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Architect: Sir Charles Barry
Date: 1836 to 1868
In the south-west corner (right part of the picture) there is the 102m (336ft) high Victoria Tower, considered the tallest in the world at the time it was built. At the northern end rises the Clock Tower, a great symbol of London with the famous clock "Big Ben", and 96m (316ft) high itself.
Big Ben was completed between 1858-59. Big Ben is named, probably, after Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works. The light above the clock is lit while the Commons is sitting. Big Ben weighs over 13 tons. The clock mechanism, alone, weights about 5 tons. The figures on the clock face are about 2 feet long, the minute spaces are 1 square feet; and the copper minute hands are14 feet long.
London. August 2000