39 years (March 2, 1982)

Paris Eiffel Tower Bell Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

213 miles

To make the bell chime, the copper and tin bell is struck by a hammer weighing 200kg. The bell, weighing 13.7 tonnes itself, makes the musical note “E” when struck. Four smaller bells in the tower: play G sharp, F sharp, E and B, which together play a tune known as the Westminster chimes.

How long will Big Ben be silent for? Big Ben’s striking mechanism was locked on Monday, August 21 – with a crowd of 1,000 gathering to hear the last bongs at noon. The renovation work is expected to last for four years, meaning the there will be no regular bongs until 2021.

Big Ben is accurate to within two seconds per week. The pendulum is adjusted by adding pennies made before the decimalization of the United Kingdom’s currency in 1971 to the weight. Each penny causes Big Ben to gain 0.4 second per day.

On April 30, 1997, at exactly 12:11 pm, London’s iconic Big Ben clock stops ticking. The bells stopped ringing again during World War I, and the tower was not illuminated at night for the duration of World War II, when most of London was kept dark to make German bombing raids more difficult.

At the time of the Blitz, the Germans, like every air power, did not have the ability to specifically target key buildings through high altitude bombing raids, which were themselves necessary to hit valuable targets in order to avoid intense anti-aircraft fire.

Completed in 1856, the tower was designed by architects Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin and took 13 years to build. Its construction required 2600 cubic metres of brick and 850 cubic metres of stone. It began telling time on May 31, 1859. Big Ben chimed for the first time on July 11, 1859.

Big Ben will bong again from early next year as the restoration of Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower nears completion. The famous bell has been largely silent since 2017 due to repairs on the clock and Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower which houses it, only being reconnected for significant occasions.

the Elizabeth Tower

Technically, Big Ben is the name given to the massive bell inside the clock tower, which weighs more than 13 tons (13,760 kg). The clock tower looks spectacular at night when the four clock faces are illuminated.

The clock tower widely known as Big Ben is to be renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of the Queen, the House of Commons has confirmed. The House of Commons authorities have now agreed the change.

Big Ben is named after Benjamin Banneker. A black mathematician and astronomer. Inventor of the wooden clock.

List of largest clock faces

6. Only residents of the United Kingdom are allowed inside the tower. Though Big Ben ranks as one of England’s most popular tourist attractions, overseas visitors are not allowed to venture inside the tower.

‘Big Ben’ in it’s scaffolding-free days. In 2012, the tower commonly called Big Ben was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of the Queen. Big Ben is the name of the largest bell (of five), and is itself only a nickname for the Great Bell of Westminster. …

2.2 metres

What is Big Ben made of? Materials to produce the Elizabeth Tower came from all over the United Kingdom, with cast iron girders from Regent’s Canal Ironworks being used. Yorkshire Anston stone and Cornish granite were used on the exterior and a Birmingham foundry supplied the Elizabeth Tower’s iron roofing plates.

Augustus Pugin

The name Big Ben originally referred to just the bell but now it encompasses the clock, the tower and the bell. Big Ben chimes on the hour and has quarter bells that chime every fifteen minutes.

High above the Palace of Westminster, the Elizabeth Tower stands constant vigil over the British Houses of Parliament. Atop the massive and famous clock tower sits an even more famous and equally massive landmark, the giant bell Big Ben.

In fact, the builders took careful steps to ensure Big Ben’s stability. No building is ever completely still: they expand, contract and sway in response to the sun and wind, and they tilt and move when the ground underneath them shifts.