*Answer: NEVER!
Big Ben. Ho-hum.
Been there, done that, counted the bongs.
It’s like when Hey Jude by The Beatles comes on the radio – it’s so much a part of the aural furniture that many of us hardly even pay attention any more.
Big Ben? Big Cliché, More Like!
Yet Hey Jude is still a great song. More than great. Maybe you could make it a New Year resolution to listen to it more closely next time it comes up on shuffle or on the radio.
Similarly, Big Ben is a really great clock. A fantastic clock. In fact, let’s not mess about – especially at this time of year – it’s the finest clock on God’s green earth.
There. I’ve said it. I’ve got a bit of a thing about Big Ben. In many ways it’s not just A London Thing… it’s THE London Thing.
AND… it’s just been uncovered for the first time in nearly five years following extensive renovation and repairs to the tower.
As great as it is to see the famous clock faces back again after all this time, isn’t Big Ben still the London cliché to end all London clichés?
Absolutely.
The Chimes At Midnight
If a filmmaker wants to establish that we are in The Big Smoke, s/he can do so with one frame of Big Ben. My own personal New Year’s Resolution is to stop using the clapped out epithet “iconic” – but given as how it’s still 2021 as I type, here’s one last turn around Parliament Square for the tired old warhorse: it’s a London icon.
But it’s the sound of the bell, rather than the look of the thing that truly floats my boat.
For a year or so, many years ago, I lived in Pimlico. And in the dead of night, with the wind blowing in the right direction, I could hear Big Ben chime the hours. The sound made every dark night of the soul just that little bit lighter.
To this day I find it reassuring: I know I am home. Home in London.
During the renovations the chimes of Big Ben fell silent.
But at six o’clock on BBC Radio 4 the music of Big Ben heralds the news. To me, it is a familiar and kindly old friend preparing me gently for the tales of pandemic, war and fiscal calamity to come.
When my daughter was little, and if I wasn’t in the room when the bell chimes came over the airwaves, she would call for me so that I didn’t miss it.
Just this very evening, as I typed this piece at the computer, my wife turned up the volume on the kitchen radio so I could hear it at the other end of the house. It was a lovely New Year gift: exactly what I wanted.
I’m posting this on the evening of the 31st December 2021. The last minute of the old year. A minute later, Big Ben will chime in 2022. And I will smile to myself and be thankful. Thankful that I am a Londoner, and that Big Ben is my local town clock.
15 Big Ben Facts
The Elizabeth Tower In Numbers & Notes
- Each of the four clock dials is made of 324 glass pieces in a cast iron frame
- The hour numbers are 60 centimetres in length and the dials are 7m in diameter
- The minute hands are 4.2m in length
- The hour hands are 2.7m long
- The bells are struck by hammers from outside, rather than swinging and being struck from inside by clappers
- Other than the famous Big Ben bell, there are four other bells in the Belfry. Their notes all combine to form the famous tune:
- ‘E’ is the musical note played by Big Ben (and so is the third quarter bell
- ‘G’ is the first quarter bell’s musical note
- ‘F#’ is the note played by the second quarter bell
- ‘B’ is the fourth bell’s note
- Big Ben weighs 13.7 tonnes
- Big Ben’s hammer weighs 200kg
- The clock tower popularly known as Big Ben is actually called The Elizabeth Tower
- It was renamed in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
- The Elizabeth Tower is 96 metres tall – that’s the height of 11 London buses