Clock tower, palace of westminster

The Clock Tower is a turret clock structure at the north-eastern end of the Houses of Parliament building in Westminster, London. It is colloquially and popularly known as Big Ben, however this name actually belongs to the clock's main bell. It has also been referred to as St. Stephen's Tower.

The Clock Faces were once large enough to allow the Clock Tower to be the largest four-faced clock in the world, but has since been outdone by the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The builders of the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower did not add chimes to the clock, so Big Ben still holds the title of the ‘World's largest four-faced chiming clock’. The clock mechanism itself was completed by 1854, but the tower was not fully constructed until four years later in 1858.

Big Ben, officially known as the Great Bell of Westminster, is the largest bell in the tower and part of the Great Clock of Westminster. The Great Bell weighs 13 metric tonnes and is 2.2 metres high.

The exact origin of the name 'Big Ben' has remained a popular mystery, leading to speculation that suggests the bell was named after heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt who was popular at the time, however an alternate theory that has been supported cites the origin of the name as belonging to Sir Benjamin Hall who was the Parliamentary Commissioner of Works.

The clock is famous for its reliability. This is due to the skill of its designer, the lawyer and amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison. Denison invented the double three-legged gravity escapement. This escapement provides the best separation between pendulum and clock mechanism. Together with an enclosed, wind-proof box sunk beneath the clockroom, the Great Clock's pendulum is well isolated from external factors like snow, ice and pigeons on the clock hands, and keeps remarkably accurate time.

Big Ben is a focus of New Year celebrations in the United Kingdom, with radio and TV stations tuning to its chimes to welcome the start of the year. Similarly, on Remembrance Day, the chimes of Big Ben are broadcast to mark the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and the start of two minutes' silence.

Trafalgar square

Trafalgar Square is a square in central London that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been King William the Fourth's Square but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name ‘Trafalgar Square’. The square, a popular site for political demonstrations, is the site of Nelson's Column, and other sculptures.

Nelson's Column is in the centre of the square, surrounded by fountains designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1939 and four huge bronze lions sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer; the metal used is said to have been recycled from the cannon of the French fleet. The column is topped by a statue of Lord Nelson, the admiral who commanded the British Fleet at Trafalgar.

The Square has become an enormously important symbolic social and political location for visitors and Londoners alike, developing over its history from ‘an esplanade peopled with figures of national heroes, into the country’s foremost place politique,’as historian Rodney Mace has written.

The square is a popular tourist spot in London, and used to be particularly famous for its pigeons (Rock Pigeons). Feeding the pigeons was a popular activity with Londoners and tourists. The National Portrait Gallery displays a 1948 photograph of Elizabeth Taylor posing there with bird seed so as to be mobbed by birds.

There has been a Christmas ceremony every year since 1947. A Norway Spruce (or sometimes a fir) is given by Norway's capital Oslo and presented as London's Christmas tree, as a token of gratitude for Britain's support during World War II. As part of the tradition, the Lord Mayor of Westminster visits Oslo in the late autumn to take part in the chopping down of the tree, and the Mayor of Oslo then goes to London to light the tree at the Christmas ceremony.

For many years, revellers celebrating the start of a New Year have gathered on the square, despite a lack of civic celebrations being arranged for them. The lack of official events in the square was partly because the authorities were concerned that actively encouraging more partygoers would cause overcrowding.