Big Ben celebrates 150 years

The world's most famous timepiece, Big Ben, celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Big Ben is the name given to the bell which is housed in St Stephen's Tower. The bell weighs a whopping 13.5 tonnes (30,000lbs). Big Ben first chimed the hour in July 1859.

St Stephen's Tower was part of the new Palace of Westminster designed by Charles Barry, after the majority of the Houses of Parliament's earlier buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1834.

An amateur horologist, Edmund Beckett Denison, devised a way of separating the pendulum from the movement of the clock's hands, thus preventing it from being adversely affected by the weather.

Life has not always been plain sailing for the celebrated timepiece. When the original bell, which is called Big Ben, was cast it cracked - and had to be replaced.

Independent travellers can hear about the history of the Houses of Parliament and some of the great politicians who have graced its two chambers, the Lower House (the House of Commons) and the Upper House (House of Lords) with the Palace Trail, London travel guide.

The familiar sound of Big Ben striking the hour was first aired on the BBC on December 31, 1923.

The clock is still wound by hand three times a week.

Legend has it that Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall (later Lord Llanover), who was the commissioner for works when the clock was installed in the nineteenth century. Another theory, is that the bell was named Big Ben after a popular heavyweight boxer called Benjamin Caunt, who died in 1861.

To hear a short audio sample from the Palace Trail mp3 guided tour please click here. The Palace Trail London audio guide is available - like the other Walk Talk Tour London travel guides - in English, French, German and Spanish.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London city walking tours in all. Each Walk Talk Tour London audio guide costs just £5.95 each. Customers purchasing two tours simultaneously will receive a twenty per cent discount. Buy three at the same time and get thirty per cent off. You can now purchase any of our Walk Talk Tour travel guides on CD (in MP3 format) or on a preloaded MP3 player. For more information please click here.

The Palace Trail, London audio guide follows the Coronation Procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, in reverse. Hear how Downing Street got its name, see Mounting the Guard at Horse Guards (if you get your timing right), discover where the 'true' centre of London is located, see where London's former smallest police station is situated and more...

All of the Walk Talk Tour London iPod travel guides - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular podcast guided tour - can be completed in two hours. With a Walk Talk Tour London walking tour, you're in charge. No need to struggle to hear the tour guide with the umbrella or feel conspicuous with a guidebook in your hands.

Listeners to a Walk Talk Tour audio guide can stop, start and listen again to any part of their commentary as they wish - or as their interest or the weather dictates. Each professionally researched and produced Walk Talk Tour London travel guide is narrated by Jonathan Keeble and comes complete with a downloadable map - for listeners to print off.

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