Why Big Ben Isn’t Actually the Name of the Tower
Point to London’s famous riverside clock tower and almost everyone will call it Big Ben. The name is universally understood—but the landmark’s official terminology tells a more interesting story.
The soaring Gothic structure beside the Palace of Westminster is Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben is the nickname of the enormous hour bell housed in its belfry. The clock has its own name as well: the Great Clock of Westminster.
That distinction is more than a trivia trick. It opens the door to a remarkable history involving Victorian architecture, experimental clockmaking, two cracked bells, wartime damage, old pennies used for precision timekeeping, and one of Britain’s most ambitious conservation projects.
The precise answer: Elizabeth Tower is the building, the Great Clock of Westminster keeps the time, and Big Ben is the Great Bell that sounds the hours.
Calling the entire tower Big Ben is therefore understandable rather than disastrous. The nickname has appeared for generations in conversation, broadcasts, guidebooks, postcards and films. In formal or educational writing, however, it is useful to separate the three parts correctly.
| Elizabeth Tower | The 96-metre Gothic Revival tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. |
|---|---|
| Great Clock of Westminster | The mechanical clock and timekeeping system that drives the four great dials. |
| Big Ben | The nickname of the Great Bell that strikes each hour. |
Big Ben Is the Great Bell
Big Ben hangs in the belfry with four smaller quarter bells. Those smaller bells play the familiar Westminster Quarters every 15 minutes, while the Great Bell counts the hour. The bells do not swing as church bells often do; they remain fixed while external hammers strike them.
The bell’s deep tone is one of London’s most recognisable sounds, yet it is not acoustically “perfect.” Its voice was shaped by a crack that appeared soon after it entered service—and by the clever Victorian repair that allowed it to keep working.
Why Big Ben Has a Crack
The bell inside the tower is actually the second Great Bell made for the new Palace of Westminster. The first was cast in 1856 and tested in New Palace Yard. A hammer that proved too heavy produced a crack measuring about 1.2 metres in October 1857. The damaged bell was broken up, and its metal was reused in a replacement cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in April 1858.
The replacement bell was hoisted into the tower and first struck the hour on 11 July 1859. Within a few months, it too developed a fracture. Big Ben then remained silent for several years while specialists debated what to do.
The old fracture remains part of Big Ben today. Rather than ruining the bell, it helped create the distinctive, slightly complex tone heard across Westminster.
Where Did the Name “Big Ben” Come From?
No surviving official document settles the nickname’s origin beyond doubt. The explanation most often accepted by UK Parliament connects it to Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works who oversaw important stages of the tower and bell project. Hall was a notably tall man and was reportedly known as “Big Ben,” making the name an easy joke for an unusually large bell.
A competing tradition links the nickname to Ben Caunt, a famous heavyweight boxer of the period. That version is memorable, but the association with Sir Benjamin Hall is generally treated as the more likely explanation.
Whatever its precise origin, the nickname quickly outgrew the bell. It became a convenient label for the clock, tower and landmark as a whole—one of those cases in which popular usage overwhelms architectural precision.
The Tower Was Called the Clock Tower Until 2012
For most of its existence, the structure’s official name was simply the Clock Tower. On 25 June 2012, the House of Commons Commission approved the name Elizabeth Tower in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, which marked 60 years of her reign.
The decision echoed the naming of the Palace of Westminster’s larger southern tower, Victoria Tower, after Queen Victoria. Both monarchs celebrated Diamond Jubilees, making the paired names a deliberate historical tribute.
How Elizabeth Tower Was Built
The story begins with the catastrophic fire of 1834, which destroyed most of the old Palace of Westminster. A competition was held for a replacement building in a Gothic or Elizabethan style. Architect Charles Barry won with a grand design that included a clock tower at the northern end of the palace.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Barry’s gifted collaborator, developed much of the Gothic Revival character and decorative detailing. Under Pugin’s influence, the proposed clock tower became taller, richer and more visually commanding. Decorative emblems incorporated roses, thistles, shamrocks and leeks representing the nations of the United Kingdom.
