London falls silent.

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Anyone who has been to London will probably have seen the houses of Parliament and Queen Elizabeth II tower which houses Big Ben. Due to some repair work on this ancient monument the bells are going to be silenced for up to four years to protect the hearing of those doing the repair work in the tower. There has been an uproar as to why it is taking too long to do this work. Hopefully they will come to some agreement to get the bells chiming as soon as possible. The bells will still chime for Remembrance Sunday and for the New Year but the rest of the year they will remain silent. Some people refer to the tower as Big Ben but it is actually the bell within the tower that is named Big Ben. It was originally cast in 1857 and was going to be called the Victoria Bell after Queen Victoria but cracked it on first testing. A new one was cast at the Whitechapel bell foundry in 1859 but that too cracked. Instead of casting a new bell they turned it three quarters and used a lighter hammer! Big Ben weighs in at 13.7 British imperial tons (13919.84 KGS) and is 7ft or 2.2 meters tall. It only chimes on the hour. There are four smaller bells in the tower hence the sounds of the chimes are known as the Westminster chimes which strike up every quarter of an hour. The clock faces on each of the four sides are 23ft (7m) tall and the glass is opal glass that is lit up at night. The hour hand is 9.2ft (2.8m) and the minute hand is 14ft (4.3m) long. The photo is of Queen Elizabeth (Big Ben) tower at the Palace of Westminster london, otherwise known as Parliament.