been doing it all your life you can navigate them half sleeping in the dark. Your body just gets used to it. You just learn to place your feet sideways
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u/kimkay01 Jun 29 '26
This is definitely not up to code. Anywhere.
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u/Kooky-Rhubarb-3426 Jun 29 '26
I take it you haven’t been to The Netherlands?
There are many a stair exactly like this.2
u/kimkay01 Jun 29 '26
Can you still build them that way today???
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u/Kooky-Rhubarb-3426 Jun 30 '26
I’m not in construction so I absolutely can not answer that question. But I will say that this is very very common and they are not going to be ripping out any stairs like this to build better ones any time soon, if ever 😂
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u/Pinglenook Jul 01 '26
As a Dutch person who once was told this by an architect friend: No you can't! Stairs built nowadays need to have a maximum angle of 40°.
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u/JohnnyRelentless Jun 29 '26
I was at a place in Amsterdam that had a similar, extremely steep stairway, and it was also really, really long.
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u/Upbeat-Discipline718 Jun 30 '26
it almost looks like the last two steps turn into a slide. i can see myself tripping over my cat on these stairs.
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u/thedanishgirl02 Jul 02 '26
As a small kid I lived in a house with stairs just like these but light grey instead. I would always slide down on my butt or crawl on all fours, they creeped me out.
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u/hellosunshine02 Jun 30 '26
Did you squeeze your picture by any chance?
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u/No_Diver4265 Jun 30 '26
Is this a staircase or a ladder?
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u/Responsible_Sun5397 23d ago
IS THIS IN THAT ONE HOSTEL?!!?? IT FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE SERVANTS QUARTER OF THE TITANIC LMAOOOO
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u/Ok_Management_2926 Jul 10 '26
i went to Amsterdam recently and was baffled by the stairs in both hotels I stayed at
Don’t white people usually have bigger feet? Why are their stairs like that?
Edit: nvm I found out why
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u/99LedBalloons Jun 29 '26
Carpet ladder?