The foundation stone was laid on 28 September 1843. Construction took 16 years before the bells finally sounded over Westminster. The tower was built largely from the inside outward: steam-powered winches lifted materials through an internal shaft, reducing the need for conventional exterior scaffolding during the original construction.
The Great Clock Was an Engineering Breakthrough
The tower required more than an attractive clock face. Astronomer Royal Sir George Airy demanded a public clock capable of striking the hour accurately to within one second—an extraordinary challenge for a large exposed mechanism in the middle of 19th-century London.
Edmund Beckett Denison developed the decisive design, including the celebrated double three-legged gravity escapement. This system helped isolate the pendulum from outside disturbances such as wind pressure on the giant hands. Clockmaker Edward John Dent was appointed to build the mechanism, which began keeping time on 31 May 1859.
Each of the tower’s four dials is assembled from 324 pieces of opal glass within a cast-iron frame. The copper minute hands are 4.2 metres long and weigh about 100 kilograms each; the shorter gunmetal hour hands weigh roughly 300 kilograms.
Why are pennies placed on the pendulum?
The clock remains a mechanical system, and its rate can be adjusted with remarkable delicacy. Pre-decimal pennies are placed on the pendulum’s weight. Adding one penny changes the pendulum’s centre of mass just enough to make the clock gain about two-fifths of a second over 24 hours. Removing a penny has the opposite effect.
It is an elegant meeting of monumental engineering and tiny correction: a five-tonne clock mechanism fine-tuned with pocket-sized coins.
A Short Timeline of Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower
A fire destroys most of the old Palace of Westminster.
The foundation stone of the new Clock Tower is laid.
The first Great Bell cracks during testing and must be recast.
The Great Clock begins keeping time.
The replacement Great Bell strikes the hour for the first time.
After the second bell cracks, it is rotated and paired with a lighter hammer.
The BBC broadcasts the chimes nationally for the first time on New Year’s Eve.
The Clock Tower is officially renamed Elizabeth Tower.
The tower undergoes the largest conservation programme in its history.
Why the Landmark Became a Symbol of London
Elizabeth Tower is visually distinctive enough to identify London in a single silhouette. The chimes do the same job in sound. They have been used in radio broadcasts, television coverage, state occasions and New Year celebrations, transforming the landmark into both a civic clock and a national time signal.
The BBC first broadcast the chimes across the United Kingdom on New Year’s Eve in 1923. International broadcasts followed in the next decade. During the Second World War, the clock dials were darkened under blackout rules, but the bells continued to carry enormous symbolic importance.
The tower forms part of the Palace of Westminster, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site that also includes Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church. It is not merely a decorative tourist landmark; it belongs to a living parliamentary complex and remains a working piece of public infrastructure.
The 2017–2022 Conservation Project
By the early 21st century, Elizabeth Tower needed extensive attention. Age, weather, pollution, previous repairs and previously undetected wartime damage had affected stone, metalwork, glass and internal systems. Scaffolding began to envelop the tower in 2017, launching the most comprehensive conservation programme in its history.
Specialist craftspeople repaired masonry, restored ironwork, renewed gilding, conserved the clock mechanism and replaced damaged glass. Research also revealed that the Victorian clock dials had originally used a deep Prussian blue rather than the black familiar from later decades. The restored blue-and-gold palette, together with the reinstated crosses of St George, brought the exterior closer to its 19th-century appearance.
Big Ben and the quarter bells were largely silent while the work progressed, although they sounded for selected national occasions. The conservation was completed and the Great Bell returned to regular service in 2022.
The project later received a RIBA London Award and a RIBA National Award in 2025. It was also shortlisted for the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize. It did not win the Stirling Prize; that year’s prize went to Appleby Blue Almshouse.
