Big Ben is the nickname of the Great Bell inside the tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, not the tower itself. The tower has been called the Elizabeth Tower since 2012. The bell weighs 13.7 tonnes, first chimed on 31 May 1859, and cracked within a year. That crack was never repaired, and it is why Big Ben sounds the way it does.
Big Ben quick facts
- Big Ben is the bell. The tower is the Elizabeth Tower, renamed in 2012.
- The bell cracked within a year of being hung in 1858, and the crack is still there.
- The Great Clock is adjusted by adding old penny coins to its pendulum.
- The tower is 96 m tall with 334 steps to the belfry, and no lift.
- The minute hands are 4.2 m long, taller than a giraffe.
Here is the fact that catches almost everybody out. Big Ben is a bell.
It is not the tower, and it is not the clock. It is the enormous bell hanging inside, and it has a crack in it.
Bell, clock, tower: three different things
| What people say | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| Big Ben | the Great Bell, 13.7 tonnes |
| The clock | the Great Clock of Westminster |
| The tower | the Elizabeth Tower |
The tower only got that name in 2012, for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. Before then it was usually just called the Clock Tower.
Nobody is quite sure who Ben was. The two favourite explanations are Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw the work, and Benjamin Caunt, a heavyweight boxer of the day.
The tower in numbers
| Tower height | 96 m |
| Steps to the belfry | 334 |
| Bell weight | 13.7 tonnes |
| Clock face width | 7 m across |
| Minute hand | 4.2 m long |
| Hour hand | 2.7 m long |
| Clock started | 31 May 1859 |
| Bell first heard | 11 July 1859 |
There is no lift. Anyone visiting the belfry climbs all 334 steps, on a spiral staircase.
The clock faces are 281 steps up. Climb another 65 steps above the belfry and you reach the Ayrton Light, a lantern that shines whenever the Houses of Parliament are sitting.
Parliament likes to picture the height another way: stack 21 London buses on top of each other and you reach the top of the tower, which has 11 floors.
The Tower in Numbers
- 96 m — The height of the Elizabeth Tower
- 334 — Steps up to the belfry
- 281 — Steps up to the clock faces
- 65 — More steps from the belfry up to the Ayrton Light
- 11 — Floors in the tower
A clock tower since the 1300s
The Elizabeth Tower is not the first clock tower on this spot. In 1367 a tower and clock were built here, and it was the first public chiming clock in England.
By 1698 that old tower was pulled down and a sundial put up instead. Its bell was sent to St Paul’s Cathedral, but it broke on the way. It was recast in 1716 and still hangs in St Paul’s today. If Big Ben is ever unable to strike, that bell at St Paul’s is heard instead.
Building the tower
In 1834 a huge fire destroyed almost the whole Palace of Westminster. The architect Charles Barry won the job of designing a new palace, and he included a clock tower. He hired Augustus Welby Pugin to help give it its pointed Gothic style.
The foundation stone of the Clock Tower was laid in 1843. It is built from 850 cubic metres of stone and 2,600 cubic metres of brick. The stone came from Yorkshire and Rutland, with Caen limestone shipped over from France.
The crack that never got fixed
The first Great Bell cracked while it was being tested, before it was ever hung. It had to be melted down and recast.
That first bell was cast in 1856 at Warners of Norton, near Stockton-on-Tees, and it was going to be called Royal Victoria. In 1857 a crack 1.2 metres long appeared during testing. The bell maker and the clock’s designer argued for a long time about whose fault it was.
The second bell was cast in April 1858 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in east London. A carriage pulled by 16 white horses carried it to Parliament, and it was hauled up into the belfry. Its strikes were first heard on 11 July 1859.
The second bell went up in 1858. Within a year, that one cracked too.
Rather than start again, engineers took the advice of the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, in 1863. They turned the bell by 90 degrees so the hammer struck a different spot, and used a lighter hammer. The crack is still there today.
That crack is why Big Ben sounds the way it does. The famous slightly imperfect note is the sound of a damaged bell.
Kept on time with old pennies
The Great Clock is famously accurate, and the way it is adjusted is beautifully simple.
