Paternoster lift at Essex university is TikTok hit

A university's Paternoster lift has become a surprise hit online.

The lift, which is made up of 14 individual compartments and runs on a continuous loop, was installed at the University of Essex in 1967.

One of the videos posted on the university's TikTok page, featuring the lift, has more than 2.3 million views.

Jonathan White, director of library and cultural services at the university, said it was one of only three left in service in the UK.

"To see videos of the lift go viral on TikTok is fantastic and shows how genuinely intrigued and fascinated people from across the world are by it," said Mr White.

Several videos demonstrating the lift posted on the university's TikTok account have been watched hundreds of thousands of times

What is a Paternoster lift?

• Invented in the 1860s by Peter Ellis, an architect from Liverpool

• Uses open compartments on a continuously moving loop, one side going up, the other down

• Name comes from system's resemblance to rosary prayer beads and Latin for Our Father, which begins the Lord's Prayer

• One other surviving UK example includes a design at the University of Sheffield Arts Tower

• The third can be found at Northwick Park Hospital in London

The machine in the Albert Sloman Library, at the campus in Colchester, was out of action for several years but underwent a major renovation - installing a new traffic light system to improve safety - in 2020-21.

The university said the lift had featured in the backdrop of a wedding photoshoot.

The Paternoster lift at the University of Leicester's Attenborough Tower closed in 2017 - despite a petition to save it - because officials said it became too expensive to maintain.