Can Visitors Go Inside Elizabeth Tower?
Current official-tour essentials
Official Big Ben tours are available to both UK-based and international visitors, subject to ticket availability and suitability requirements.
- Visitors must be at least 11 years old.
- The standard route includes 334 spiral steps.
- The climb involves narrow passages, uneven surfaces and loud bells.
- The standard tour is not step-free.
- UK residents may also request one of a limited number of free tours through a Member of Parliament.
Tour arrangements, prices and availability can change, so prospective visitors should check the current UK Parliament booking information before making travel plans. For those unable to make the climb, Parliament also provides an interactive virtual tour.
Common Big Ben Myths, Corrected
Myth: Big Ben is the tower’s official name.
Fact: The official name of the building is Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben is the Great Bell’s nickname.
Myth: The tower has always been called Elizabeth Tower.
Fact: It was officially known as the Clock Tower until 2012.
Myth: The current bell has never been damaged.
Fact: It cracked in 1859 and still bears the historic fracture.
Myth: International visitors cannot tour the tower.
Fact: International visitors aged 11 and over may book official tours, subject to availability and tour conditions.
Myth: The restoration ended in 2021.
Fact: Parliament records the conservation as running from 2017 to 2022.
Myth: Elizabeth Tower won the 2025 Stirling Prize.
Fact: It was shortlisted and received other RIBA awards, but Appleby Blue Almshouse won the Stirling Prize.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it wrong to call the whole tower “Big Ben”?
It is technically imprecise but completely normal in everyday speech. “Big Ben” formally refers to the Great Bell, while Elizabeth Tower is the building. In educational, historical or architectural writing, using the precise names avoids confusion.
When did the Clock Tower become Elizabeth Tower?
The House of Commons Commission approved the new name in June 2012 to honour Queen Elizabeth II during her Diamond Jubilee year.
What was the tower called before 2012?
Its official name was simply the Clock Tower, even though the public had long used “Big Ben” for the complete landmark.
Is Big Ben the largest bell in Britain?
No. Big Ben is exceptionally famous and weighs 13.7 tonnes, but larger bells exist. Its importance comes from its location, history, sound and role as Parliament’s hour bell rather than from holding a current national size record.
Does Big Ben chime every 15 minutes?
The quarter-hour melody is played by four smaller bells. Big Ben itself strikes only on the hour, sounding once for each hour shown by the clock.
How accurate is the Great Clock?
It was designed to meet an exceptionally demanding Victorian standard and remains carefully regulated. Its escapement helps shield the pendulum from external forces, while small adjustments can be made by adding or removing pre-decimal pennies from the pendulum.
Can visitors see Big Ben itself?
Yes, official tours take eligible visitors into Elizabeth Tower, including the belfry where the Great Bell hangs. The experience requires a strenuous climb and advance booking.
Why is the clock face blue after restoration?
Paint analysis and historical research showed that the Victorian colour scheme used Prussian blue and gold. The conservation project restored those colours after decades in which black detailing had been more familiar.
The Name Is Small; the Story Is Enormous
The familiar postcard image contains three connected landmarks: Elizabeth Tower, the Great Clock of Westminster and Big Ben. Behind those names is a Victorian project that pushed clockmaking to new levels of precision, survived cracked bells and wartime damage, and continues to operate with gears, gravity and carefully placed pennies.
So the next time someone points across the Thames and says, “There’s Big Ben,” there is no need to spoil the photograph with a lecture. But you will know what is really inside the tower—and why the technically correct answer is far more interesting than a simple correction.
Editorial Sources and Further Reading
- UK Parliament: Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower facts and figures
- UK Parliament: A brief history of Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower
- UK Parliament: Constructing the Great Clock and casting the bell
- UK Parliament: Conservation of Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben
- UK Parliament: Current Big Ben tour information
- RIBA: 2025 Stirling Prize shortlist and winner
- UNESCO: Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret’s Church