A stack of old pre-decimal penny coins sits on the clock’s pendulum. Adding one penny makes the clock gain about 0.4 seconds a day. Taking one off slows it by the same amount.
Adding weight near the top of a pendulum makes it swing very slightly faster. Clockmakers have used those same pennies since the 1800s.
How the Great Clock works
Building a clock this accurate took years of arguing. A competition to design it began in 1846, with the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, as judge. His rules on accuracy were so strict that the design took seven years to finish. In 1852 the clockmaker John Dent was chosen to build it, to a design by Edmund Beckett Denison.
The mechanism is made of cast iron and weighs 5 tonnes. Its pendulum is 4.4 metres long and weighs 310 kg, and every swing takes exactly 2 seconds.
Wind pushing on the huge hands could have spoilt the timekeeping. Denison solved that with a clever part called the double three-legged gravity escapement, which stops outside pushes from reaching the pendulum.
Each of the four dials is 7 metres across and made from 324 pieces of opal glass in an iron frame. The copper minute hands weigh 100 kg each, and in a year their tips travel about 190 km, roughly the distance from London to Weymouth.
Inside the Great Clock
- 4.4 m — The length of the pendulum
- 2 seconds — How long each swing of the pendulum takes
- 324 — Pieces of opal glass in each dial
- 100 kg — The weight of each copper minute hand
- 190 km — How far the tips of the minute hands travel in a year
When Big Ben went quiet
The bell has fallen silent only a handful of times, and each one has a story.
- It kept chiming right through the bombing of London in the Second World War, even after the roof of the building was hit.
- Its faces went dark, though. From 1939 until April 1945 the dials were not lit at night, to follow the wartime blackout rules.
- The clock has had other long rests too: two months in 1934, six months in 1956, and six weeks in 2007 for essential maintenance.
- In 1962 heavy snow on the hands made it chime the New Year ten minutes late.
- On 5 August 1976, in the middle of the night, part of the mechanism failed. The heavy weights spun out of control down their shaft and the clock’s works burst apart. Big Ben was silent for nearly nine months, and was mended in time for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee visit in May 1977.
- From 2017 to 2022 the tower was wrapped in scaffolding for a huge restoration, and the bell mostly stayed quiet to protect the workers’ hearing.
During that restoration the clock faces were cleaned and repainted. They turned out to have been blue originally, not black, so blue is what they are again.
The tune it plays
Four smaller bells play a short melody every quarter hour, before the Great Bell strikes the hour.
The tune is called the Westminster Quarters. You have almost certainly heard it, because school bells and doorbells around the world copy it.
These bells do not swing. They hang still, and hammers strike them from the outside. Big Ben’s note is E. The four quarter bells play G, F sharp, E and B, and they weigh between 1.1 and 4 tonnes. Big Ben’s own hammer weighs 200 kg.
Heard around the world
On New Year’s Eve 1923, BBC Radio broadcast Big Ben’s chimes across the United Kingdom for the first time.
In 1932 they went around the world, when the BBC’s Empire Service, later the World Service, played them as part of King George V’s Christmas broadcast. Since then, for millions of people, the sound of Big Ben has simply meant London.
The Story of the Clock Tower
- 1367 England's first public chiming clock is built on the site.
- 1834 A huge fire destroys almost the whole Palace of Westminster.
- 1843 The foundation stone of the new Clock Tower is laid.
- 1858 The second Great Bell is cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London.
- 31 May 1859 The Great Clock starts ticking.
- 1923 BBC Radio broadcasts the chimes across the UK for the first time.
Three things people get wrong
Big Ben is not the tower. It is the bell inside. The tower is the Elizabeth Tower.
The tower is not called St Stephen’s Tower. That name gets used a lot but it belongs to a different part of the building.
It does not lean because of the Underground. The tower does tilt very slightly, by a few centimetres, but that comes from the ground it was built on, not from trains.
Explore more in our guide to England.
Did you know? The Great Clock is kept on time with a stack of old pre-decimal penny coins balanced on its pendulum. Adding one penny makes the clock gain about 0.4 seconds a day; removing one slows it by the same amount. Clockmakers have used that trick since the 1800s.
