On, celebrations were held to mark the tower's 150th anniversary. All four nations of the UK are represented on the tower on shields featuring a rose for England, thistle for Scotland, shamrock for Ireland, and leek for Wales.

Dials of the clock are 22.5 feet (6.9 m) in diameter. Its base is square, measuring 40 feet (12 m) on each side. The tower stands 316 feet (96 m) tall, and the climb from ground level to the belfry is 334 steps.

When completed in 1859, its clock was the largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world. The tower was designed by Augustus Pugin in a neo-Gothic style. The official name of the tower in which Big Ben is located was originally the Clock Tower, but it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Subject to disclaimers.51☃0′03″N 0☀7′28″W / 51.5007°N 0.1245°W / 51.5007 -0.1245īig Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 true true This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. (Currently Unavailable, noted on 22nd Septermber 2013) a midi file of the Westminster Quarters striking six o'clock

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