Absolutely everything, apart from the actual beds of the clock, which is the frame that’s mounted on brick pillars inside the lock mechanism room, has been taken away. Their conclusion? “Strip out the entire clock. the hour hand weighs 3ookg and the minute hand weighs 100kg Courtesy of UK Parliament Laboratory analysis of clock part’s paint showed what had been black was originally prussian blue, so the original colour scheme has been restored. When it became necessary to put the scaffolding up on the tower, to restore, repair and conserve parts of its interior and exterior damaged by pollution, time and asbestos pollution-damaged stonework, it fell to Westworth and his small team to assess what they’d need to do to return the Great Clock to its former glory. Westworth, a cheerful ex-Army man, has been a clock maker for the Palace of Westminster since 2004.
You only restore Big Ben once in your career, hopefully,” says Ian Westworth, from one of his two workshops in the building’s basement. The process of its restoration began in 2017 with the removal of the hands and will end this year, when a renewed, repainted, scaffolding-free Big Ben, as the clock and the clock tower are known, will once again preside over London. And the biggest beast of all, at 13.7 tonnes, 2.2m high and 2.7m in diameter, is the Great Bell itself, Big Ben. There are the four quarter bells, which chime at 15, 30, 45 minutes past and just before the hour, weighing in at between 1.1 and 4 tonnes.
Each hour hand, made of gun metal, a type of bronze, comes in at 2.7m and including counterweights, weighs 300kg. The four-minute hands, on each of the clock’s four faces, are made of copper sheet, measure 4.2m in length and weigh 100kg, including counterweights. In the bustling centre of London, in the midst of a busy working Parliament building, atop the 96m-high Elizabeth Tower, up 11 floors (and 334 steps), is the Great Clock.
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