These are the chapter house stairs in Wells Cathedral. Someday I’d love to do a supercut of every time these show up on screen. Apparently a lot of filmmakers think they’re perfect for their hero to race up or down while escaping the castle, or to have a swordfight on. They’ve appeared in every other Robin Hood movie or TV series, and anything else where they want a medieval castle feel and some derring-do.

I first noticed them in 1984, when Robin of Sherwood ran up them, took a sharp right through a doorway, and met Maid Marion for the first time. I saw them most recently in Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves - and sat up and went “Aww!”, because they might be 700 years old, but they’re also old friends by this point.

Also noting, from visible wear, that “Walk On The Left, Stand On The Right“ etiquette predates escalators by quite a bit…

Oh I had SUCH a dad-tier moment watching that movie too! because for a NANOSECOND they were in a place with an arch flanked by circles and mirrored by an upside down arch

And I had to leap across the couch like

A) a New York dad who CANNOT stop themselves from saying FLATIRON BUILDING

B) a London dad who suddenly announces with a strange, deep grievance in the middle of a chase scene that THOSE STREETS DONT CONNECT TO EACH OTHER,

I hooted with it. THATS IN SOMERSET. Wells cathedral SPOTTED. GET WRECKED. IVE BEEN THERE.

I can see why dads do it. Exhilarating