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Rip it in half lenghtways and rejoin it once up. It's laminated strips anyway, cut down one of the seams. I imagine it's going to be on a frame so strength shouldn't be an issue. Could always use dowels/biscuits in the join.
stevo_com-
This was my original plan (though it involved buying smaller/cheaper pieces of 'something' and assembling rather than spending a chunk plus delivery on this). Seems a shame to cut it if there's a way of avoiding. It's going to be a desk (just so I can lord it over @Soul ) that I'm going to be looking at a lot in the coming months so would be nice not to be irked every time I stood over it.
I have one of these: https://www.toolstation.com/dewalt-dcs391n-xj-18v-xr-165mm-cordless-circular-saw/ which says it can do 55mm but I'd be surprised if I can make a tidy job of it.
CYOA
So the second photo should show the beam in front of the hatch as you come up - I've just spent 10 minutes tugging at it and it seems very solid.
On the opposite wall at the same height is the last photo (with the window) but the beam isn't visible - whoever started converting the loft before the previous owners didn't finish but they started there. I could, I suppose, saw out a section of the plasterboard.
Is it sane to string some kind of rope/ratchet/pulley up there that wouldn't pull the beams together / break them?
The beam isn't higher than 2 metres so once it gets to the max height (less the distance of any pulley) the worktop is going to need to be pushed / pulled up manually (perhaps with the strap-underneath solution mentioned earlier).
Tempted to just book a bloody dormer conversion in and get someone else to do this.