Big Ben bongs for Remembrance Day after long renovation - The Washington Post

At 11 a.m. Friday, the Keeper of the Great Clock and his squad of horologists tested the bells, and crowds gathered adjacent astatine Whitehall to grant Armistice Day heard the aged lad bong again. All went well.

“Marvelous, wonderful, been a agelong time,” said Art Wallace, 56, visiting the superior metropolis with his mother, down from Yorkshire successful northbound England.

Since 2017, erstwhile the $95 cardinal renovation task began, the Elizabeth Tower and timepiece look person been mostly swaddled successful scaffolding, and the 24/7 bells silenced — but to peal (with a replacement mechanism) connected New Year’s Eve, to people Brexit and during the ceremonial of Queen Elizabeth II successful September, erstwhile it rang 96 times, erstwhile each minute, for each twelvemonth of the monarch’s agelong life.

But now, Big Ben is coming backmost arsenic portion of the regular soundtrack of London life. It volition denote the hr with the large doorbell and each 4th hr by chiming the notes G-sharp, F-sharp, E and B.

The BBC and different broadcasters carried the bells ringing unrecorded connected Friday. It is simply a spot of bully quality for Britain, resetting its iconic clock, getting immoderate mean back. It’s been a head-spinning thrust since the summer, with 3 premier ministers playing philharmonic chairs — Boris Johnson out; Liz Truss in; Liz Truss out; Rishi Sunak in.

When the Victorian-era clockworks began to tick successful 1859, it was the largest, astir close four-sided striking timepiece successful the world.

The dependable of the heavy gong has been utilized successful a drawstring of movies and tv dramas and featured successful a cardinal video clips by visitors. The soaring Elizabeth Tower is 1 of the astir recognizable architectural monuments successful the world, up determination with the Eiffel Tower and the pyramids of Giza.

This has been Big Ben’s longest silence. In its 163 years, the bells (and the clock’s hands) person been quieted oregon slowed conscionable a fistful of times — by dense snowfall and freezing temperatures, and for little repairs and maintenance.

Big Ben gonged passim World War II, a awesome of defiance successful the look of the bombing of London known arsenic the Blitz, adjacent if the lights of the timepiece dial were turned disconnected astatine nighttime truthful arsenic not to assistance the German Luftwaffe find its targets.

The renovation of the operation and its gilded spire, the solid dials and stonework, the timepiece and doorbell mechanics successful the belfry has been complex, and it was lone aft the conservation squad erected the scaffolding that they saw however severely the repairs were needed.

The ironworks were rusty, the extortion leaked. The stones were crumbling, a casualty of contamination and besides the achromatic overgarment utilized astir the timepiece dials, which didn’t let the stonework to breathe. Cheap repairs done successful the postwar 1950s made things worse.

The timepiece mechanics and strikers for the bells — the full mechanics weighs 25,000 pounds — were removed and taken to the Cumbria Clock Company, timepiece specialists successful England’s Lake District, wherever much than 1,000 abstracted parts were cleaned and repaired, Parliament’s media bureau reported.

During Remembrance Day weekend, a video of falling poppies — the angiosperm that symbolizes the Britons mislaid to warfare — volition beryllium projected connected the refurbished tower.

Lindsay Hoyle, talker of the House of Commons, said successful a connection that the illumination would beryllium “a fitting extremity to a week of remembrance successful Parliament successful a peculiarly bittersweet and poignant year.”