Hello everyone today we are going to talk about Big Ben, you can even imagine how it looks like in real

Big Ben  is the nickname for the Great Bell of the  Great Clock of Westminster ,  and,  by extension , for the  clock tower  itself,  which stands at the north end of the  Palace of Westminster  in London, England. Originally known simply as the Clock Tower, it was renamed  Elizabeth Tower  in 2012 to mark the  Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II . The clock is a  striking clock  with five bells

The tower was designed by  Sir Charles Barry  and  Augustus Pugin  in a  Perpendicular Gothic Revival style and was completed in 1859. It is elaborately decorated with stone carvings and features symbols related to the four nations of the United Kingdom and the Anglo-Welsh Tudor dynasty . A Latin inscription celebrates Queen Victoria , in whose reign the palace was built. The tower stands 316 feet (96 m) tall, and the climb from ground level to the belfry is 334 steps. Its base is square, measuring 40 feet (12 m) on each side. The dials of the clock are 22.5 feet (6.9 m) in diameter

The clock uses its original mechanism and was the largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world upon its completion. It was designed by  Edmund Beckett Denison  and  George Airy , the  Astronomer Royal , and constructed by  Edward John Dent  and Frederick Dent. It is known for its reliability, and can be adjusted by adding or removing  pre-decimal pennies  from the  pendulum . The Great Bell was cast by the  Whitechapel Bell Foundry  and weighs 13.5  long tons  (13.7  tons ; 15.1  short tons ). Its nickname may be derived from Sir  Benjamin Hall , who oversaw its installation, or  heavyweight boxing champion Benjamin Caunt . There are four quarter bells , which chime on the quarter hours

Big Ben is a  British cultural icon . It is one of the most prominent symbols of the United Kingdom and parliamentary democracy,  and it is often used in the  establishing shot  of films set in London. The clock tower has been part of a  Grade I listed building  since 1970 and a  UNESCO World Heritage Site  since 1987. The clock and tower were renovated between 2017 and 2021, during which the bells remained silent with few exceptions

History

Elizabeth Tower, originally named the Clock Tower, and popularly known as "Big Ben",  was built as a part of  Charles Barry 's design for a new Palace of Westminster after the old palace was  largely destroyed by fire  on 16 October 1834.  Although Barry was the chief architect of the neo-gothic palace, he turned to  Augustus Pugin  for the design of the Clock Tower, which resembles earlier Pugin designs, including one for  Scarisbrick Hall  in Lancashire.   Construction of the tower began on 28 September 1843. The building contractors were  Thomas Grissell  and  Morton Peto . An inscribed trowel in the Parliamentary Archives records that Emily, sister of Peto's daughter-in-law, was given the honor of laying the first stone.  It was Pugin's last design before his descent into mental illness and death in 1852, and Pugin himself wrote, at the time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings: “I never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry For tomorrow I render all my designs for finishing his bell tower and it is beautiful"