*Did you know that London has had many names in the past?

It was called
Londonium during the Roman Invasion, Ludenwic in Saxon times, and
Ludenburg during the kingdom of Alfred the Great.

*The word “England” comes from “Angle-land,” or land of the Angli, or

Angles, a Viking tribe that came across the North Sea and settled in the east
and north. The French name for England, Angleterre, also literally means
“Land of the Angles.“

*The word “Britain” is derived from the name of a Celtic tribe, the Brythons.

*The London Eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world and each
rotation takes about 30 minutes

*Every day, the British drink 165 million cups of tea, which is over 20 times
more than the average American.

*More languages (300) are spoken in London than in any other country in the
world.
*A 2008 survey of
2,000 people found
that Big Ben was the
UK’s most popular
tourist attraction.

* The bell itself is officially called the “Great Bell”, but

gets its nickname from Sir Benjamin Hall, who
became the first Commissioner of Public Works in
1855 and oversaw the later stages of the rebuilding
of the Houses of Parliament. The “big” part comes
from the fact that the bell weighs 16 tons (or 13.4
tonnes) and is about 7 feet tall.
* Big Ben chimes
every fifteen
minutes and can
be heard from as
far away as five
miles.

The clock faces are cleaned every 5 years

using little more than soap and water. A group
of window washers rappels down the belfry
down to the faces and have to be careful not
to break the glass panes or lean on the hands.
* On Remembrance Day
every year, the bells
broadcast to mark the
11th hour of the 11th
day of the 11th month,
when the armistice that
ended World War I took
effect.
The tower had some problems
during construction. The start of
construction was marked with
delivery delays, budget issues, and
bureaucracy (believe it or not). The
tower then proved too small for the
mechanical clock and the bell broke
the day after it was tested. Add to
that, the minute hand had to be
replaced twice when it proved too
heavy to actually move.
* The diameter of each of the
clock’s dials is 23 feet. The hour
hands are 9 feet long, the minute
hands are 14 feet, and the
numerals are 2 feet. Each clock
face has an inscription in Latin in
gold that reads “DOMINE SALVAM
FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM
VICTORIAM PRIMAM” or “Oh Lord,
keep safe our Queen Victoria the
First”. Each clock face contains
312 panes of glass, making a total
of 1,248 pieces of glass.
Everyone pretty much
calls the tower and the
clock Big Ben. But it’s
actually the big bell
inside that’s named Big
Ben. The tower used to
be known simply as the
“Clock Tower” until 2012
when it was renamed
Elizabeth Tower in honor
of the Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee. Despite Big Ben
being the bell, everyone
will probably continue to
call the whole thing Big
Ben until the end of time.