The Cross of St George is coming home to one of the most prominent and best-loved landmarks in England. When Big Ben strikes again, after a £61m restoration of the mechanism, clock faces and tower, it will once again bear the emblem, so joyfully ubiquitous this summer, on six shields above each of its four faces.
The clock and its chimes have been such a part of life in central London that there was a public outcry and questions in parliament when it fell silent last summer and it emerged it would remain so for the entire period of the restoration. The House of Commons Commission, which is responsible for the work, relented and the bells rang in the new year and signalled the start of the two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday. It will ring again, the commission promises, for other events “of national significance”.
Restoring the shields is part of recreating the colourful original appearance of the clock and its tower before London grime took its toll. Paint scrapes have established that the numbers, hands and iron tracery were a rich blue when the device first began to keep time for Londoners in 1859, and were only painted black as the original colour proved impossible to maintain under layers of London soot.
All of the hundreds of pieces of milky-white glass in each face are also being replaced, and other decorative features, including the rose, thistle, shamrock and leek emblems of the four parts of the United Kingdom, will also be repainted or regilded.
The clock and tower are universally known as Big Ben, despite more than 150 years of pedantic insistence that the name only correctly applies to the 13.7-tonne great bell. The tower was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee.
The commission, mindful of the earlier controversy, was at pains to stress that Big Ben and the four quarter bells will ring again “as soon as practically possible”. The clockwork is being completely dismantled and every piece examined and conserved. One face will be left visible while the others are covered up for the work “to ensure that the public are still able to see this most important of timepieces”.
Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington and a spokesman for the commission, said the St George’s Cross represented what was best about “England and the English nature”, before hastily adding that he was sure the other nations of the UK would not object. The conservation work was crucial to ensure its survival for future generations, he said. “The Elizabeth Tower is a symbol of the UK’s democratic heritage, and I’m thrilled to see these vital restoration works return the clock tower to its former glory.”
The restoration work is based on a 1838 watercolour by Charles Barry, the architect who with Augustus Pugin was responsible for the rollicking gothic revival appearance of the building that replaced the old Palace of Westminster which was destroyed by fire in 1834. The 334-step clock tower, built from 2,600 cubic metres of brick and 850 cubic metres of stone, all delivered by boat to the site, was complete by 1859, but there was an embarrassing pause before it began to tell the correct time, caused by the heavy cast-iron metal hands sagging. They were replaced with lighter copper, and the clock became the nation’s official timekeeper on 31 May 1859.
