The History of London's Big Ben Bell
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- As the main bell in London's landmark clock, The Elizabeth Tower, 'Big Ben' is a name that's famous the world over...
But why is this mighty bell called Big Ben? How did it come to be? And where can you hear its predecessor, 'Old Tom'?
In this video we'll be finding all of this out and more as we explore the intriguing history behind the world's best known bell!
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Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:26 'Old Tom' of Westminster
05:36 A New Clock Tower for Westminster
08:29 The First Big Ben Bell
11:53 The Second Big Ben Bell
13:58 Who Was Big Ben?
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Links for this video:
Official website for the Clock Tower and Big Ben:
www.parliament.uk/about/livin...
St Paul's Cathedral:
www.stpauls.co.uk
The Salisbury Pub:
www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/gre...
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Thanks so much for watching!
Stay well, and please be sure to stay tuned!
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Credits:
Images:
Original design for Parliament, 1840- Parliamentary Art Collection
Imperial War Museum image: Launus, Creative Commons
Liberty Bell, Public Domain
Big Ben Crack: BBC
Please note, this video contains several AI generated images.
***
Music:
8mm sound effect: Pixabay
Tick Tock (Jimmy Fontanez/Media Right Productions)
Folk Round by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Sonatina No. 2 in F Major Rondo (Joel Cummins)
The Beauty of Love ( Aakash Gandhi)
The Trapezist (Quincy’s Moreira)
Diving in Backwards (Nathan Moore)
Interloper by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
White River (Aakash Gandhi)
Boxing Bell: Benboncan (via freesound.org) freesound.org/people/Benbonca...
Kiss the Sky (Aakash Gandhi
Winch sound effect: Benboncan via freesound.org
George Street Shuffle by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
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Anybody visiting London should watch Rob‘s videos first. You learn so much and end up walking the streets of London with a total different view. Thanks Rob for all your work x
Sandra, that is so kind of you to say. Many thanks indeed :-)
Rob, how do you manage all this detailed research in a single week? You've done it again; presented an in-depth history of an iconic London landmark that has stood the test of time since the mid-Nineteenth Century. Bravo!
Paul, that means a great deal to me. Thank you so much sir and stay well.
He's got a mouldy semi in Hounslow full of "language students" chained to their desks doing all the research for little better than slave wages, don'tya know?!
Get your tongue out 😂
Haha @@JP_TaVeryMuch
Rob, I'm a Londoner, born and bread ,you tell me more about my home town than I ever heard of, please keep up the good work 👍
That means a lot to me Robert, thanks you. Stay well.
Hello Rob
I am so impressed with video. Well researched and edited. We visited the church bell foundry in 2016 and I should have let you know as I have pictures of it when it was open. We believe that Big Ben was name for Sir Ben Hall. In the foundry there a written history of the bell and it states it is named for him. We did purchase a small bell which was made there in White Chapel. We love the Elizabeth tower and right now it looks fabulous in the gold and blue. When we 0:34 first visited London it was the number one item to see because I have two pictures one my dad drew as a teenager in the 50s and I picture of my grandfather with the tower behind when visited in London in 1970. He was born in London 1903. Loved the home movie addition. I had better stop now as I can go on for ever. Thanks and take care Chris and Sandra of Canada.
What a beautiful comment. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your memories; hope you're both keeping well :-)
Hi Rob, this is in my opinion one of your most interesting uploads. I went up inside the tower in around 1980. I was working on a programme for the BBC, though I can’t recall what it was. I don’t know whether you know but the actual mechanism of the clock is still regulated by a pile of pre decimal pennies. I didn’t know that a previous Westminster bell was now in St Paul’s cathedral. I think you are probably right about it being a case of the fame of Big Ben the boxer rubbing off on Benjamin Hall. After all, the working men who laboured on building the new Westminster and all those in the vicinity had no vote and probably had never heard of the latter gentleman.
Brilliant comment Mark, thank you! Was it for Blue Peter? Peter Duncan climbed up the clock in 1980, similar to John Noakes' climb up Nelson's Column a few years prior to that!
Hi Rob
Another great video, years ago I worked for a very old eccentric gent who lived in Hampstead.
