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—— ON THIS DAY ——
MAY 31, 1859
Palace of Westminster, London, England
166 years ago
The Elizabeth Tower — home of Big Ben, the great bell of the Palace of Westminster, whose first ring on May 31, 1859, inaugurated one of the world's most recognizable sonic and visual landmarks.
On May 31, 1859, the great bell of the Palace of Westminster rang for the first time — the bell that the world would come to know as Big Ben. The tower (now officially named the Elizabeth Tower, but still colloquially called the Clock Tower) had taken eleven years to complete, following the fire of 1834 that destroyed most of the old Palace of Westminster. The architect of the tower was Charles Barry; the decorative Gothic Revival detailing was by Augustus Pugin. The clock itself, designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, was the most accurate public clock in the world when it was installed.
'Big Ben' originally referred specifically to the thirteen-ton main bell, whose name most likely derived from either Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works who oversaw the installation, or heavyweight boxing champion Benjamin Caunt, depending on which account you prefer. The bell cracked in 1857 during testing, was replaced by a new bell weighing about 13.5 tonnes, and cracked again in 1859 — after which it was rotated a quarter-turn, a repair that left the distinctive slight imperfection in the bell's tone that has characterized it ever since.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
Big Ben from across the Thames — the bell tower that has marked the hours for London for 166 years, whose familiar chimes open BBC World Service broadcasts and feature in more films than almost any other building on Earth.
The clock's accuracy was extraordinary for its era. Beckett Denison's 'double three-legged gravity escapement' mechanism was a breakthrough in precision clockwork that allowed the clock to maintain accuracy despite wind pressure on the hands. For decades, Big Ben was the standard against which other public clocks were set — telegraph lines were used to distribute time signals from it across Britain. It was not merely a landmark; it was a piece of national infrastructure.
The BBC's use of Big Ben as the opening sound of its World Service broadcasts — begun in 1932 — transformed the chimes into an international sonic symbol. For listeners in occupied Europe during the Second World War, the Big Ben signal before BBC broadcasts was one of the most reassuring sounds imaginable: London was still there, still broadcasting, still defying the occupation. The chimes are still used to open BBC World Service programmes, connecting a Victorian bell to a global audience that has never set foot in London.
Big Ben fell silent for restoration between 2017 and 2022 — the first extended silence since the Second World War. The reaction in Britain was disproportionate to the actual inconvenience, which was essentially zero. The bell's absence was felt as a cultural loss. When it rang again in November 2020 for Remembrance Sunday and then fully returned in 2022, the sound was greeted as a restoration of something essential. A bell that first rang in 1859 has become, for many people, the sound of a particular idea of London — and through London, of a particular idea of time itself.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
Big Ben is the most widely recognized public clock in the world — and one of the few remaining public timekeepers with genuine cultural significance. In an era of smartphone clocks and internet synchronization, a mechanical bell tower has retained a cultural role that transcends its practical function. Time has been abstracted; Big Ben has remained concrete.
The Gothic Revival architecture of the Palace of Westminster created the visual template for democratic legitimacy in the English-speaking world. The building was explicitly designed to embody the antiquity and continuity of English parliamentary tradition through Gothic architecture. Its influence on legislatures, universities, and public buildings from Canada to Australia has been enormous.
The BBC World Service's use of the chimes connected Big Ben to the global broadcast of democratic values during the Second World War and beyond. The role of the chimes as a signal of London's survival and the BBC's continued independence during the Blitz was not merely symbolic — it was a form of political communication to occupied populations for whom the BBC was the primary source of truthful information.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On May 31, 1859, a cracked bell rang for the first time above the Thames and told London what time it was. Its crack has never been perfectly repaired. Its chimes have opened BBC broadcasts for nearly a century. It silenced for four years and London felt the absence like a physical thing. A bell is telling you something about where meaning lives.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
"I will not rest until Big Ben is restored to her former glory."
— Boris Johnson, Prime Minister, on the restoration of Big Ben's chimes, 2021 — a quote that neatly illustrates how politicians have always understood the symbolic value of the bell
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about Big Ben's construction, the cracking and repair of the bell, the BBC World Service's use of the chimes during World War II, and the cultural significance of a Victorian bell tower in the age of smartphone clocks?
