Big Ben
London’s Clock Tower is attached to the north-eastern end of the
Houses of Parliament. It’s often mistakenly referred to as Big Ben, a name which originally denotes only the main bell within the tower. The chiming clock, of which the Big Ben is apart, is the largest four-faced instrument of this kind in the world. The tower, which is actually called St Stephen’s Tower, was erected as part of the new palace and was constructed after the old Palace of Westminster heavily suffered in a fire in 1834. The architect responsible for the project was Charles Barry.
The four-faced clock was placed 55 metres above ground level. The interior mechanism was completed in 1854 by Augustus Pugin, but the entire tower needed several more years of meticulous work before it could finally be inaugurated in 1858. Each of the four iron frames of the clock are 7 metres in diameter and hold 312 pieces of opal glass, which, upon closer inspection, makes them resemble stained-glass windows. The largest bell of the clock, officially known as the Great Bell, and better known as the Big Ben, weighs over 15 tons and was cast on April 10, 1856 in Stockton-on-Tees. The source of the bell’s nickname isn’t clear; however, according to some, it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the royal commissioner of the works. Other claim that the massive bell received the nickname after the heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt, a celebrity at the time. Famous for its reliability, the Tower of Big Ben is an international symbol of London and the United Kingdom.
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