(Picture: Nigel Howard)
Big Ben is finally showing the correct time after being restored to its former glory following a five-year refurbishment.
The world-famous London landmark was covered in scaffolding in 2017 as it underwent the the biggest repair and conservation project in its history.
While some of that was removed last year, it was not until January that people finally got to see what the £80m price tag was all about.
The new view of the tower’s face showed the clock hands restored to their original blue, having been painted black previously to try and mask the dirt from pollution.
While many were left impressed by the look, others were confused after noticing one of the four dials showed the wrong time.
The west dial, which faces Parliament Square and St James’ Park, was stuck at 12 o’clock.
As this part of the clock sits close to the ventilation shaft, it had to be halted to prevent any damage to the hands and mechanism while dusty works continued as part of the restoration scheme.
Even when the final bits of scaffolding were removed last month, the west dial still did not show the correct time.
But yesterday, expert clock mechanics successfully connected it to the original Victorian clock mechanism.
Now, five months after scaffolding began to be removed, all four clock dials are functioning correctly and are visible to the public.
However, a statement on parliament’s website has warned that in the coming weeks, Londoners may notice momentary stoppages of the hands as well as random strikes of the bells.
That’s because The Great Clock of Westminster – the official name for the tower’s timepiece – has over 1,000 components and weighs over 12 tonnes.
Intricate engineering such as this requires regular testing before it is brought back into routine use.
Work on the The Elizabeth Tower (as it is officially called – Big Ben is just the bell inside) is still not completely finished, with the final touches expected by summer this year – a year later than planned, due to the pandemic.
The restoration was initially supposed to cost around £29 million, but the price soon spiralled to £80m due to the intricacy of the repairs.
Over 700 different pieces of stonework have been replaced while elements of the metalwork have been repainted and regilded.
Other key details have also returned to architects Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin’s original design, such as the row of six shields above each dial that displays St George’s red cross on a white background.
The clock, which was built in 1859, was removed to the Cumbria Clock Company in the Lake District, where it was painstakingly cleaned and repaired
While work was carried out, the famous bongs only rang out on a handful of special occasions, such as New Year and Armistice Day.
The final conservation effort will see the clock mechanism undergo several weeks of intensive testing before it is connected back to the bell, which previously chimed every hour.
The Ayrton Light – which shines when parliament is sitting – will be connected to the power supply and light up Westminster once more.
Some people have criticised the eye-watering price tag amid a cost of living crisis that is forcing people to choose between heating or eating.
Others have questioned the decision to allocate the funding to the restoration at a time when the NHS is chronically underfunde, with national insurance being hiked as a result.
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