1. If the ice caps completely melted, sea levels across the world would rise by around 250ft – putting most of Big Ben under water.

2. In the 1920s, Scottish conman Arthur Ferguson sold several English icons to wealthy Americans - including Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben (which cost £1,000 for a down payment). He then moved to America, where the scam continued. Ferguson was eventually caught and jailed after trying to sell the Statue of Liberty to an Australian, who went to the police.

3. Champion heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt, who is one of the people Big Ben is believed to be named after, was born in 1815 in Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire. Also known as the "Torkard Giant", he died of pneumonia in 1861 and is buried in the parish church, St Mary Magdelene.

4. The Meccano version of Big Ben has 1,085 pieces. The original, patented in 1901 by inventor Frank Hornby, only had 15 pieces.

Big Ben's face being repaired
©TopFoto.co.uk

5. Free tours of the Clock Tower are available on request, by contacting your local MP (tours are not available to overseas visitors). The climb is not for the faint-hearted - there's no lift, just 334 spiral stone steps!

6. The Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris has a large clock tower on top of one corner which is very similar in style to Big Ben.

7. At Legoland Windsor, in Berkshire, a Lego-block Big Ben nestles among other world-famous landmarks in a section called Miniland, which took 100 model makers three years to build!

8. There are several small rooms in the lower part of the tower, including a prison cell.

9. A mini-me version of Big Ben is located in front of London's Victoria station.

10. At the bottom of each of Big Ben's four clock faces is the Latin inscription, in gilt letters: "Domine salvam fac reginam nostram Victoriam primam" - "Lord save our Queen Victoria I".