| Better known for the Big Ben - it was the name of England's biggest and heaviest bell - the Clock Tower forms a part of the House of Parliament in England. It is London's landmark and England's icon. The bell weighs 13.5 tons and is situated inside The Clock Tower, which itself is 320ft tall. The bell - named after Sir Benjamin Hall - was built in 1859-9. The clock's four dials each have a diameter of 23ft, the minute hands are 14ft long and the numerals on each face are nearly 2 feet high. |
The four clock faces are 180 feet above ground. The Big Ben in the Clock Tower is kept accurate by controlling its mechanism by the placing of old pennies in it. There is a light at the top of the tower which, when lit, indicates that the House of Commons is sitting. The Clock Tower is also known by many names like St Stephen's Tower. However, the instruction of the Head of Public Information at the Palace is to call it The Clock Tower.
The tower is at the north-eastern end of the palace, near Westminster Bridge and, contains the striking clock and bell and also four quarter-hour bells. The tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design of a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was consumed by a devastating fire on October 16, 1834. |
The Clock Tower is of the Victorian Gothic design. The first 200 feet of the structure is the clock tower, consisting of brickwork with stone cladding; the remainder of the tower's height is a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 49 by 49 feet raft, made of 9 feet thick concrete, at a depth of 23 feet below ground level. The tower has an estimated weight of 9,553.7 tons. The tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 millimeters and thermal effects causes it oscillates by a few millimeters east and west annually.
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Augustus Pugin designed the clock faces and dials of the Big Ben in the Clock Tower. The clock faces are set in a 23 ft diameter iron framework which supports 312 pieces of opal glass. Some of the glass pieces may be removed for inspection of the hands. The dials are surrounded by heavy gilding. At the base of each clock face in gilt letters is the Latin inscription 'Domine Salvam Fac Reginam Nostran Victorian Primam' meaning 'Lord save our Queen Victoria I'. The clock became operational on September 1, 1859.During World War II, German bombing hit the Palace of Westminster and damaged the clock's western face.
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