The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but

the name
was first given to the Great Bell.
The Elizabeth Tower, which stands at the north end of the Houses of Parliament, was
completed in 1859 and the Great Clock started on 31 May, with the Great Bell's strikes heard
for the first time on 11 July and the quarter bells first chimed on 7 September.

Parliament's Clock Towers

The Clock Tower you see today is not the first tower to be built in Parliament's grounds.
The original tower was built in 1288-90 during the reign of King Edward I. It was located on
the north side of New Palace Yard and contained a bell and clock. The bell, first named
'Great Edward' and later known as 'Great Tom', struck on the hour.
A second tower replaced the original in 1367. This was the first public chiming clock in
England. By 1707, this tower had fallen into disrepair and was demolished. A sundial was put
up in its place.

A terrible fire destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster in 1834. Architects were invited
to submit their designs for the new Palace and a commission was set up to select the best. Out
of 97 designs submitted, the architect Sir Charles Barry's was successful. However, his
winning design did not feature a clock tower. He added this to his design in 1836.
Construction of the Clock Tower began in September 1843. This is the iconic tower which
stands today in the Houses of Parliament.

Constructing the Elizabeth Tower

The Elizabeth Tower was built from the inside outwards, meaning that no scaffolding
was visible to the outside world. Materials were transported by river. A winch lifted
materials to the masons and bricklayers.

Materials for the Elizabeth Tower came from all over the United Kingdom:
cast iron girders from Regent's Canal Ironworks were used
Yorkshire Anston stone and Cornish granite were used on the exterior
a Birmingham foundry supplied the Elizabeth Tower's iron roofing plates
Caen stone from Normandy, France was also used on the inside of the tower.
The foundation stone for the Elizabeth Tower was laid on 28 September 1843. Its foundations
were dug 3m deep.
The construction fell five years behind schedule and the tower was finally completed in 1859.
There was no official opening ceremony for the Elizabeth Tower, possibly because its
completion had been so delayed.

Building the Great Clock

Charles Barry was a fine architect but he was not a specialist clockmaker. He sought
advice from a friend, Benjamin Lewis Vullamy, after adding a prominent clock tower to
his design for rebuilding Parliament after the 1834 fire.
Vulliamy was the Queen's Clockmaker. He began designing a clock for Barry's tower. Other
respected clockmakers, like Edward John Dent, wanted to be involved and disputes broke out.
In 1846 a competition was held to decide who should build the clock.

The Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, was appointed referee and set out high standards for
the clock to meet. These included:
the first stroke of each hour to be accurate to within one second
the clock's performance to be telegraphed twice a day to Greenwich Observatory

Seven years delay

Airy's demanding standards led to delays which lasted seven years. During this time Airy
appointed Edmund Beckett Denison to support him in his decision. Denison was a barrister
and also a gifted amateur clockmaker.

In February 1852, Dent was appointed to build the clock to Denison's own design.
The next delay occurred when it was discovered space inside the tower was too small for the
planned clock design. Modifications costing 100 had to be made.
Dent died in 1853 and his stepson, Frederick, completed the clock in 1854. It cost 2500 to
make.

There was another delay because the Clock Tower wasn't finished on schedule. Until
installation in 1859, the clock was kept at Dent's factory. Denison made many refinements
including inventing the 'Double Three-legged Gravity Escapement'. This was a revolutionary
mechanism, ensuring the clock's accuracy by making sure its pendulum was unaffected by
external factors, such as wind pressure on the clock's hands.

Denison's invention has since been used in clocks all over the world. It is also known as the
'Grimthorpe Escapement' as Denison was made Baron Grimthorpe in 1886.

The clock was installed in the Clock Tower in April 1859. At first, it wouldn't work as the
cast-iron minute hands were too heavy. Once they were replaced by lighter copper hands, it
successfully began keeping time on 31 May 1859. It was not long before the chimes of the
Great Bell, also known as Big Ben, joined in.

The Great Bell - Big Ben

Officially, the Elizabeth Tower's bell is called the Great Bell though it is better known
by the name 'Big Ben'.
There are two theories for this name's origin. These are that the Great Bell was:
named after Sir Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner for Works 1855-1858
named after Ben Caunt, a champion heavyweight boxer of the 1850s
The first theory is thought to be the most likely.

The name 'Big Ben' is often associated with the Elizabeth Tower and the Great Clock as well
as the Great Bell. It was to the Great Bell that the name originally was given.

Making the Great Bell

Warners of Norton near Stockton-on-Tees cast the new bell in August 1856. It was
transported by rail and sea to London. On arrival at the Port of London, it was placed on a
carriage and pulled across Westminster Bridge by 16 white horses.

