London's Big Ben fell silent Saturday morning as workers began what is expected to be at least a month of repairs.
The world famous clock tower in London's Houses of Parliament will still continue to tell time, but its distinctive chimes could remain silent for four to six weeks. The repair work is being done in the lead up to Big Ben's 150th anniversary in two years.
A worker inspects the clock face of Big Ben in London on Saturday. The clock's famous bell, which sounds the hour at Britain's Houses of Parliament, will remain silent for scheduled repairs until September.
(Sang Tan/Associated Press)
Maintenance crews will replace bearings in its mechanism and clean its four latticework faces.
The last time the famed clock's hourly bongs and quarterly chimes were fully silenced was in 1956, also for repairs.
The clock is housed in a neo-Gothic clock tower designed by Charles Barry. Officially called the Great Clock, it contains a 13.5 tonne bell inside, which was cast at the Whitechapel Foundry in east London and first rang out in July 1859.
Sir Benjamin Hall was commissioner of works at the time, hence the nickname Big Ben.
The BBC website notes that, in addition to deliberate stoppages, the iconic clock has been silenced temporarily over the years because of accidents involving weather, workmen, breakages and even birds.
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