I’ve no idea who first came up with the idea of a spiral staircase. It may have been the architect who was asked to provide access to the top of the Trajan’s Column, but without spoiling the carvings on the outside.

Anyway, it’s the cleverest of creations, getting you successfully up and down, yet taking up the minimum of lateral space. Birmingham’s Back to Backs, for one, would look very different indeed with a grand sweeping staircase and marble balustrade.

And the mysterious spiral has provided the plot-line for many a film, and the title for a couple.

I’ve had a spiralling week in Birmingham. First there was a visit to the Drop Forge in the Jewellery Quarter, a highly imaginative conversion of a former factory into a bar and restaurant. I know these are two-a-penny in the Quarter, but the Drop Forge in Hockley Street is better than most, and it’s a cast-iron spiral stair that connects the three floors. If you’ve had a few beers, best to stay downstairs.

Next I happened to visit the Bournville Carillon with a film crew, who wanted a bird’s-eye view of Birmingham’s greenest suburb. The tower that houses the musical bells is part of Bournville Junior School, and the (conventional) stairs have a instructive chronology of world history on the walls.

At the top of these is the spiral staircase, so tight that you might suspect it was designed for the youngsters in the playground below. A marked contrast with the expansiveness of the vista once you have squeezed yourself free at the top.

Two fine helixes, then. Both of them decorative, economical and quirky. All of which only makes me hope that a loving home can be found for the most decorative of the lot – the spiral staircase that connected the sixth and seventh floors of the Central Library, itself a legacy of the Victorian library it replaced.

It could find a spot, perhaps, in the middle of a Birmingham roundabout, or as a training device at a gym. Or if there’s no public call for it, then the stairs could play its part in some pretentious loft conversion.

King Kong would look pretty good on top of it too.

* Dr Chris Upton is attempting to create a mezzanine in his office at Newman University Birmingham