![]() ![]() He would die that September, never to see his plans realised for this beacon of democracy and symbol of the Mother of Parliaments. “I never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry,” he wrote in February 1852 to his friend John Hardman, “for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful & I am the whole machinery of the clock.”Īged just 40, Pugin was descending into madness, possibly from mercury poisoning. Originally named St Stephen’s Tower, and rechristened the Elizabeth Tower in 2012, to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, the edifice colloquially known as ‘Big Ben’ was largely the creation of the driven genius Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, his most iconic contribution to Charles Barry’s Palace of Westminster and its crowning glory.Ĭompleted in 1859, standing 96 metres tall, with 334 steps from ground to belfry, and with the world’s largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock, this was to be Pugin’s last project. English architect and designer who championed the gothic style. The effects of such pitiless conditions were keenly felt by conservation teams, working at dizzying heights on narrow gangways, when, in 2018, with the cold snap known as the ‘Beast from the East’ on the rampage, the temperature dropped to -8C, only to soar to 45C in the following year’s heatwave. The clock and tower have stood the test of time remarkably well, despite decades of wear and tear, bomb damage, snow and ice, wind and rain, the ‘pea soupers’ of Victorian times, and modern air pollution. ![]() Since then, hundreds of specialist craftsmen and women – stonemasons, glass artists, painters, gilders and horologists – have brought their skills to the £80 million conservation project. ![]() Big Ben, The 13.7-tonne bell that had tolled the knell of passing day for 154 years, through the reigns of six monarchs, fell silent, to be heard only on Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve, as work began on the restoration of the most recognised clock tower on the planet. This year, restored to its former glory, Big Ben once again shows its faceĪt 12.01pm on August 21, 2017, something went missing from the soundscape of London. Credit: PjrTravel / Alamy Big Ben, the world’s most famous clock has been under wraps for four years, its iconic bell silenced. ![]()
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