![]() If it was nearer three tonnes, it might be worth £224. The bell he reckoned to weigh around two tonnes, which would yield a modest £149 6s. Besides, Wren doubted that the materials recovered would cover the cost of the works needed to take the structure down. Like so many other features of the Westminster palace complex, by the 1690s the Tower had become surrounded by an array of more or less jerry-built tenements making access difficult and dangerous. While Wren may not have advocated undertaking anything as elaborate as the previous plan, he made no effort to hide his preference for restoration over demolition. The plan was for it to be encased in ashlar, a lantern added, the bell raised and a new clock installed, but the price – £1,500 – proved prohibitive, and nothing more had been done. ![]() Wren noted that some 18 years before a scheme had been laid before the then king, Charles II, for the tower to be renovated. In response, a report was submitted to the treasury commissioners by Sir Christopher Wren on how best to respond. His story was corroborated by witnesses who agreed that the old clock was given to such things.įaced with a dilapidated tower in dire need of serious intervention, in 1698 the churchwardens of St Margaret’s Westminster petitioned for the clock house and bell to be sold for the benefit of the poor of the parish. At least one anecdote suggested that the chiming mechanism was no longer reliable, with one soldier on sentry duty in Windsor claiming to have heard the bell sound 13 times at midnight as part of his defence when accused of sleeping at his post. This appears originally to have been christened Edward (possibly after Edward the Confessor) but came in time to be known as ‘Old Tom’ or ‘Great Tom’.īy the late 17th century the tower appears to have fallen into considerable disrepair. There was also a great bell tolling the hours. Like the present Elizabeth Tower, the structure housed a clock, though in this case with a single dial facing towards the palace. Whether that was so or not, during the reign of Henry VI responsibility for the clock tower was delegated to the dean and canons of the college of St Stephen in return for a pension of sixpence a day. Legend told that the tower had been funded out of a fine levied on a judge for accepting a bribe. Records of this edifice appear hazy, but what is known for certain is that by the 1360s a tower – either the 13th-century one, or a replacement – was present on the site. According to some sources, a stone tower may have been constructed to the north of the main entrance to Westminster Hall as early as the 1290s. ![]() What is less well known is that this was not the first clock tower of the Palace of Westminster or Ben the first great bell.
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