They started building the tower in 1843 and finished in 1859, making the tower more than 160 years old. Download Schematic Mp4SvK Level 29 : Expert Architect 11 Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and is usually extended to refer to the clock and the clock tower. 6 December 2016 Big Ben is the nickname given to the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London. The Palace of Westminster was destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1834 and parliament decided that they would build a new clock tower as part of the restoration works. With four clockfaces on the tower, that’s a staggering 1,292 individual pieces of glass in total! #3 – Big Ben was built 164 years ago

#2 – The clock face is made from hundreds of individual pieces of glassĮvery clock face is intricately made up of 324 pieces of pot opal glass, all held together with a cast iron frame. The tower itself was previously known as ‘The Clock Tower’, but in 2012 it was renamed Elizabeth Tower to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. Although most people know this iconic landmark as Big Ben, this is actually the name of the bell in the tower – which weighs a whopping 13.7 tonnes! There are a lot of theories about where this name came from one of them being that the bell was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Chief Commissioner of Works, who was affectionately known as ‘Big Ben’.

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