Seeing Big Ben tomorrow

Ceryndrion · 6 Apr 2009 at 23:25

I think you'll find he mentioned that he was meaning the bell, and not the tower..

digipeep · 6 Apr 2009 at 23:37

bibalasvegas said:
If you haven't realised by now, Big Ben actually refers to one of the bells in the tower which I believe is actually called St Stephen's Tower. It is quite a cool and historic building so have fun!

+1

was just going to mention the tower is called St. Stephen's tower and the actual bell is called Big Ben.

Bengaboy · 6 Apr 2009 at 23:48

Sinque said:
Is the tour guide going to show you his giant bell?

LMAO

Rybo89 · 7 Apr 2009 at 01:25

no im honestly proper being serious here, i would rather play on the M1 trying to see how many moving lorry's tires i can sniff.

hope you have a good day.

MotherMayI · 7 Apr 2009 at 01:57

gary996 said:
I hate going to London its poo hole

.. I bet Gillingham is where its at.

Strife212 · 7 Apr 2009 at 02:18

gary996 said:
I hate going to London its poo hole

I love it

Mr Kingston · 7 Apr 2009 at 03:02

hope you have fun with your family and remeber pictures without bread = ocuk FAIL

Cosimo · 7 Apr 2009 at 09:24

Sinque said:
Is the tour guide going to show you his giant bell?

.... and sing My Ding-a-Ling.

Fragalot · 7 Apr 2009 at 09:30

sounds pretty interesting to me tbh, i'd like to go. most people can only think of having fun involving drinking, UK culture sucks

Karl · 7 Apr 2009 at 10:41

Wow that's really cool mate. I'd love to do that.

Ricochet J · 7 Apr 2009 at 11:23

I probably see, and hear Big Ben, amongst other London church bells chime at all hours of the day at least once a day!

V4NT0M · 7 Apr 2009 at 11:33

btw TTIUWP of Big Ben.

JudgeC · 7 Apr 2009 at 11:36

I had a tour round the Lords & Commons a couple of months back, during a technical seminar that was being hosted there.
It was very interesting and got to have a few beers in the bar as well.

Jono · 7 Apr 2009 at 11:52

Jonny69 said:
That is actually quite cool. I got to go up a bellfry in the city on one of those Open House weekends and it's quite a cool place. The clock mechanism in Big Ben's clocktower is quite cool apparently and they regulate it by adding pennies to the pendulum to slow it down, speed it up etc.

Most church clocks have this treatment. You should go on a guided tour around York Minster sometime too. They have a Carrillon or however you spell it.

The mathematics of campanology is quite interesting.
Each bell (except for the smallest) follows exactly the same pattern, but they start at a different point in it.

EffBee · 7 Apr 2009 at 16:16

There is quite an interesting article in wiki about big ben and the tower.

Victorian engineering was built to LAST!

yermum · 7 Apr 2009 at 19:41

Just got back in from our trip to London and it was awsome. We were shown the clock mechanism as it struck 11.45 and then went up to the bells at 12. As the pendulum is regulated by the addition or subtraction of old pennies, our son left a 1967 penny that he had been given some time ago with the clock keeper. He promised that the next time they added a coin, they would use his penny.

Big Ben is soooooooo loud that you are supposed to wear ear plugs, but we didn't, with the girders vibrating with each strike - but absolutely no photos allowed unfortunately. We walked around behind the 4 clock faces and saw some mysterious preparations that they are making for when the clock is 150 soon.

We were given special gold lapel pins to commemorate the trip and warned not to put them on ebay or security would track us down

We had lunch next to the river in one of the House of Commons restaurants, courtesy of a friend of ours who works there, and then went on to a guided tour of the two Houses.

An amazing day out and one that I can recommend without hesitation, apart from the 340 odd steps up the clock tower and the miles of walking that we have done today.