How the ‘lift’ elevated upper stories

From the London Review of Books, on the elevator: "During the final decade of the 19th century, the best rooms in the largest buildings 'migrated' from low to high in a decisive reversal of 'hierarchic order.' … In Europe's grand hotels, the worst rooms had traditionally been at the top, since only poor people and hotel staff could be expected to climb all those flights of stairs. Lifts, however, 'freed the upper storeys from the stigma of inaccessibility and lent them an unheard-of glamour.'"