Westminster Bridge

A suggestion for a bridge here was made in 1664, but was vigorously resisted by Londoners.

Fourteen years after failure of the Westminster Bridge Bill of 1722, a petition was again presented to Parliament by the Burgesses, Freeholders and Inhabitants of Westminster in February 1736, arguing that the great increase in buildings and population made a new bridge essential.

An Act was obtained, Commissioners were appointed, and £5 lottery tickets were sold to raise the necessary £625 000.

The architect of Westminster Bridge was Charles Labelye, a native of Switzerland: the first stone was laid by the Earl of Pembroke, on January 29, 1738-9.

Labelye is credited with the introduction of the caisson method of building foundations, which is said to have been first used on the Westminster Bridge.

It consists of fifteen semicircular arches, the centre seventy-six feet span; it is 1223 feet long by 44 feet wide. It was originally intended for a wooden bridge, and was partly commenced on this principle.

It had two footways, with a ‘Horse Road’ thirty feet across where horses had a sleep climb to the central arch.

The original Westminster Bridge was a stone structure opened in 1750 which was only the second to be built across the Thames where it flowed through the Metropolis.
Westminster Bridge

Big Ben of London

Big Ben is the icon of Great Britain in the same way that the Eiffel tower and the Statue of Liberty identify France and the United States. The tower stands over the Houses of Parliament, which are the home of the British government.

It is the hour bell that is called Big Ben: the clock is properly called The Great Clock of the Palace of Westminster, while the tower is known as the Clock Tower.

The bell is to announce to the assembled legislator and to all who may hear it the passage of time.

On September 12, 2012, in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, the Westminster Clock Tower was officially renamed The Elizabeth Tower.

The first clock at Westminster was installed in a clock tower around 1290. The tower was demolished in 1707 and the bell sold to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Big Ben’s history goes back to 1844, when government officials decided that the Parliament building should have a new clock tower.

Becket Denison a young lawyer and amateur horologist designed a new clock and the construction of the new clock was put out to tender.

In 1852, the company of Edward John Dent won the contract. By 1858, the clock tower was well enough advanced that it was decided to order bells for the tower, there were to be four quarter bells and a large hour bell of about 14 tons.

The tower was officially open on September 7, 1859 and its architect, Sir Charles Barry outlived it by only a year.

The great bell acquired the name Big Ben, in perpetual memory of Sir Benjamin Hall, whose presidency as the Chief Commission for Works it has been cast.

Big Ben is famous because it is known to always have the correct time.
Big Ben of London