Big Ben

The Elisabeth Tower has it's name since 2012. Before that, the tower was known as The Clock Tower. In honor of Queen Elisabeth, on the occasion of her Diamond (60th) Jubilee, it was renamed.

It is said that the melody played on the bells is a variation of the four notes from bars 5 and 6 of the aria 'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth' from the oratorio Messiah by Georg Friedrich Händel. With Messiah, Händel set the Christian creed to music in the summer of 1741.

Big Ben always rings! For the British, it was very unusual to not her its meldony in the last few years due to the restoration of the tower. Usually, the bells only remain silent when a funeral of famous personalities take place (such as those of Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher).

To this day it is not entirely clear why the bell itself is called Big Ben. Officially, the bell is only called Great Bell. The consensus is that the bell got its nickname from Sir Benjamin Hall, whose name is engraved on the bell, and who coordinated the installation of the bell. According to a modern legend, however, the bell was named after Benjamin Caunt, a 19th-century boxer. He, too, bore the nickname Big Ben, after becoming the heavyweight champion of England in 1841.

Big Ben is the second large bell, as the first one broke during the dress rehearsal. Even Big Ben itself has a crack, which occurred upon commissioning. The bell was then rotated, and the weight of the striking hammer was reduced.

‘Domine salvam fac reginam nostram Victoriam primam’ is the Latin inscription under each of the four clock faces. This translates to: ‘God save our Queen Victoria the First’.

The fine-tuning of the pendulum is done by penny coins. Throughout its history, it has often happened that the clock does not show the correct time. Due to very low temperatures, the mechanics froze on New Year's Eve 1962, causing the year to be rung in 10 minutes after midnight. In 1949, too many starlings sat on the hands, causing almost a 5-minute delay.

Big Ben is a celebrity. The tower appears in almost every movie or series setting that takes place in London. From Doctor Who to the Simpsons, V for Vendetta, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, and many more, the Elizabeth Tower is an icon and stands representative for the city of London. The tower is also the focal point of the New Year's celebrations in London, when the bell strikes of Big Ben at midnight are broadcast worldwide amidst fireworks.

The bell in the clock tower first rang on July 11, 1859.

Big Ben weighs 13.5 tons.

The diameter of the clock is 7m (23ft). The minute hands are 4.3m (14ft) long and the hour hands are 2.74m (9ft). The pendulum is 3.9m (12.8ft) long and has a total weight of 299kg.

The Elisabeth Tower is 96.3m (315.9ft) tall. The first 61m (200ft) are made of bricks with a limestone facade, and the rest, the top, is made of cast iron.

The tower is leaning. It has an overhang of 46cm (1.5ft), resulting in a lean of 0.26°. That is not nearly as much as the Tower of Pisa. It leans at 3.97°, resulting in an overhang of 3.9m (12.8ft).