"Big Ben and the houses of Parliament" Houses of Parliament and Big Ben Tip by Cham

When looking at the london skyline in pictures or when you're here, you will usually always see one thing... BIG BEN...

or shall i say what people refer to as Big Ben. People refer to the huge Gothic clock tower attached to the houses of parliament as Big Ben but in fact it's the bell inside it that has this name. The bell is around 9 feet in diameter 7ft 6inches in height and weights almost 14000 kg.

The bell was cast in whitechapel foundry which can be visited today as a museum, they still have the original bell cast on view.

For those of you that are Canadian and American the Liberty Bell was cast here in 1752 and the great bell of montreal was also cast here.

The original specification for the clock was to be accurate to within one second and checked every day against the caesium clock in grenwich where a record was kept. This was deemed impossible by clockmakers at the time but through perseverence it was created, and remains a symbol of GMT in london.

For new year this is the clock we go by.

The houses of parliament, are supposedly owned by the people, as we have the power to put people in this building and therefore any citizen of the UK may apply for a tour, or to be allowed to watch the proceedings of parliament when it's in session.

Unfortunately non-residents can no longer take a tour of this building unless it's during the Summer opening period, which is august 1st to september 30th, the ticket office is open from mid July, and they sell out fast!

Address: westminter square
Directions: Westminter tube station and it's right in front of you