The clock tower at one end of the Houses of Parliament (London, England) contains the bell 'Big Ben'. The tower is one of those tourist attractions that visitors to London always want to see and I've stood on the street corner opposite plenty of times while friends are visiting and want to take photos. The bell itself is an iconic part of British life and consciously or unconsciously most British people know it well. For many of us it has chimed in our New Year celebrations, started our news broadcasts and just generally been part of our lives. It's as quintessentially English as Sunday dinner.

What many people don't know is that UK residents are allowed to climb the tower to see the infamous bell and the mechanism from the inside!

It's a rare opportunity to see further into the houses of parliament than the traditional tourist route. I've actually already been around quite a lot of the normally off-limits areas of the houses of parliament while presenting some work at university (young scientist/engineer of the year competition). They gave us a tour and some food/drinks on the Lords Bar Terrace facing the river - but I have never been inside the tower.

The UK parliament website tells you all you need about applying to climb the tower (link). Essentially, UK residents can apply through their local member of parliament. Probably the easiest way to do this is to use the excellent 'They Work for you' website which will tell you who your local MP is and send them an email/fax.

My local MP is Anne Main (St Albans) and the e-mail I sent read:

The next morning I received an phone call from from Anne's personal assistant asking for a couple more details. Later the same day I received an email confirming I had been provisionally booked on a clock tour (1st Dec 2010 @ 11.15am) and asking for a couple more identity details to help the police run their security checks:

Big Ben Tours Office, Department of Information Services
House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
e: BigBenTours@parliament.uk
t: 020 7219 4862


Thank you for making a Westminster Clock Tower booking.

Wednesday 01 Dec 2010, 11:15 AM

In 2009, Parliament celebrated the 150th anniversary of its world famous Westminster Clock Tower / Big Ben. You will climb the clock tower and hear Big Ben strike the hour.

For security reasons, it is the House of Commons' policy to obtain security information on all visitors wishing to tour the Clock Tower.

Attached is a spreadsheet detailing the information that we require. This information will be passed to the Police for vetting. The spreadsheet must be returned no later than two weeks prior to the date of the tour.

Please return the spreadsheet by e-mail, as an Excel attachment, to BigBenTours@parliament.uk

Once security clearance has been granted your visitors will receive a letter sent directly to the designated tour leader named in box 1, one week prior to the date of their tour. They should bring the letter with them, and each visitor should bring two forms of identification, one with their home address, the other with photographic ID.

We regret to advise that although a booking reference has been given, confirmation of a tour cannot be granted until security clearance has been obtained. Failure to provide information from an individual in time will regrettably result in access being refused.

At present, we are unable to provide tours of the Clock Tower to overseas visitors. All visitors must have a full UK address at which they permanently reside.

Please ensure that your visitors are aware of the following information:

• Because of very tight schedules, visitors should gather in the Portcullis House Reception Area no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the tour. We regret that latecomers will miss the tour and will not be able to join the tour once it has commenced.

• All visitors pass through airport-style security search-points. Please do not bring knives or similar items as they may be subject to confiscation.

• For security reasons, no extra guests or those who have not been security checked may be admitted.

• We regret that photography is not permitted.

• Mobile phones must be switched off and out of sight for the duration of the tour.

• The tour takes approximately 75 minutes.

• There are no lavatory facilities available prior to the tour, but there are public facilities by Westminster Station and Victoria Embankment.

• Eating and drinking is not permitted and the tour does not have access to refreshment facilities.

The Clock Guide reserves the right to refuse access to the Clock Tower at any point.

Health & Safety

Owing to the nature of the tour, it is not suitable for all visitors and requires a certain degree of good health and fitness as you will be required to climb 334 stone spiral steps.

• Heart condition e.g. angina.

• Asthma or other breathing related difficulties.

• Epilepsy.

• High blood pressure.

• Back or leg problems.

• Immobility due to injury or recent surgery.

• Those suffering from vertigo (fear of heights) or claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces).

If you are in any doubt about your ability to participate in the tour you should consult your doctor.

Sensible shoes must be worn as there are 334 steps to climb in a confined space.

Children of school age must be supervised at all times and children under the age of 11 are not permitted to participate in the tour.

The tour is considered to be unsuitable for pregnant women. Pregnant women may be refused permission to participate in the tour if the Clock Guide considers that it would be inadvisable for health and safety reasons.

The Clock Guide reserves the right to refuse a visitor to participate in the tour or continue to participate if the Guide considers that the physical or mental condition of a visitor presents unacceptable health and safety risks.

Thank you for your co-operation and understanding in this matter. If you have any queries, please contact us on 020 7219 4862.


Amanda Leck
Westminster Clock Tower Tours and Events Coordinator

That was easy enough. I can't imagine security checks will be a problem so roll on December the 1st! It's a little dissapointing that there's no photography allowed as I bet it would be a cool place to take a few pictures, but so be it...