His house was old and rickety, but there was wealth, anyway one day I was working out the back and he called me in to his study, he had a huge old leather topped victoriana desk, he asked me to unjam the top drawer, and to my amazement, it was blocked by the solid silver ceremonial trowel used for the foundation brick on Parliament, his great grandfather and apparently cousin, built parliament, and Nelson column, along with a few other high profile buildings
The name was Thomas Grissell, and his cousin? Peto
Perhaps you might find out more.
As alwayslove your content
Mike.
We look for history, but sometimes history looks for us!
Wow!! I need to know more about this Mike!
Hi Rob
It was a bit late last night to reply, I thought my post would peak your interest, what else would you like to know?
Mike
I'd love to know where the trowel is now ;-)@@mikereilly5005
There were 3 trowels, 1 for Barry's wife who, laid the first brick, and one each for grissell and peto, who also laid a bed of mortar, this was told to me at the time I discovered it, by grissells grandson.
Mike
😮 My previous misconcrption was that both Big Ben and America's Liberty bell were cast in Whitechapel 🏴 - now I find I was right but that the 'original' bell was cast at Stockton on Tees 🏴 - a fact I had never previously known !! (Thanks Rob) Again I'm learning, not only with each viewing, but also along side every word
I type !! It does, however, make me wonder just how much / how many Americans know the history of their "Liberty Bell" 🇺🇸?! 😊❤🖖
:-)
Not enough to save Liberty Bell's birthplace alas.
Neither country did enough, did we?
London has turned quite nasty these days but at least we still have this old boy gracing the London skyline. I used to love stopping on the bridge and listening to the hour chime.
😉
Great Sunday night video 👌
Bless you Paul, thank you!
Excellent as always, Rob. This remarkable city, which I adopted 50 years ago, has a ridiculous amounts of history behind it. Thanks for doing the research to make these videos possible.
Bless you Peter; it's a pleasure. Stay well my friend and thank you.
You never disappoint, Rob. Another meticulously researched and thoroughly entertaining post.
Much appreciated Neil, thank you!
Another wonderful presentation. Many Thanks.
Thanks!
rob dear, that was another wonderful little history lesson - everything a history lesson should be. ❤❤❤❤❤ and what a charming little cutie you were! of course!
Oh, thank you so much! 😂
@@Robslondon ❤️
Dear Rob. Thank you for such a well informed and interesting video. Much needed diversion today and I enjoyed it very much. I hope you enjoy researching and making these videos as much as we all love watching them! All the best, Clair
Bless you Clair, thank you :-) I do enjoy making them yes!
Brilliant video as always Rob - fascinating to learn about Old Tom too ❤
Thanks so much Louise ☺️ Hope you’re keeping well
When it comes to London History thankfully we have Big Rob 💪 Fab Rob as usual.
😄 Thank you!
Another set of informative and entertaining stories. Thanks Rob!
Thanks so much Paul!
Your research and presentation are superb Rob 🤗
Thank you once again for bringing yet another amazing episode to us.
It was fabulous 🙂
Thank you so much Christine, I really appreciate that 😊
I'm with you, Rob, in that if someone mentions Big Ben we know darn well they're talking about the clock tower and not to get our knickers in a twist over semantics 😂 Another great video, thanks
Cheers Darren! 🤣
Thanks Rob another interesting and informative presentation. Hopefully the old bell foundry can be preserved as it’s such an important part of the history of London.
Thanks Nigel, and yes- very much agreed. Stay well mate.
Another brilliant video, and a lovely tribute to Augustus Pugin. Who was also the man responsible for the house that gave it's name to Alton Towers theme park. Such a shame that that example of his work is just an empty shell, but another iconic contribution in it's own right.
Thanks so much MagicKiller- and that’s fascinating, I had no idea he’d designed that Manor House. Cheers and stay well.
Many thanks, Rob. It's always great to hear your stories.❤
Thanks Johnathan 😊
Without reading every other comment: I would steer towards a combination of two people. The naming may well be officially entrenched with the commissioner, but there may well have been an order of magnitude more people thinking a popular boxer was the Real Big Ben.
As a wise gentleman said to me once “you must never let reality get in the way of a good story”
Hi from Oz 🇦🇺
Agreed; and thank you- love your user name 😉🇦🇺
You do not disappoint so much history and the many faces that tower has had. Well done and thank you great viewing I learn loads every time❤️
Much appreciated Tracy, thank you 😊
Been meaning to contribute to the videos for a while now, excellent work again Rob!
