A UNESCO World Heritage site, a British cultural landmark and the UK's most famous clock...that's right, we're talking about #BigBen in the Elizabeth Tower!
Over the last 3 years experts have been restoring the Tower - let's test your knowledge...
📷: UK Parliament/Mark Duffy
How much does Big Ben (The Great Bell inside the Elizabeth Tower) weigh? ⚖️
Who designed the Elizabeth Tower? ✏️
When was the Elizabeth Tower completed? 📅
Which is tallest: the Victoria Tower or the Elizabeth Tower? 📏
What does the Ayrton Light do? 💡
The Elizabeth Tower got its current name in 2012, to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
What is one of the names the Tower has previously gone by?
How many bricks were used to build the Elizabeth Tower? 🧱
Urgent renovation works have been happening on the Elizabeth Tower since 2017, and are due to be finished in 2021. But why are these happening?
There are lots of reasons these need to happen now ⏬
📷: UK Parliament/Mark Duffy
Put simply:
⚙️ To keep the clock working
🗝️ To conserve historical elements of the Tower
⛑️ To improve health and safety and fire protection systems
♻️ To reduce the Tower's environmental impact
↕️ To put in a lift to make the Tower accessible
📷: UK Parliament/Mark Duffy
Still missing Big Ben's distinctive chimes? If you can't wait for the full restoration, soothe yourself with this throwback from 2017:
🕠Time for some quiz answers!
Most of you were right with this first one - Big Ben himself weighs in at 13.7 tonnes.
Just a quarter of quiz answerers got this one - the Elizabeth Tower was designed by Augustus Pugin.
However, almost everyone was spot on here! The Elizabeth Tower was indeed completed in 1859 - last year, we celebrated 160 years of the Tower.
The Victoria Tower is actually the taller of the two towers- just! It stands at 98m, whereas the Elizabeth Tower measures 96m.
The purpose of the Ayrton Light is to show when the Houses are sitting! However, it does also look nice.
The Elizabeth Tower was previously referred to as St Stephen's Tower by Victorian journalists.
As MPs used to sit in St Stephen's Hall, the journalists referred to anything to do with the House of Commons as "news from St Stephen's".
It actually took 2600 cubic metres of bricks to build the Elizabeth Tower - and 850 cubic metres of stone! 🧱
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.