I’m in a truly unique location. Only a handful of times in history has temporary scaffolding
enabled people to stand here – outside the clockface, of one of the world’s most famous landmarks.
We’re here to show you how the clocktower known as “Big Ben” is getting a 21st century
makeover.
It’s one of our most, sort of, loved buildings as a country. It represents the country around
the world so, we’ve got to get it right.
To bring up this building to the 21st century, it’s essential to maintain it for future
generations.
Big Ben doesn’t belong to one single person it belongs to everyone. It’s going to be
enormously rewarding when we get to take down the scaffolding and get to show everyone what
we’ve been working on for the last few years.
Rising dramatically above the Palace of Westminster - in the political heart of the UK’s capital
- the Elizabeth Tower has witnessed some of the most significant moments in British history
- standing as a symbol of resilience through two world wars to emerge as an enduring beacon
of democracy.
While the tower is widely referred to as “Big Ben” this name actually refers to the clock’s
main bell - which first marked the hour on the tower’s completion back in 1859.
In the 160 years since - as London has evolved from the capital of the British Empire into
one of the world’s leading financial centres - the tower has been subject to weathering,
pollution and wartime bomb damage.
Despite undergoing several deep cleans and refurbishments over the decades, 2017 saw
the first complete restoration commence.
Set to cost almost £80M, the four-year project will restore the building’s external fabric,
renovate the clock itself, improve internal areas, add energy-efficient lighting and install
an elevator.
Working on a project of this profile - in such a secure and demanding location, above
a live parliament - is an extreme task.
With its bells silenced to avoid deafening workers - and only ringing to mark Remembrance
Day and New Year - UK contractor Sir Robert McAlpine first enclosed the entire tower in
scaffolding; a careful process that took six months to complete.
We built the scaffold obviously from the ground up to the top and then the works to the exterior
envelope of the building start from the top and then work down to the bottom. Right at
the top of the scaffold is the cast iron roof which is about the top third of the tower.
All of the roof is made of cast iron so we’ve got cast iron tiles which sit on a cast iron
structure and then there’s various other bits of ornamentation, wrought iron ornamentation
and copper and brass and things.
The iron roof tiles and much of the decorative detailing at the top of the tower was removed
and taken off-site for hand restoration.
The contractor looking after the cast iron roof for us has a really well thought out
system, every single component has a unique number on it and regardless of where it is
in the country we are able to log on and see its location within the tower, what work has
been done to it, whether its been re-cast, where its current location within the country is.
Progressing down the tower, the quality of every piece of stonework was assessed. Where
replacement stone was needed, craftsmen painstakingly hand-carved replacements in an on-site facility
at the base of the tower.
In total, more than 700 new segments were created and installed.
This here is a great place to see three generations of stonework in one location. So, this here
is an original stone that was put in when the Elizabeth Tower was first constructed.
This is actually a replacement piece of stone that was put in in an earlier restoration.
As you can see, they actually used a more porous type of stonework and this hasn’t
weathered as well as the original stonework despite this being newer. And then this down
here is a new stone that was put in as part of this restoration project. Now unfortunately,
the stone from the original quarry isn’t available anymore, as this tower was constructed
160 years ago, but what the team has done is match the stonework as best they can and
in time this will weather so Big Ben will look much more like it did when it was first constructed.
This here is stone that has been restored as part of this project, and this is the colour
that the stone was before this project started, so you can see the colour difference is extraordinary.
The most impressive part of these works is undoubtedly the restoration of the clock faces
themselves - and being able to get up close and actually touch the face of Big Ben was
a once in a lifetime experience.
Each of the 324 pieces of hand-cut glass on each face are being replaced, while the colouring
of the hands, numerals and surrounding decoration is being restored to the striking blue, green
and gold shown on the tower’s original design.
The works that we are doing to the clockface is more significant than that has been done
in the past. So, the glass you can see at the moment is all entirely new. It was last
re-glazed in the 1950’s after damage was caused by bombing in the Second World War.
So, what we’ve done is we’ve taken all of the glass out, we’ve blasted all of the
paint systems off the clock dial, so it’s gone right back to the original cast iron.
The reason for doing that is we have to do repairs to the cast iron, so there is a limited
amount of corrosion but there is also some original casting defects, so little pinholes
in the cast iron that need drilling out so they can be filled and repaired then we put
the highest quality paint system back on again. As part of that obviously we strip all of
the previous layers of paint off, so we have to do a lot of research about what the previous
colour schemes were so finding out the history of the colours has been really exciting. You
see the blue is a new addition for everyone to see. I have to say its not until you are
up close it here you really get just how much of a difference it is, it looks fantastic.
Yes, its lovely the blue, it really shines in the sunshine.
With a requirement for at least one face of the tower to be left exposed at all times
during the works, Londoners have been getting a glimpse of what awaits them when the restoration
is complete.
Before 2017, the only way to reach the top of the tower was by a narrow stone staircase
- a daunting obstacle for clock-keepers and visitors alike.
Since the towers been built there’s only been one way up and one way down from the
belfry which has been the spiral stone staircase in the corner of the tower. What sits next
to the spiral stone staircase is a ventilation shaft that goes all the way from the basement
all the way up to the belfry so what we are doing is we are fitting a lift into the ventilation
shaft so that you’ll have two ways up and two ways down.
The new elevator added in these works, cleverly hidden within the Elizabeth Tower’s original
structure, improves access for maintenance and evacuations.
The team began their works at the top of the tower and are steadily working their way down,
gradually removing the scaffolding as they progress.
Big Ben is now beginning to re-emerge on London’s skyline - and the extent of its transformation
is dramatic.
Led by a young and technology-savvy team - from craftsmen to information modelling specialists
- the restoration of this heritage structure has been helped by some truly 21st-century techniques.
Many of the original paper plans and records from previous maintenance projects were incomplete
or inaccurate - and understanding the tower’s structure and condition was a challenging task.
To address this and make future restorations easier, the project team are creating detailed
digital records of almost every aspect of the Elizabeth Tower, building off the tagging
and tracking system used in the works.
What we did at the start was a point cloud of the project to understand how the building
was working. So, for instance we have a slight lean in the lift shaft so to place another
vertical structure within that space, we needed to have this information, knowing exactly
how the building had been working and then understanding this for the construction.
So, we have a full model of the tower. We have a model of each individual stone and
each individual tile in the tower as well so we can apply loads of information about
what happened to those elements in the past, what we are doing now and then hopefully this
will be useful in the future
The heart of the tower, which is the clock, we don’t have a full comprehensive set of
records. As part of this project we are engaging with those new technologies to make sure we
have full comprehensive set of O and Ms and also the computer models that will support
that in the future. So, if there’s ever a need to make a new component we don’t
need to stop the clock, we can have it cast separately.
As this teamwork to restore Big Ben for our generation, they’ve discovered notes and
messages tucked into crevasses and openings in the stonework - left behind from previous
workers, wishing them well.
The restoration of Big Ben is in fact taking place I advance of a much larger and highly
complex refurbishment across the Palace of Westminster.
As works progress into the Lords and Commons chambers,
the UK’s Parliament will be temporarily relocated.
Standing through the reigns of six British monarchs, the tenures of 30 different prime
ministers and some of the greatest and darkest moments of its country’s history, Big Ben
has witnessed the birth of modern Britain.
Despite falling silent in recent years, what the remarkable team have achieved behind this
scaffolding - through thousands of hours of carving, gilding and documenting, with extreme
care and attention to detail - will return this British icon to its former glory, allowing
it to stand as a symbol of free democracy for generations to come.
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