I really appreciate that Metranomix, thank you so much.
My 5 year old neighbor ALWAYS refers to the tower as the Elizabeth Tower. I now have Big Ben as my ringtone as well.
:-D
Like you, I'm perfectly okay with calling the whole tower Big Ben. It is a device of the English language called a metonym. For instance, when we say we'll boil the kettle we actually mean we'll be boiling the water inside it. Boiling a kettle would be rather futile! 😄 Great video!
Ha ha ;-) Spot on Brian!
Such great storytelling
Much appreciated, thank you!
11:45 Am I the only one to think “Gentrified luxury apartments development” is where this is heading?
That aside, another interesting and fascinating video Rob.
Fancy hotel I'm afraid...
A bright note on Remembrence Day is a video from Rob. Any day I learn something new is a good day and today is a very good day indeed! Bang on as usual Sir!
Bless you John, thank you.
The last time I was in London in 2019, I wasn't able to go inside Big Ben since it was still under renovation. Great video as always Rob ❤
Thanks blackcoffy :-) Hope you make it back soon; it looks incredible now. Stay well.
Thanks again for another great and interesting video. So much information that I didn't know. Brilliant narrative well researched.
Thanks! 😉
I was lucky enough to visit the Tower some years ago. I was in the bell room to see and hear it strike 11.00. Not as deafening as you might think. Good video.
Wow! 😉
Wonderful episode, Rob!
I enjoyed.learning about Old Tom (the other day I posted a short of him and his cohort banging away. Had to add a note after watching your video).
Ah, thank you! :-)
Love it. Thanks for answering the question. I had always wondered myself.
Great fascinating research as ever Rob. Thank you
Thanks Doug 😉
Great content. I enjoyed watching it and loved it. Thank you Robert.👍👍👍😍😍😍
Thank you 😁
These side stories are as interesting as the main story. Im definitely going to spare a thought for Augustus Pugin when next passing”The Clock Tower” . I might even raise a glass to Boxer Ben in The Salisbury
Bless you Michelle 🙂
As always, an absolutely brilliant, and well researched video Rob. Wish that you had been my history teacher at school ha ha. Looking at the pic of Junior Rob, you haven't changed a bit my friend.
Bless you Barry 😊 Stay well sir.
They should use your videos in schools to keep our heritage alive👍bravo.
Thank you so much... I hope they do, I need the views! ;-) Cheers and stay well.
Great video as always, my friend. 😊
Much appreciated, thank you!
Another mesmerising and exceedingly great account of the houses of Westminster and Big Ben. Like yourself i still prefer to use the name Big Ben and would argue more people wpuld know it by that than the Elizabeth Tower.
Another interesting nugget, if in fact it is all true, came from a visit to All Saint's Church in the Parish of West Ham. Whilst walking round this beautiful church i was informed that its own clock tower was indeed a prototype for Westminster's Tower in regards ro the clock's mechanisms and striking of Big Ben. The man responsible was called Lord Grimtnorpe. I did do a bit of wiki searching and yes, it appears this is the case. But i know Wiki is not the best source of historical facts.
Thanks for a great video.
Very interesting, thank you!
Hi Rob, always impressed with the amount of detail you manage to find out about these places, a very professional and informative watch as usual, many thanks
Thank you so much Pam :-)
I wondered what my ex meant when she said "I'm off to live with an old tom in Westminster!" 😆
😆
Thanks Rob, very entertaining
Thanks Rob!
❤ Fabulous! Definitely one of your best 👍
Thanks Rachel, much appreciated
Always interesting Rob, thank you
Thanks Deb
Another excellent video, thank you.
It's a pleasure sparky, thank you.
Well Rob, just imagine if the bell hadn't cracked you opening chimes and drawings wouldnt have had the tone of all your offerings to us 😎 Cheers DougT upt north.
🤣 Cheers Doug!
Another brilliant video, thanks for your rime and effort.
It's a pleasure ;-) Thank you.
Atop Big Ben: a fitting place for the internet. 🤓😛😂
lovely! thanks for this!
Thank you Carl 😊
it's one of my favorite sounds in the world.
Lovely comment, thank you :-)
Excellent as usual. Thank you.
It's a pleasure, thank you!
Wow, I never realized how beautifully ornate it is. It's amazing!!
