150 years later

Not so long ago I discovered that Victoria Tower, the Palace of Westminster’s tallest structure, is visible from our bedroom window. The Palace of Westminster is more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament. I quite like the idea that Parliament is visible from our house. Granted the grand Victorian structure is almost four miles away and barely visible above the tree-tops, but visible none the less. Standing in the same spot we can also see part of the London Eye and the BT tower.

When we first started looking for a place to live, I became obsessed with the idea of having a view with at least one London landmark. We looked at several apartments in Vauxhall, on the southern bank of the River Thames. Each had a view of Parliament. However we soon discovered that such views came at a high price, both in terms of the rent you paid, and floor space you received in return. “Overpriced shoebox” is one phrase that springs to mind.


At 98.5 metres, Victoria Tower is slightly taller than it’s more popular companion, St Stephen Clock Tower. St Stephens? Most people call this famous landmark, Big Ben. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the clock tower that strikes the hour. It is big! St Stephen’s Tower stands 96.3 metres high. Its four clock faces are set in an iron frame 7 metres in diameter, while the clock’s hour hand is 2.7 metres long and the minute hand, 4.3 metres.

On May 31, the clock celebrated its 150th anniversary, having first been started on this date in 1859.The clock was commissioned as part of the reconstruction of the Palace of Westminster following the fire of October 1834 that all but destroyed the Parliament. The Government called for “a noble clock”, “the biggest the world has ever seen, within sight and sound of the throbbing heart of London”.

The Astronomer Royal also insisted on a clock that would be accurate to within a second. Such accuracy was considered almost impossible given its constant exposure to the elements. A clock was eventually built, all five tons of it, and its accuracy has since become the stuff of legend. Incredibly, the secret to keeping time is a pile of old pennies stacked on the clock’s pendulum. Adding or removing one changes its speed by 0.4 second per day. Perhaps the ultimate excuse for Britain to reject calls to adopt the Euro?