Big Ben viewed from Westminster Bridge
©TopFoto.co.uk/Charles Walker
Big Ben is the name of the bell inside St Stephen's clock tower attached to the Houses of Parliament, and is as famous for its sound as for the clock faces that surround it.
As well as providing the opening sequence for the old ITV News At Ten, the chime of Big Ben is also the sound that ushers in each New Year, broadcast on TV and radio across the world.
The clock is famous for its reliability, telling the time to within one second’s accuracy, but extreme weather conditions can affect the mechanism. In 1962, for example, the New Year was ten minutes late owing to heavy snow!
Biography
Find out about the building of the tower that houses Big Ben, and the adventures of the bell itself. We re-create the Old Palace of Westminster that stood on the site before the fire of 1834
Features
As well as giving a (very) brief history of time, we look at how the bell was cast and speculate about how it got its name. And we learn how it manages to stay so reliable
