The Great Clock will be entirely dismantled over the coming four years, with each cog examined and restored BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty ImagesIt has chimed the note of E on the hour, every hour, almost uninterrupted for more than 150 years, but next Monday at noon Big Ben will fall silent until 2021. The famous bell, which weights 13.7 tonnes, will hang still as maintenance work is carried out on the Great Clock that sits inside Elizabeth Tower on the parliament estate. The clock and bell were a custom-made Victorian mechanism that relies on gravity to trigger the familiar sounding chimes. The bongs of the bell last ceased to sound for works in 2007, and prior to that for two years from 1983. To stop the bells the striking hammers will be locked and…

Source: The Times August 14, 2017 10:52 UTC