After five long years of restoration, London’s Big Ben, Probably the most famous clock in the world, it will officially come out of its silence on Sunday to re-set the rhythm of the days in the British capital.
With its immense bell of 13.7 tons, the great clock that dominates the British Parliament will resume its normal activity after a meticulous cleaning of the more than 1,000 parts that make up its mechanism.
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In August 2017, a crowd gathered in Westminster to listen to the last peals of its five cast-iron bells.
Many will gather there again on Sunday to hear once again the sound of this symbol of London: its four-bell carillon will resound every quarter of an hour while the main bell will ring every hour, as during the 158 years prior to the renewal.
The date coincides with the Sunday following November 11, day on which the United Kingdom commemorates the armistice of the First World War. In the last five years, Big Ben has only rung a few times using a substitute electric mechanism, the last one for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.
At the top of the 96-metre “Elizabethan tower” of the Palace of Westminster, the bells are protected by an outside net to keep out bats and pigeons.
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From there, the view of London is spectacular, but the three watchmakers responsible for Big Ben don’t have time to enjoy it. Ian Westworth, 60, and his colleagues are busy finalizing final tests and making sure everything is working properly following an 80 million pound ($93 million) renovation. “The sound of London is back,” Westworth tells AFP during an early morning visit to the bell tower.
“These bells have rung through wars,” he stresses, impressed by all the transformations of the city they have witnessed. The “Elizabethan Tower”, the new name given in 2012 to the clock tower on the occasion of the monarch’s diamond jubileewas built in the 1840s.
Back then, with no traffic or skyscrapers, “on a quiet night you could hear (Big Ben) up to 15 miles away,” recalls the watchmaker. The restoration involved cleaning and painting the arms and hammers but the bells did not move.
The main bell, Big Ben, is so big that to move it you would have to lift the entire floor of the bell tower. The hardest part was disassembling the 11.5-ton clock mechanism, dating from 1859, to clean it.
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In addition, 28 LED lights now illuminate the four watch faces, with colors ranging from green to white to closely resemble Victorian-era gaslights. Another larger white light was placed above the bells to indicate when Parliament is in session.
Before the renovation, watchmakers checked the accuracy of the time using their phones. Now the watch is calibrated by GPS. But the method of setting the time remains very traditional: ancient coins are used to add or subtract weight from the giant clock springs, allowing a second to be gained or lost.
In the bell tower, during the previous tests, you have to put on earplugs and earmuffs to protect your eardrums as each new hour on the dot approaches. It’s seven in the morning and Big Ben – a symbol of stability in a chaotic British political context – resonates with a bang seven times.
Although deafening, the unmistakable tolling is also a sign of stability after years of great political turmoil in the UK and as the rest of the Palace of Westminster falls apart. The impressive Gothic complex on the banks of the River Thames It requires a huge general renovation but political disputes over its high cost have delayed it.
Meanwhile, Westworth and his colleague Alex Jeffrey, 35, remain focused on their work: take care of the 2,000 clocks of the British Parliament. “It’s the best job in the world,” says the youngest
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