Big Ben’s bongs will return over Christmas, it emerged last today.
The bell – which fell silenced in August for four years of repairs – will return between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.
Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House of Commons, announced that the bell will chime over the festive season. It will also ring to mark Remembrance Sunday.
Although it has been silenced for four years of repair work, Big Ben (pictured) will chime out on Christmas, New Year and Remembrance Sunday, it has been revealed
She said: ‘Some people might think this is a trivial matter – but over the course of the repairs, we have a duty to uphold the huge appeal of Big Ben to the millions of tourists that visit it each year.
‘I’m sure visitors to the Eiffel Tower or Taj Mahal would be incredibly disappointed if they were covered in scaffolding – the same is true of Elizabeth Tower.’
‘I’m delighted that we’ve made progress, and I will continue to press for the bell to ring again before 2021.’
A full assessment of the amount of bell chimes that can take place over the next four years of repairs is still under review.
It also emerged yesterday that the Parliamentary authorities ruled out allowing the clock to chime at evenings and weekends for part of the renovation – because of the overtime for mechanics.
Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom revealed the news today, saying Britain has a duty to uphold the monument’s appeal to the tourists that visit every year
Officials concluded it would be ‘straightforward’ to activate the bell when builders left the site each day, so it could ring when they were not working, according to emails seen by the Sunday Telegraph.
However, that would have meant at least two to three hours of overtime for the clock’s mechanics which they concluded ‘might well not be sustainable’ over several months.
There was a public outcry in August when it emerged the bell – which chimed throughout the Second World War – would be stopped for the longest period in its 157-year history.
A month after the last bong, parliamentary officials said the repair costs for the Elizabeth Tower restoration had doubled to an estimated £61 million.
The conservation project for the clock tower, which houses the Big Ben bell, was originally priced at £29 million in the spring of 2016.
There was a public outcry in August when it emerged the bell (pictured) – which chimed throughout the Second World War – would be stopped for the longest period in its 157-year history