Big Ben

Big Ben is one of the world’s largest four faced chiming clocks. It is one of London's best-known landmarks and looks most spectacular at night when the clock faces are illuminated. The tower was part of Charles Barry's design for the new Palace of Westminster, after the old one was destroyed by fire in 1834. Although Barry was the chief architect of the palace, he turned to Augustus Pugin for the design of the clock tower, which resembles earlier Pugin designs, including one for Scarisbrick Hall. The design for Big Ben was, in fact, Pugin's last design before his final descent into madness and death.

The clock is famous for its accuracy and reliability, due to the skill of its design. The saying “put a penny on”, meaning slow down, came from the method of fine-tuning the clock's pendulum. The pendulum carries a small stack of old penny coins, adding or subtracting coins has the effect of minutely altering the rate at which the pendulum swings. A single penny will change the clock's speed by 2/5th of a second per day.

Despite heavy bombing the clock ran accurately throughout the Blitz of the Second World War. It slowed down on New Year's Eve 1962 due to heavy snow, causing it to chime in the New Year 10 minutes late. The clock had its first and only major breakdown in 1976. The chiming mechanism broke due to metal fatigue on 5th August of that year, and was repaired by the 9th May 1977. On Friday, 27th May 2005, the clock stopped ticking at 10.07 pm, due to hot weather, as temperatures in London had reached 31.8 °C or 90 °F. It resumed keeping time, but stalled again at 10.20 pm and remained still for about 90 minutes before starting up again.

Big Ben fron the Eye by Misterweiss

At the base of each clock face in gilt letters is the Latin inscription: "DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM", which means “O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First”