Why Big Ben?

Today, if you ask someone about what image comes to his/her mind when you pronounce the word `London´ automatically 99 per cent will say Big Ben.

The title Big Ben is commonly used for the clock-tower placed at the north-west corner of the Houses of Parliament, but that is a bit inexact because the name belongs solely to the big bell inside the tower.

Two possibilities are taken into account about the name `Ben´. Some say it's in its first builder honour, Mr.Benjamin Hall. Others claim that was in Ben Caunt's honour, a very famous boxer at that time.

The present tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of 16 October 1834. The new Parliament was built in a Neo-gothic style. 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 the Clock Tower was Pugin's last design before his final descent into madness and death, and Pugin himself wrote, at the time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings: "I never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful." The tower is designed in Pugin's celebrated Gothic Revival style, and is 96.3 metres high.

There are six shields above each of the four clock faces, twenty-four in total, all depicting the arms of St George, representing the Flag of England, London as the Capital City of England, and St. George as the Patron Saint of England. This symbolism is also repeated in the Central Lobby of the Houses of Parliament, directly opposite the House of Commons, in an enormous mosaic created by Sir Edward John Poynter in 1869, depicting St George and the Dragon with these arms, entitled “St George for England.”

The bottom 61 metres of the Clock Tower's structure consists of brickwork with sand coloured Anston limestone cladding. The remainder of the tower's height is a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 15-metre square raft, made of 3-metre thick concrete, at a depth of 4 metres below ground level. The four clock dials are 55 metres above ground. The interior volume of the tower is 4,650 cubic metres.

Despite being one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, the interior of the tower is not open to overseas visitors, though United Kingdom residents are able to arrange tours (well in advance) through their Member of Parliament.However, the tower has no elevator, so those escorted must climb the 334 limestone stairs to the top.

Because of changes in ground conditions since construction (notably tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension), the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 millimetres at the clock dials, giving an inclination of approximately 1/250. Due to thermal effects it oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west.