Big Ben is the most photographed object in Britain and almost everybody calls it by the wrong name — including, most of the time, the British.
What Big Ben actually is
Big Ben is the bell. It hangs inside the tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, weighs 13.7 tonnes, and strikes the hour. The tower around it was known simply as the Clock Tower until 2012, when it was renamed the Elizabeth Tower for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Nobody minds the confusion. Say “Big Ben” pointing at the tower and every British person will know exactly what you mean, and none of them will correct you unless they are being tiresome on purpose.
Where the name came from
Genuinely unknown. The two candidates are Sir Benjamin Hall, the commissioner of works whose name is inscribed on the bell, and Benjamin Caunt, a popular heavyweight boxer of the day. The boxer theory is more fun; the commissioner theory is more likely; the argument has been running since the 1850s.
The clock
The four dials are seven metres across, and the clock keeps time to within a second — regulated by an extraordinarily low-tech method. A small stack of pre-decimal pennies sits on the pendulum. Adding one penny speeds the clock by roughly two-fifths of a second a day; removing one slows it. The keepers still do this by hand.
The chimes
The quarter-hour tune is the Westminster Quarters, a sixteen-note melody borrowed from Handel. It is the sound the BBC has broadcast before news bulletins for a century, and it is probably the most recognisable clock chime on earth. The full sequence plays on the hour before Big Ben strikes.
When it falls silent
The bells stopped for most of a five-year restoration completed in 2022, ringing only for New Year and Remembrance Sunday. The silence was unexpectedly upsetting to people, and the return of the chimes made the news. That reaction says something true about the thing: it is not admired as architecture so much as relied upon as a sound.
Visiting
UK residents can arrange tours of the Elizabeth Tower through their MP; overseas visitors currently cannot go up. The 334 steps are spiral, narrow and have no lift, which rules it out for many people even when tickets are available. The view most people get — from Westminster Bridge, at dusk, from the far side of the river — is honestly the better one.