Construction
The foundation stone for the Clock Tower was laid on the
28th of September 1843 and it wouldn’t be completed until
1859; fi ve years behind schedule. The Clock Tower was built
from the inside outwards, meaning that no scaff olding was
ever visible to the outside world.
The bottom 61 meters (200 ft) of the 96.3 meters (316 ft) high
Clock Tower consists of brickwork with sand colored Anston
limestone cladding. The remainder of the tower’s height
is made up of a framed spire of cast iron. The tower was
founded on a 15-metre (49 ft) square raft of 3-metre (9.8 ft)
thick concrete, at a depth of 4 meters (13 ft) below ground
level. On its completion, the interior volume of the tower was
4,650 cubic meters (164,200 cubic feet).
When it was time to raise the Great Bell, it was discovered
that its dimensions meant it was too large to fi t up the Clock
Tower’s shaft vertically, so Big Ben was turned on its side
and winched that way. It took 30 hours to lift the bell to the
belfry in October 1858.
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