😄
It's just been unwrapped of its scaffolding and has been returned to the original paintwork which is why it looks so fresh and clean.
Rob, greetings again from Thailand, only 13 minutes past midnight at home 07.14 here.
Yet again, another superlative video, so detailed your and delivered so fluentently.
There is so much information to digest as to whom Big Ben was. It's hard to come up with a positive from answer, big Ben the boxer is nearest to the weight of the bell.
Did my reply get to you following your last video?
Hi Butch, many thanks indeed. I think I saw your last comment? Stay well.
Great video Rob, brilliant.
Thank you Michael 😊
Excellent video as always Rob.
Thank you John!
'In my book' seeing a vlog / video by Robslondon means I should learn something and can then help educate others - should they express a desire to learn. I think learning is s delight (if correctly / pleassntly taught) hence, these videos, falling under both descriptions, are "a must see" 😊
My thanks are added to others here for Rob's excellent research and pleasant presentation. Learning is so much easier this way and I enjoy each video because of it. (The "most gruesome" / "unpleassnt histories" notwithstanding of course !) 🏴🤔🇬🇧🤔💙🧡❤️🖖
That means so much to me Brigid, thank you so much. Stay well.
@@Robslondon
You're very welcome, Rob. Thank you. Likewise, stay safe and stay well. 🏴🖖
Very informative
Thank you
Fantastic video in all ways . The production is absolutely first class ...non of the usuall waving the camera around etc . Thank you , very interesting.
I really appreciate that Ken, thank you so much.
Interesting video, I have a mini Big Ben on my table
Nice! 😉
well done rob 10 out of 10 for all your vlogs rob well done sir
Thanks very much Richard
cheers @@Robslondon
As always, a very interesting vid. Thank your for that!
Greetings from germany 🙋♀️
Thank you so much 😊 🇩🇪
Thanks!
Thank you so, so much hellie-el; so kind of you 😊
@@Robslondon ❤️
I ❤ Big Ben's Bongs. Should be a t-shirt.
🤣
Great video. So who was Old Tom named after?
Not entirely sure! There was a fellow called Old Tom who claimed he was a ridiculous age (about 150 or something), but not 100% sure if it was related to him.
Lovely work Rob. Only time I've passed Big Ben, was on the marathon. Lovely iconic tower though.
You did the London Marathon? Full respect 😉
@@Robslondon Twice, like once wasn't enough. 😄
Yet another brilliant piece of history by Rob. If I wore a hat I would take it down in your honour, sir. Thank you. I always look forward to your episodes.
Bless you HeimirTomm :-) Thank you so much.
@@Robslondon Honestly, you have one of the best channels on youtube. Two things I wait in anticipation for, yours and @Cuttingedgeengineering. Not really the same but then, I have varied interests.
@@HeimirTomm Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Stay well my friend.
Never knew the history of our famous Massive Muhammad so thanks for enlightening us
Thanks for watching!
Takk!
Takk skal du ha! That is so kind of you :-) Stay well.
Awesome! But I worry that my repeated praise could be misconstrued as insincere flattery which it is not. I really do find the deep research both in words, pictures and drawings uniquely impressive. For example, like the videos seen so far, and this Big Ben one, I am sure that 90% of the population have no idea about the intricate history involved in them and this tower, bell and place. I will try to be less gushing as I work through your videos in order to ensure they are seen as genuine. Lol Rob
Bless you Rob... your praise means a great deal to me, so feel free, ha ha! It really does help with the algorithm too; so much appreciated ;-)
More than 85 years cracked before I was born
😄
An interesting documentary Rob. It seems as if British Bells have a habit of cracking. I suspect that it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall but Big Ben was catchier as alliterative names or nicknames usually are whether Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck or closer to (fictional) London, Dirty Den.
Cheers ;-)
One of your best yet Rob, thank you.
It is such a shame that the nickname Old Tom didn't stick. Wouldn't it be brilliant for a new year to be heralded by Old Tom chiming midnight.
For me unfortunately the boxer is in second place.
Cheers Slycockney ;-)
Definitely the boxer deserves the honour.
Agreed 😉 Thanks for watching WickedFelina!
Thanks Rob, once again an incredibly interesting video. Well done.😊 That’s a very good question, who was Big Ben??? I cannot make my mind up on that one😢😢 It was a shame the foundry closed. Did they go out of business do you know or did they just relocate?