The bell was hung in New Palace Yard. It was tested each day until 17 October 1857 when a
1.2m crack appeared. No-one would accept the blame. Theories included the composition of
the bell's metal or its dimensions. Warners blamed Denison for insisting on increasing the
hammer's weight from 355kg to 660kg.

Warners asked too high a price to break up and recast the bell so George Mears at the
Whitechapel Foundry was appointed. The second bell was cast on 10 April 1858.
This bell was 2.5 tonnes lighter than the first. Its dimensions meant it was too large to fit up
the Elizabeth Tower's shaft vertically so Big Ben was turned on its side and winched up. It
took 30 hours to winch the bell to the belfry in October 1858. The four quarter bells, which
chime on the quarter hour, were already in place.
Big Ben rang out on 11 July 1859 but its success was short-lived. In September 1859, the
new bell also cracked and Big Ben was silent for four years. During this time, the hour was
struck on the fourth quarter bell.

Fixing the Great Bell

In 1863, a solution was found to Big Ben's silence by Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal.

Big Ben was turned by a quarter turn so the hammer struck a different spot
the hammer was replaced by a lighter version
a small square was cut into the bell to prevent the crack from spreading

The total cost of making the clock and bells and installing them in the Elizabeth Tower
reached 22,000.

Apart from occasional stoppages Big Ben has struck ever since.

The Clock Dials

The ornate decoration on the Elizabeth Tower's upper floors owes much to Augustus
Welby Pugin's influence on the main architect, Sir Charles Barry. The two architects
collaborated successfully on the Palace of Westminster's neo-Gothic style which is
displayed to great effect on the clock dials.
Each dial is 7m in diameter and is made from cast iron. Each dial contains 312 separate
pieces of pot opal glass, a type of glass with an opaque finish.

The hour figure of four o'clock is shown by the Roman numeral IV, rather than IIII, as is
more commonly used on clock dials.

Under each clock dial there is a Latin inscription carved in stone: "Domine Salvam fac
Reginam nostrum Victoriam primam" which means "O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the
First."

At 9am on 11 August 2007, a team of specialist technicians abseiled down the south clock
dial, to spend the day cleaning and repairing the clock dials. This essential work takes place
once every five years.

Elizabeth Tower facts

Dimensions: over 96 metres and 12 metres square
Steps to belfry: 334
Steps to lantern (the Ayrton Light): 399

Amount of stone used: 850 cubic metres

Amount of bricks used: 2600 cubic metres

Number of floors: 11
Locations of building materials:
Anston, Yorkshire
Caen, Normandy, France
Clipsham, Rutland (for restoration work in 1983-5)

Great Clock facts

Clock dials
Number of clock dials: 4
Clock dials diameter: 7m
Length of hour figures: 60cm
Clock dial frames: cast iron
Glass in each clock dial: 312 pieces of pot opal glass
Illumination of each dial: 28 energy efficient bulbs at 85 watt each
Lifetime of each energy efficient bulb: 60,000 hours

Minute hands
Material: copper sheet
Weight: 100kg, including counterweights
Length: 4.2m
Distance travelled by minute hands per year: equivalent of 190km

Hour hands
Material: gun metal
Weight: 300kg including counterweights
Length: 2.7m
The hour figure of 4 o'clock is shown by the Roman numeral IV, rather than the usual IIII on
other clocks.

The mechanism
Clock mechanism frame material: cast iron girder frame
Clock mechanism dimensions: 4.7m long and 1.4m wide
Clock mechanism weight: 5 tonnes
Pendulum length: 4.4m
Pendulum weight: 310kg
Duration of pendulum beat: 2 seconds
Pendulum adjustment: pre-decimal pennies are used to regulate the clock mechanism. Adding
one penny causes the clock to gain two-fifths of a second in 24 hours.
'The Double Three-legged Gravity Escapement', designed by Edmund Beckett Denison,
compensates for outside pressure (like the wind) on the clock hands and is crucial for
accuracy.

The pendulum bob

Pendulum bob weight: 203kg
Material: concentric tubes of steel and zinc
The Great Bell and the quarter bells
Weight: 13.7 tonnes
Height: 2.2m
Diameter: 2.7m
Musical note when struck: E
Hammer weight: 200kg

First quarter bell weight: 1.1 tonnes

First quarter bell diameter: 1.1m
Musical note when struck: G sharp

Second quarter bell weight: 1.3 tonnes

Second quarter bell diameter: 1.2m
Musical note when struck: F sharp

Third quarter bell weight: 1.7 tonnes

Third quarter bell diameter: 1.4m
Musical note when struck: E

Fourth quarter bell weight: 4 tonnes

Fourth quarter bell diameter: 1.8m
Musical note when struck: B

The bells are fixed and struck by hammers from outside rather than swinging and being
struck from inside by clappers.