Big Ben rings the changes by opening to tourists

Foreign visitors will be able to see Big Ben for the first time under plans to turn the Elizabeth Tower into a fully fledged tourist attraction.

Before the renovations started, the only way to see the bell up close was to contact your local MP then climb the 334 steps to the cramped belfry.

When work finishes in 2021 it will be opened to international visitors as well if MPs approve the plan. A new viewing platform and exhibition space are under construction — and a lift to the top.

The complex £61 million restoration reaches its halfway point today, 160 years since Big Ben chimed for the first time on July 11, 1859.

While the 13.7-tonne bell has remained in place, the clock, which was the most accurate in the world when installed in 1854, has been removed and reconditioned cog by cog. The metal frames of the four faces have been blast cleaned, painted blue in keeping with the original design, and rebuilt with 324 individual pieces of handmade opal-coloured glass from Germany.

The stonework has been meticulously repaired using Cadeby stone from a quarry near Doncaster and gilding has been reapplied to the lettering around the dials and the cross and orb at the summit.

Perhaps the trickiest part of the operation has been reconditioning and reinstalling 3,433 pieces of cast iron that make up the roof of the grade I listed clock tower, designed by Augustus Pugin and rechristened in 2012 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

It was only discovered that the roof and southern clockface had been damaged by a bomb that hit the Commons in 1941 after renovations had begun, which meant more substantial repairs than expected.

Adam Watrobski, the principal architect, said: “The postwar repairs were rather ‘make do and mend’ and were not discovered until we started stripping the roof off. This involved some extra work to the cast iron structure and may well have contributed to the higher number of recast elements needed, but the important thing is that we have ensured that both the clock and the tower will be there and working for future generations.”

Those visitors may be in for a surprise: a time capsule placed at the top of the tower contains a list of the craftspeople and construction experts involved in the project, messages from pupils at a school in Lewisham and a copy of the day’s order paper. A capsule from the 1950s, containing a similar list, a newspaper and a ha’penny had been discovered by the team addressing the bomb damage.

Mr Watrobski insisted there was still much to be done and said that the next stage would start to address the interiors, reveal more of the original design, increase the capacity for tours and install safety systems. For the first time there will even be a toilet.

In numbers

• 160 years since Big Ben first struck the hour on July 11, 1859

• 18 hours taken to haul it sideways into position, 61m above ground

• 314ft height of Elizabeth Tower

• 7ft 6in height of Big Ben

• 9ft diameter of Big Ben

• 13,760kg weight. The hammer weighs 200kg alone

• 1923 the first time the BBC broadcast the chimes to the country. They were heard internationally in 1932 on the World Service

• 5 bells in the belfry

• 1296 glass panes in the four clock faces

• 190km travelled by the hands of the clock each year

• 13 years from launch of a competition to design a new clock in 1846 to installation in 1859

• 11,000kg weight of clock

• 3433 pieces of cast iron comprising the roof

• 700 pieces of stonework repaired