The Clock Tower is usually open for tours, but it has been closed since 2016 due to renovations. When it is in session, the Ayrton Light on top of the tower is lit up.ĩ. In the literal sense, the faces of the clocks are lit by 28 85-watt bulbs that are so energy efficient, they can last up to 60,000 hours – that translates to 2,500 days or almost 7 years! How lit is that?! (Get it?) The lights also tell us something about the UK Houses of Parliament. In 1941, a bomb from a German aircraft hit the top of the tower, resulting in exterior damages.īig Ben is lit both in the literal sense and the millennial meaning of the word.During World War II, the Clock Tower dials remained unlit due to wartime blackout rules in the City of London.The bells toll at the 11th hour of November 11 (Remembrance Day) each year to commemorate the end of the First World War, thanks to the Armistice that took effect in 1918.Aside from monarchs, here are other historical facts about Big Ben: As a tribute to the first monarch that it has lived through, all of the clock’s faces are inscribed with “Oh Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First” in Latin. Big Ben has seen quite a bit of history.īig Ben has stood tall through the reigns of six monarchs: Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II. Aside from numerous appearances in films, Big Ben is also very popular among tourists and in fact one of the most popular tourist attraction in the United Kingdom.ħ. It also appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), 28 Days Later (2003), V for Vendetta (2006), Like Crazy (2011), Spectre (2015), and London Has Fallen (2016). The earliest movie to have recorded the clock tower was Stage Fright in 1950. You can see the famous London landmark in seventeen Disney films including Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, The Parent Trap, A Christmas Carol, and most recently Mary Poppins Returns. One of the most interesting facts about Big Ben is how often it is featured in films. Photo Credit: © Colin via Wikimedia Commons. Although that wasn’t the longest time that the clock tower did not chime in 1976, the bell was repaired for nine long months.Ĭlose up of the dials of Clock Tower aka Big Ben in London. However, just two months later, the bell cracked and the clock tower was silent for four years afterwards while the bell was being repaired. On July 11, 1859, Big Ben chimed for the first time. Big Ben chimed for the first time 160 years ago. This practice is where the British idiom “putting a penny on” came from.ĥ. On the other hand, if the clocks happen to run slow, an English penny is taken away from the pendulum. If the clocks happen to run fast, an English penny is added to the pendulums. He was a lawyer who, interestingly, did not patent his design, so any clockmaker is free to use it.Įach clock has a pendulum that swings back and forth to control the movement of the hands. As you already know, he wasn’t a clockmaker. But Edmund Beckett Denison changed Dent’s design so much that he became known as the chief designer. Big Ben wasn’t designed by a clockmaker.Įdward Dent, a clockmaker, created the initial design of the clockwork. The face of each clock is made of 312 sections of opal glass and requires cleaning every 5 years.ģ. The tower required more than 3,000 cubic feet of stone and almost 92,000 cubic feet of bricks to construct. The hour hand is 9.2 feet long while the minute hand is 14 feet long. Meanwhile, there are four clocks on the tower, one on each side of it. Here are a few other facts about Big Ben that will tickle your mind: The bell weighs 13.7 tons, which is about twice the weight of a T-Rex! Its diameter is at 8.9 feet, while the hammer inside the bell weighs 441 pounds. His name is inscribed upon the bell when it was casted in 1858, thus the nickname Big Ben. He was the first commissioner of Public Works in London who was in charge of the construction of the Houses of Parliament, the building to which the tower is attached to. So where did “Big Ben” come from? Well, it is a nickname given to the bell and it came from Sir Benjamin Hall’s name. Oddly enough, the bell’s real name isn’t “Big Ben” either it’s called the Great Bell. So what people actually refer to when they say “Big Ben” is the bell inside the tower. But in 2012, the landmark was renamed the Elizabeth Tower to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. For hundreds of years, it used to be called, simply, the Clock Tower. That’s right – this famous London landmark isn’t officially named Big Ben. Big Ben isn’t actually the official name of the famous landmark. Photo Credit: © Colin via Wikimedia Commons.ġ. London skyline with Big Ben and environs, including the London Eye, Portcullis House, Parliament Square, and St Margaret’s Church.
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