Big Ben

BIG BEN

One can never see Big Ben, one can only ever hear it. Big Ben is the name of the bell inside the clock tower at the northerly end of The Palace Of Westminster. The entire tower is commonly referred to as Big Ben and it is an iconic symbol of London recognizable the world over. Visitors to London often assume Big Ben to be considerably older than it is. At the other end of the Palace Of Westminster stands the immense Victoria Tower and the Houses Of Parliament and the Westminster Hall lie between the two. 

The previous Palace Of Westminster burned down in 1834 and it was rebuilt in the 1840's and 1850's by Sir Charles Barry in the mock Gothic style that was fashionable in part of the Victorian era. Big Ben itself was built between 1854 and 1859 by Augustus Pugin, a masterful champion of medieval shapes, to whom Sir Charles Barry entrusted the project. When Pugin had watched the fire at the Palace Of Westminster in 1834 he uttered, “There is nothing much to regret and a great deal to rejoice in.” Little did he realise that he himself would play such a significant role in its rebuilding. Pugin was a great genius who ended up as an inmate of Bedlam lunatic asylum. Ironically, he despised beer and tobacco, both of which are copiously imbibed inside the Palace Of Westminster. 

There are two schools of thought regarding the origins of the name Big Ben. The first is from Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the chief engineer of the project, who oversaw the positioning of the bell. Others suggest that it was from the workers in the foundry where the bell was cast who coined the name. They were said to be supporters of Benjamin Caunt, who was a popular prize fighter of the day, either way, the name quickly took on.

Big Ben weighs thirteen and a half Imperial tons. Big Ben is the world’s third tallest clock tower and has the world’s largest four faced chiming clock. The clock face has a diameter of seven metres. The minute hand is over two and a half metres long. The pendulum beats once every two seconds. Big Ben is still wound by hand and it takes two men thirty-two hours to wind the mechanism.

At the turn of the millennium, Big Ben started to lean, by a significant twenty-two millimetres, after new tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension of the London Underground railway was completed. The only major breakdown suffered by Big Ben was in August of 1976, during what is recorded as the hottest summer on record in the United Kingdom, when the original speed regulator finally gave in. Again, during extremely hot weather in 2005, the rare occurrence of failing parts stopped the clock. Big Ben works fine in the cold, although on New Year’s Eve of 1962, settled snow on the hands meant that the chimes saw in the new year a full ten minutes late.

During the Second World War, the clock faces were darkened at night to prevent the possibility of guiding Blitz pilots towards The Palace Of Westminster. In the same war, the chimes of Big Ben were nightly broadcast out to the four compass points of the world at nine o’ clock. It naturally became a symbol to countless millions of people in occupied countries that there was still hope of deliverance. The clock is accurate to within a second and it is checked against Greenwich meantime on a daily basis. With such accuracy, its chimes continue to be broadcast on the World Service and other radio and television stations, usually to mark the start of news bulletins. Should you live one mile away from Big Ben, the sound of the chimes take four a half seconds to reach your ears, which is a fraction longer than hearing them on the radio news bulletin, meaning listeners have the peculiarity of hearing thirteen chimes.

Big Ben has a distinctively odd sounding twang because the bell is cracked. The first bell was badly broken when it fell during positioning.  A second bell was cast and it was soon cracked when a hammer of twice the recommended weight was used to strike it. Rather than suffer the expenditure of casting a third bell, it was instead repaired and the striking position was altered, leading to its curious sound.

If looking up at Big Ben in darkness, check to see whether the signal light in the lantern towards the very top is lit.  Whenever the House Of Commons is sitting at night, this distinctive light, known as The  Ayrton Light, burns bright. As we see, Big Ben does far more than to simply show the time. Its worldwide familiarity is testament to Pugin’s mastery and the Palace Of Westminster’s historical importance. Splendid views of Big Ben are to be had from Westminster Bridge, Parliament Square and from The London Eye on the South Bank. Frequent Thames river tours take passengers directly past Big Ben. The nearest tube station (London Underground) is Westminster. 

Where to view video clips of Big Ben  and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Big Ben’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.