It's Wednesday the first December and I've just got back from the Big Ben tour. Most of the UK has been complaining about being buried under snow for the last week but London has it's own climate so we've seen none of it. It is however freezing!

A couple of days before the visit I received a map and a confirmation of my tour day/time. I guess someone decided I don't represent a threat to national security. The map sent me to Portcullis House - an overflow building across the road from the houses of parliament housing about 200 MPs. We passed through some airport security scanners and identity checks to make a tour group of 6 people. The group was meant to be a bit bigger but a few people didn't show up, presumably due to the weather in the rest of the country. We made our way underneath the road and into the base of the tower.

Standing at the bottom of the tower and looking up the very narrow 334 step spiral staircase looked a little daunting but we were a young/relatively fit group so didn't really notice the climb. For unfit/older people it should still be doable and the tour guide was clearly used to groups who need to take lots of rest breaks. The tour stops at a few points up the tower anyway so there is plenty time to catch your breath.

100 steps up we stopped in our first room. This room had a lot of retro tools used in the construction and maintaininace of the clock and the original hammer that cracked the first 16 ton copper and tin bell in 1857. They melted the cracked bell down and made a second version, the 13.5 ton bell that we call Big Ben today. The hammer cracked the new bell too. Fortunately this crack was just a hairline fracture and could be stopped although it has changed the pitch of the bell from the original 'E' to an 'E flat'. They spun the bell around 90 degrees and swapped the hammer to a lighter version to stop it happening again. See, I was paying attention to what the guide told us.

Another 100/150 stairs up we arrived in the heart of the clock mechanism. A giant iron mechanism that looked more like a steam engine than a clock. There was a large 14ft pendulum poking down through the floor and swinging in the hollow centre of the tower at 2 second intervals. The clock mechanism itself has one massive drum responsible for ringing the main bell, a second drum for ringing the four smaller bells around the outside of the main bell (there are actually 5 cables for these four bells because one of the bells needs to be hit twice in quick succession and gets two hammers). The middle of the mehanism contains all of the cogs and ratchets responsible for controlling the timing. The pendulum has a selection of ancient coins balanced on it to increase the weight and very slightly adjust the speed of the swing. Four drive shafts spoke out from the mechanism through the walls to drive the hour and minute hands on each clock face.

They time the tour so the clock will strike quarter to the hour while you are in this room which lets you see the mecahnism doing its thing. Aside from the fact there are bells clanging the most visible indication that the mechanism is working hard are two massive air brakes spinning above the mechanism in an attempt to slow down the giant weights falling down the hollow centre of the tower to power everything. An electric motor winches them back up these days but historically a couple of men cranked a handle a few thousand times to lift each weight every couple of days!

The last flight of stairs took us up to the Belfry and the bells. These things are big. We were there at midday so were in for the full 12 bongs. We'd been warned how cold it was going to be and we weren't dissapointed, open to the elements 70+ metres up in the middle of winter was *ahem* bracing. The views around the city were however spectacular. It puts the London Eye to shame (and this day out is free). We had a look at the BBC mirophones they use for the news feeds and a hole in the roof from a second world war bomb. Although when I asked what happened to the bomb the guide suggested it was more likely that the hole was caused by a stray shot from one of the anti aircraft guns sited on the other side of the river but a dud German bomb was better wartime PR than shooting your own national monuments.

We were given a 60 second warning that the bells were about to ring and we had been given ear plugs but I didn't try very hard to push them properly into my ears. I should have. The bells were much louder than I expected (the main bell "bongs" are a little over 118 decibels). 118 dB is "only" the volume of a jet engine taking off but as you're only stood about a metre away from the main bell and directly underneath one of the smaller bells you can really feel the shockwaves travelling through the iron girders, the floor and the air all around you. They're not deafeningly loud with the earplugs in or fingers in your ears but I think the first one caught us all off guard. Very cool though. YouTube clips simply don't do the resonance after each bell strike justice.

We didn't continue up to the very top of the tower to see the Ayrton light up close. I'm not sure if that's because the tour doesn't go higher than the bells or we stopped due to the amount of wind and ice that was forming on every surfaces up there. After a bit of looking down the ventilation shafts to the bottom of the tower and around the city we made our way back down to the mechanism level. Rather than going into the mechanism again we went around an outer corridor behind the clock faces. This room really appealed to me. What was really just a narrow corridor was made special because you were inches away from the glass clock faces and could see the hour and minute hands through the pearlescent white glass. I like random places that people don't often see and in that regard the Belfry was pretty impressive but standing behind the famous clock faces looking out it dawned on me not many people get to see this and they should. I wish I'd been allowed to take my camera out of my bag and get some pics to show you... One day paranoia about security might drop again and taking photos in public places will no longer be seen as something you have to get special permission for. :)

When we got down we were given a little leaflet with some history and congratulating us on climbing to the top of the tower and a little pencil. When I got on my train and started taking off the layers and jumpers necessary at the top of the tower I realized I still had my security lanyard but it's only paper so sure they won't miss it.