Big Ben Isn’t A Clock You Imbeciles

Big Ben Isn’t  A  Clock You Imbeciles, well I needed a catchy title and this was the best I could come up with. For those of you that didn’t know,  the world renowned London icon of Big Ben isn’t a clock, it isn’t even the tower, it is in fact the nickname for the 13 ton monster of a  bell, which is housed inside the tower.

The bells, official name is The Great Bell of Westminster and it’s nickname is Big Ben.

But for most people nowadays Big Ben, collectively symbolises the bell, clock and tower. I suppose the fact that each part of what is often referred to as Big Ben, actually has three different and distinct names, is way too much for most people to remember.

Lets start at the beginning, the bell is actually called the Great Bell of Westminster, the clock tower is ironically called the Clock Tower and the actual four sided clock face itself is called the Great Clock. Lets stick with calling it Big Ben, well because it makes things easier. Big Ben is part of The Houses of Parliament, which is also known as The Palace of Westminster. The English sure know how to make things confusing by given everything two names.

I would like to clear something up, which is totally wrong and that is the confusion over the Tower of St Stephen, it hasn’t and never has had anything to do with Big Ben! If you don’t believe me take it from the mouth of a tour guide who knows better than you or me!

I could ramble on and give you an insight into the history of Big Ben and a ton of interesting facts about it, but I don’t really see the point of doing that. Not because I’m lazy, but because the official site for Big Ben does a far better job than I ever could, BIG BEN. However one of my favourite facts is that there are cells within the clock tower where Members of Parliament can be imprisoned for a breach of parliamentary privilege, though this is rare; the last recorded case was in 1880. I hope that the next MP to get caught fiddling there expenses gets thrown in there till they are really sorry or MP’s that don’t respond to emails quickly enough!

My next task is to get myself on a tour of Big Ben, which is easier said than done. I have to first of all contact my local MP to arrange a tour and best of all it is free, but not so good is the fact it can seemingly take between 3 to 6 months to actually get on it. Unfortunately for foreign tourists, the tour is only open to residents of the UK.

I’m going to contact my local MP today, who is called Sarah Teather of the Liberal Democratic and hopefully she or her able bodied personal assistant responds to my email and gets the ball rolling so I can visit mighty Big Ben. It is going to be interesting as to how long it is actually going to take  get on the tour of Big Ben.

I would say that Big Ben is the most iconic symbol of London, even more so than the London Eye. Lets face it Big Ben sure as hell looks a lot prettier and is much more interesting, as well as having an unbelievable amount of history behind it. It is much more than just a big old boring clock and I cant personally cant wait to get the chance to see it close up. Next on my wish list is tea and cakes with the Queen, so if your reading this Queen Elizabeth I’m available any time you are and I take a wee drop of milk and two sugars.

Related posts:

1. The Icon Big Ben | London Titbits
2. The Big Ben Here I Come Ya Bas
3. Big Ben The Tour