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entertains guests invited to the Palace. During the summer, the Changing of
the Guard takes place at the front of the Palace.
Big Ben
Big Ben is one of London's best-known landmarks, and looks most
spectacular at night when the clock faces are illuminated. You even know
when parliament is in session, because a light shines above the clock face.
The four dials of the clock are 23 feet square, the minute hand is 14 feet
long and the figures are 2 feet high. Minutely regulated with a stack of
coins placed on the huge pendulum, Big Ben is an excellent timekeeper,
which has rarely stopped.
The name Big Ben actually refers not to the clock-tower itself, but to the
thirteen ton bell hung within. The bell was named after the first
commissioner of works, Sir Benjamin Hall.
This bell came originally from the old Palace of Westminster, it was given
to the Dean of St. Paul's by William III.
Before returning to Westminster to hang in its present home, it was
refashioned in Whitechapel in 1858. The BBC first broadcast the chimes on
the 31st December 1923 – there is an icrophone in the turret connected to
Broadcasting House.
During the Second World War in 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the
Commons chamber of the Houses of Parliament, but the clock tower
remained intact and Big Ben continued to keep time and strike away the
hours, its unique sound was broadcast to the nation and around the world, a
welcome reassurance of hope to all who heard it.
There are even 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.
The tower is not open to the general public, but those with a "special
interest" may arrange a visit to the top of the Clock Tower through their
local.
The Tower
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the
Tower of London (and historically as The Tower), is a historic fortress and
scheduled monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the
River Thames. It is located within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
and is separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open
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