Big Ben: Fact or Myth?
- There is a lift up to the belfry.
- Big Ben's musical note is E.
- The bells swing when they ring.
- Adding an old penny to the pendulum makes the clock gain time.
- The hour hands are longer than the minute hands.
- The clock dials were kept dark at night during the Second World War.
- The first Great Bell was made in London.
- The Great Clock was built by John Dent.
Try it
Find something 4.2 metres long — a classroom wall or a car and a half — and that is one minute hand. Then listen out for the Westminster Quarters. Once you know the tune, you will start hearing it in doorbells and school bells everywhere.
Knowledge check
Is Big Ben the name of the tower?
Show answer
No. Big Ben is the nickname of the Great Bell hanging inside. The tower has been officially called the Elizabeth Tower since 2012, when it was renamed for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.
Why does Big Ben sound slightly imperfect?
Show answer
Because the bell is cracked. It split within a year of being hung in 1858. Rather than recast it again, engineers turned the bell so the hammer hit a different spot and fitted a lighter hammer. The crack is still there, and it gives Big Ben its distinctive note.
Frequently asked questions
Is Big Ben the bell or the tower?
Big Ben is the bell. It is the nickname of the Great Bell, which weighs 13.7 tonnes and hangs inside the tower at the Houses of Parliament. The tower itself is the Elizabeth Tower, and the clock is the Great Clock of Westminster.
How tall is Big Ben?
The Elizabeth Tower is about 96 metres tall. There are 334 steps from the bottom up to the belfry where the bell hangs, and there is no lift, so everyone who visits climbs the spiral staircase.
Why is Big Ben cracked?
The bell cracked within a year of being hung in 1858, probably because the hammer striking it was too heavy. Instead of recasting it a third time, engineers rotated the bell so the hammer struck a different spot and fitted a lighter one. The crack was never repaired.
How is the Great Clock kept accurate?
With old pre-decimal penny coins stacked on the pendulum. Adding one penny makes the clock gain about 0.4 seconds a day, and taking one away slows it by the same amount. Adding weight near the top of a pendulum makes it swing very slightly faster.
When was Big Ben silent?
The bell has gone quiet only a few times. It broke down in 1976, was late chiming the New Year in 1962 because of snow on the hands, and stayed mostly silent from 2017 to 2022 during a major restoration. It kept chiming right through the bombing of London in the Second World War.
What tune does Big Ben play?
Four smaller bells play a melody called the Westminster Quarters every quarter of an hour, then the Great Bell strikes the hour. School bells and doorbells all over the world copy that same tune.
How many steps are in Big Ben’s tower?
There are 334 steps from the ground to the belfry where Big Ben hangs, and 281 to the clock faces. Another 65 steps lead up to the Ayrton Light at the top. There is no lift.
What is the Ayrton Light?
The Ayrton Light is a lantern near the top of the Elizabeth Tower, 65 steps above the belfry. It shines whenever the Houses of Parliament are sitting.
Who built Big Ben?
The tower was designed by Charles Barry with Augustus Welby Pugin after a fire in 1834. The clock was built by John Dent to Edmund Beckett Denison’s design, and the bell was cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1858.
What musical note is Big Ben?
Big Ben rings the note E. The four quarter bells that play the Westminster Quarters ring G, F sharp, E and B.
Sources
- UK Parliament: Big Ben facts and figures — the tower’s height, steps, stone, dials, hands, clock mechanism, pennies, bells and stoppages
- UK Parliament: Big Ben key dates — the older clock towers, the 1834 fire, building the tower and clock, the cracked bells, broadcasts, the blackout and the 1976 breakdown
- UK Parliament: visiting the Elizabeth Tower — the 334 steps and what is inside the tower.
Big Ben Final Challenge
- Where did the bell from the old 1367 clock tower end up?
- Who designed the new Palace of Westminster after the 1834 fire?
- How was the second Great Bell taken to Parliament?
- How much does Big Ben weigh?
- What happened on 5 August 1976?
- Where did the tower's stone come from?
- What does the double three-legged gravity escapement do?
