His nickname was Big Ben.īig Ben is Britain’s most important clock. The second man was Benjamin Caunt, who was the heavyweight boxing champion of 1841. He commissioned the new Houses of Parliament to be built, and he was also a very large man. Why is it called Big Ben? No-one is quite sure, but it was named after one of two men who were both known as Big Ben at the time the clock was built. The other 4 bells are called ‘quarter bells’, because they chime every fifteen minutes, or every quarter of an hour. If it is five o’clock, the hammer strikes it five times. Big Ben is the biggest bell, and every hour a hammer strikes the time on it.
The clock first chimed its famous chimes on 31 st May, 1859. You can see the clock in the top picture, and the bell in the bottom picture.
We also say Big Ben when we refer to the whole clock tower as well. Big Ben is actually the name of the enormous bell inside the clock of the Houses of Parliament.
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