The Clock Tower is a turret clock structure at the north-eastern end of the Houses of Parliament building in Westminster, London, England. It is popularly known as Big Ben, but this name actually belongs to the clock’s main bell. The tower has also been referred to as St. Stephen’s Tower or The Tower of Big Ben, in reference to its bell.
The tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry’s design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of October 16, 1834. The tower is designed in the Victorian Gothic style, and is 96.3 metres (316 feet) high.
The first 61 metres (200 feet) of the structure is the clock tower, consisting of brickwork with stone cladding; the remainder of the tower’s height is a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 15 by 15 metre (49 by 49 foot) raft, made of 3-metre (9-foot) thick concrete, at a depth of 7 metres (23 feet) below ground level. The tower has an estimated weight of 8,667 tonnes (9,553 tons). The four clock faces are 55 metres (180 feet) above ground.
Due to ground conditions present since construction, the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 millimetres (8.66 inches). Due to thermal effects it oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west.
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