Big Ben is not the tower. The tower is the Elizabeth Tower, renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth II on her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Big Ben is the nickname of the Great Bell inside it — the 13-tonne bell that strikes the hours. The name comes almost certainly from Sir Benjamin Hall, Commissioner of Works when the bell was installed in 1858.
The Bell’s History
The original bell cracked during testing in 1857 and had to be recast. The replacement — the current Big Ben — was installed in 1858, and promptly cracked again. The crack was left, the bell was rotated to present a different face to the hammer, and the slightly flat note it produces as a result has become one of the most recognisable sounds in the world.
The Bongs
The chimes of Big Ben — which play Westminster Quarters before each hour stroke — were adopted as the opening signal of BBC Radio 4’s news broadcasts in 1924 and have been heard around the world ever since. The clock’s pendulum is adjusted with old penny coins. One penny coin placed on the pendulum changes its speed by 0.4 seconds per day.
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