Big Ben: London's Invisible Landmark Quiz

Answer: 2.9 metres in diameter

This is a slightly more subtle way of asking the age old question, "what exactly is Big Ben?" The answer is not the 96.3 metres tall clock tower nor the clock itself with its 7 metres diameter clock face, situated 55 metres above ground. It is the bell within the tower that chimes the hours. The bell's official name is "The Great Bell", it weighs over 13 tonnes and is 2.2 metres tall.

The clock tower, which is often referred to as "Big Ben", is simply called "The Clock Tower".

Answer: Big Ben chimes 288 times a day

Big Ben chimes the hours each day every day, which means it chimes 156 times a day. Residents within earshot of the bell (thankfully not that many) report that after a few months you don't even notice the sound.

Answer: The Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as The Houses of Parliament, contains the two parliamentary chambers of the UK's bicameral political system; the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The previous parliament buildings burned down in a fire in 1834 and the Palace of Westminster was built in its place. Designed by Charles Barry, the new buildings incorporated what was left of the old palace. This includes Westminster Hall, which was first built in 1097 and was the scene of the trial of King Charles I in 1649.

The Clock Tower stands at the north end of the palace and contains the clock that was designed by Edmund Denison, who was not an horologist but a lawyer by trade.

Answer: The bell was cracked by a wrongly sized chiming hammer

Big Ben was cracked just two months after it was put into service. The crack was caused by a misjudgment by the clock designer, Edmund Denison. The bell's designer, George Mears, had specified a maximum weight for the hammer that should be used to strike the bell. Denison, betraying his inexperience as an horologist, insisted on using a hammer that was twice the recommended size. The result was severe damage to the bell that required it being taken out of service for three years while it was repaired. When it was returned to service, the bell had to be repositioned so that the hammer struck a different part of it. The bell, as a consequence, now has a unique timbre and a slightly off-key tone.

Rather than displaying hubris, Denison tried to blame the crack on poor workmanship at the foundry that cast the bell. The foundry took Denison to court and won their case against him. Years later, Denison repeated his allegations in print and the foundry sued for libel. Denison lost a second time.

Answer: Pennies

When the clock was commissioned by parliament, one of the demands made of the designer was that the clock should keep time to within one second per day. The escapement that Denison designed has a pendulum with a two-second cadence that is controlled by gravity.

Therefore to speed up or slow down the pace of the pendulum, the Keeper of the Clock needs to marginally shift its centre of gravity. To do this the Keeper holds a store of old English pennies (approximately twice the size of post-decimalisation pennies) that can be placed on to the pendulum. Each penny added slows the pendulum by 0.8 seconds per day. Removing a penny speeds the pendulum up by the same amount. By this process the clock can be kept within the one second per day limit.

Answer: Westminster Chimes

The chimes, also known as the Westminster Quarters, use the four notes, B, E, F# and G#. The melody is supposedly based on a section of Handel's "Messiah", known as "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth". The Great Clock of Westminster was not the first clock to use that particular melody; that honour goes to the church of St. Mary the Great in Cambridge. Since its debut in Westminster, the chimes have been borrowed by clocks around the world.

An inscription in the clock tower gives words to the chime;

"All through this hour
Lord, be my guide
And by Thy power
No foot shall slide."

Answer: To see when Members of Parliament were at work

The light, which was named after the Commissioner of Works of the time, was installed in 1885. Initially it was only visible from the West side of the tower, and therefore from Buckingham Palace where Queen Victoria was resident. The original gas-fueled light was replaced first in 1892 and then was updated to an electric light in 1903.

Answer: No-one knows for certain

There are two stories that purport to tell the truth of the Great Bell's nickname. The first credits the name to the First Commisioner of Works at the time of the bell's installation, Sir Benjamin Hall. A notably tall man for the age, he was supposedly known as "Big Ben" by his fellow Lords. He chaired a debate in the House of Lords regarding the naming of the bell and after hours of discussion had made little progress, one member shouted in jest, "Why not name the bell "Big Ben" and be done with it?". However, there is no documented evidence of this and Hansard, a verbatim account of parliamentary business, does not record it.

The second contender is Benjamin Caunt, at the time a champion heavyweight boxer. Legend has it that Caunt's fame was such that Londoners took to calling anything that was the largest of its kind "Big Ben" in reference to him. Therefore, as the largest ever bell cast to that day, the bell in the Westminster Clock Tower, was so named by the people.

The fact is that neither story can be supported with any meaningful evidence and the mystery of Big Ben's naming is unlikely to be solved. Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy was a clockmaker of the mid-Victorian period.

Answer: The Thirty-Nine Steps

Though the sequence on Big Ben deviates entirely from Buchan's source novel, the 1978 film, directed by Don Sharp, is considered to be very faithful to the novel. Robert Powell, playing the central character, Richard Hannay, has been framed for murder by some German secret agents.

In the course of uncovering the plot against him, Hannay comes to realise that the secret agents have planted a bomb in the Houses of Parliament. Hannay has to stop the bomb, which is wired to the mechanism of the Great Clock, by stopping the clock before it reaches 11.45. Locked out of the central control room, the only option he has is to climb on to the clock face and manually stop the minute hand from reaching its destination.

Answer: Ask your MP to grant you access

Yes, sadly for non-Brits, it is very difficult for foreigners to gain access to the Clock Tower. Permission to enter has to be granted by your elected representative, and it is best to ask for this several weeks in advance of your planned trip. Once you have passed the eligibility test, your next test before seeing the bell is one of stamina. Those 334 steps to the bell have to be climbed as there is no other method of transportation to the top of the tower.