Thanks Ron! As far a I know they went out of business, not sure if they're continuing elsewhere. They're currently trying to turn the site into a hotel.
There's a whole unedifying tale behind the unbelievable demise of the Whitechapel foundry. Famously one of the oldest going concerns in Europe, it seems that they rubbed up some little Hitler in authority locally the wrong way for some reason.
A slightly suspect series of new regulations, planning laws, business rates and so on ~ all seemingly interpreted in a strangely unhelpful to the company way did for the business.
If you have a spare tenor bell in need of a brush up, there's one foundry left. In the Midlands I think.
Or somewhere in the Netherlands and that's about your lot. Apparently business is slow these days and has been for quite some time.
Lastly the situation is SO bad that in Italy - you know that country with that big church in that tiny city state where half the Christian community of the planet believes that the Good Lord's representative on earth has his gaff - churches, chapels and the like are closing and rapidly selling off their ring of bells to new places of worship springing up in Africa!
👍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Big Ben strikes one!
😉
Are, but which way is it leaning, to the left or right as my old commerce teacher commented one lesson.
🤔
wonder if Ben Caunt had anything to do with a bell ringing in between rounds
Interesting point
TITANIC + THIS BELL , ENGLISH ALWAYS TRYING TO GO BEYOND THE BEYOND!!!!!!
Ha ha ;-)
Bet you got a sixpence for that tooth Rob?
Hope you spent it well.
😇😁🇬🇧🙏
Fantastic Fact's.,.
Ben the fighter or Ben the big nose to look down🧐 well we know through time who we have tried to be 👍⚖️🇬🇧 I remember the Whitechapel works closing 😢💔💯 🇬🇧
But THANKS 🙏 Rob of TODAY of all days😜😳💪 ⁉️ we will remember with LONDONER'S That won't FORGET 💔🙏😇
Bless brov bless..🇬🇧💯
Really appreciate that Gary; cheers mate and stay well 😉
Great video Rob, how much did u get for that missing tooth when you was a kid 😂 probably 10p like I would of got.
🤣
Then used a smaller hammer and the same bell still in use today
Correct
Thanks for uploading Rob, brilliant and detailed as usual... It's just a shame that the center or our beautiful Capital City is a bit of a no-go zone for the civilized at weekends, especially with children. May it end very soon. Cheers, another Rob.🙂
I rather think that the boxer "Big Ben" would hold more sway with the general poplace, eg "the common man", than an official of "The Board of Works" as few people - then (?!) And now, tend to hold "officialdom" in any real sense of "high regard" and thus the 'big bell' would more likely (in my opinion) share the boxer's 'famous' name - even if 'glossed over' by (some) historians later. ❤
so is big ben just one note? is it the lowest note? or does it not make little tunes like other bell towers? other bells must be huge and heavy too..
As far as I know it is the bell which strikes the hour...
@@Robslondon
and was the bell which tolled spine-tinglingly with muffled clapper for HlateMtheQ's funeral service.
The minister of works obviously. An imprssive individual; his name is cast into the bell..sort of a giveaway.
🤔
I know a guy from Michigan who is really fat. His name is Ben, we call him Big Ben so maybe it's named after him?
Ha ha ;-)
Big Brenda according to the Two Ronnie’s.
😄
Cracked because the hammer that used was too big
Yep
The Latin phrase should sound like "Dis-kee-tay Ee-oos-titty-am Moh-nee-tee"
🫢
Enjoy the Ko-Fis 😇
I really appreciate your support Wagner, thank you my friend! ;-)
Cracked in 1859
Yep
21:25 bell end.
Ha ha
Back then Stockton on Tees was in North Yorkshire, NOT County Durham.
It became part of the new authority of Teesside in 1974 (later called 'Cleveland') until that was abolished in 1996. Following that the area of the town north of the River Tees became incorporated into County Durham and that area south of the Tees returned to North Yorkshire.
Tut tut! Poor research!! 😉
We all make mistakes Andy.
@@Robslondon 👍🤣
Who is a big fan of Big Ben like me
I really want to be snarky…😏
ha ha ;-)
In tests was a small crack
Ok
6‘ 2” isn’t all that tall. Many young men are taller than that where I live. Over 6’ 7” is what we would call tall.
It was tall in the 1830s/40s when many people were severely undernourished...