Stand at the Foot of Elizabeth Tower and Hear the Hour Strike
You hear it before you see it clearly: a low, bronze note rolling out over the rooftops, then the four quarter bells picking out their pattern. Stand on the Westminster pavement at the north end of the Palace of Westminster and look up. The tower rises above you in sand-coloured Anston limestone, its spire clad in cast iron tiles, its gilded dials catching the light. This is the Great Clock of Westminster, and Big Ben is properly the nickname of the Great Bell inside it — though almost everyone uses the name for the tower itself. Formally it is Elizabeth Tower, renamed in 2012 for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee; journalists in Queen Victoria's reign had called it St Stephen's Tower. It was designed by Augustus Pugin and Sir Charles Barry in the Perpendicular Gothic style and completed in 1859. Pugin wrote of finishing the drawings: "it is beautiful." You will agree.
Read the Stonework, the Dials and the Shields
The tower rewards close looking, and you can do much of it from the street.
- The dials. Each face is made of cast iron sections bolted together, filled with hundreds of pieces of opalescent glass — it has been claimed no two pieces in a dial are alike. The surrounds are gilded, and at the base of each dial runs a Latin inscription asking God to keep safe Queen Victoria the First. Note the "4": it is shown as IV, not the IIII of many Roman-numeral clocks.
- The shields. Above the belfry are 52 shields carved with the national emblems of the four countries of the United Kingdom — the Tudor rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the shamrock of Northern Ireland and the leek of Wales — alongside the pomegranate of Catherine of Aragon, the portcullis of Parliament and the fleurs-de-lis of the old English claim to France.
- The lean. Look along the vertical and you may catch it: the tower leans slightly to the north-west over its height, a consequence of the soft London Clay beneath its foundations. Concrete was pumped into the ground in the 1990s to stabilise it during construction of the Jubilee Line extension.
- The Ayrton Light. Above the belfry sits a lantern lit whenever the House of Commons sits after dark, visible from across London. It was added in 1873 and originally shone towards Buckingham Palace so Queen Victoria could see from a window when the Commons were at work.
- The bells. The Great Bell was cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry; its nickname comes from the tall Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw its installation. Four quarter bells chime on the quarter hours, and the clock keeps its original mechanism, adjustable by adding or removing pre-decimal pennies on the pendulum.
Time Your Visit to the Chimes and the Light
The bells are the point. Their tolling is broadcast live in the UK on BBC Radio 4 and internationally on the BBC World Service and BBC Sounds twice a day, with an extra broadcast on Sundays — but hearing them in the street is another thing entirely. Come at dusk, when the dials are illuminated: they have been lit routinely from dusk until dawn since 1876, and the gilding and glass glow against the darkening stone. The clock and tower were renovated between 2017 and 2021, during which the bells stayed silent apart from a few exceptions; they are ringing again now. Allow time to stand and wait for a quarter, then the hour. If you want to go inside the Palace of Westminster rather than simply admire the tower, tours of the building are available in July and August when Parliament is away on summer recess; the tower's own Prison Room is reached only from the House of Commons, not from the tower entrance, and is now occupied by the Petitions Committee. The tower has been part of a Grade I listed building since 1970 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Westminster on Foot: What to See Next
You are standing in the middle of a World Heritage Site. Westminster Abbey, the setting for royal coronations since 1066, is right beside you, and has a restaurant and café that both serve good food. Cross the river for the London Eye on the South Bank, with its views over the city. Walk west to Buckingham Palace, the King's London residence, open for tours during the summer months only, and worth seeing from outside whatever the season; the Changing of the Guard spans Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace and Wellington Barracks. Further afield, the Tower of London holds the Crown Jewels and is guarded by Beefeaters; Kensington Palace and Madame Tussauds lie to the west; and Emirates Stadium is north of the centre. All are Underground rides away from Westminster station.
The tower is free to look at and impossible to miss, but it is worth more than a photograph from a passing bus. Pick an evening, stand on the Westminster pavement, and wait for the hour to strike — then let the sound follow you along the river as you walk on.