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Coming home: St George's Cross returns to Big Ben Coming home: St George's Cross to return to Big Ben
(about 4 hours later)
Big Ben is to return to its original Victorian colour scheme, which includes the cross of St George and blue numbers on the clock face, parliamentary authorities have revealed. The Cross of St George is coming home to one of the most prominent and best-loved landmarks in England. When Big Ben strikes again, after a £61m restoration of the mechanism and faces of the giant clock and the tower that carries it high above Westminster, it will once again bear the emblem, so joyfully ubiquitous this summer, on six shields across each of its four faces.
An artist’s impression showing six shields bearing the red and white English flag above each dial was revealed by the House of Commons commission on Wednesday. The clock is so beloved and its chimes such a friendly part of life in central London that there was a public outcry and questions in parliament when it fell silent last summer and it emerged that it would remain so for the entire period of the work. The House of Commons Commission, which is responsible for the work, relented and the bells rang in the new year and signalled the start of the two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday. It will ring again, the commission promises, for other events “of national significance”.
The black dials of the world-renowned clock will also revert to Prussian blue numbers, with gold frames filled with white glass, as part of the £61m renovation of the Elizabeth Tower. Restoring the shields is part of recreating the colourful original appearance of the clock before London grime took its toll. Paint scrapes have established that the numbers, hands and iron tracery were a rich blue when the clock first began to keep time for Londoners in 1859, and were only painted black as the original colour proved impossible to maintain under layers of London soot.
Other areas of black paint around the outside will be gilded. All of the hundreds of pieces of milky-white glass in each face are also being replaced, and other decorative features, including the rose, thistle, shamrock and leek emblems of the four parts of the United Kingdom, will also be repainted or regilded.
The plan follows modern analysis of the layers of paint that have built up on the clock tower over the decades. The clock and tower are universally known as Big Ben, despite more than 150 years of pedantic insistence that the name only correctly applies to the 13.7-tonne Great Bell. The tower itself was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
It is believed the current colour scheme was adopted in the early 20th century after the Victorian building, designed by Charles Barry, had been blackened by decades of heavy air pollution in London. The commission, mindful of the earlier controversy, was at pains to stress that Big Ben and the four quarter bells will ring again “as soon as practically possible”. The clockwork is being completely dismantled and every piece examined and conserved. One face will be left visible while the others are covered up for the work “to ensure that the public are still able to see this most important of timepieces”.
The Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, spokesman for the commission, said: “The new colour scheme, it is not going to be dramatically different to what people see now. However, it is restoring it back to what Charles Barry had in mind. Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington and a spokesman for the commission, said the St George’s Cross “represents what is best about England and the English nature”, before hastily adding that he was sure the other nations, represented by their emblems, would not object. The conservation work was crucial to ensure its survival for future generations, he said, adding: “The Elizabeth Tower is a symbol of the UK’s democratic heritage, and I’m thrilled to see these vital restoration works return the clock tower to its former glory.”
“Something that people will notice is a contrast between the clock face and the clock hands and the surrounding tower.” The restoration work is based on a 1838 watercolour by Charles Barry, the architect who with Augustus Pugin was responsible for the rollicking gothic revival appearance of the building that replaced the old Palace of Westminster after it was destroyed by fire in 1834. The 334-step clock tower, built from 2,600 cubic metres of brick and 850 cubic metres of stone, all delivered by boat to the site, was complete by 1859, but there was an embarrassing pause before it began to tell the correct time, caused by the heavy cast-iron metal hands sagging. They were replaced with lighter copper, and the clock became the nation’s official timekeeper on 31 May 1859.
Regarding the St George’s crosses, he said: “It represents what is best about England and the English nature.
“Obviously the Scots, the Welsh and Northern Irish are represented on the tower with the different rosettes that are there representing those countries, so I’m sure they won’t object to that.”
Shields bearing a rose, leek, shamrock and thistle, representing the four home nations, adorn the tower above the clock.
Adam Watrobski, parliament’s principal architect, said the new palette would be the “crowning glory” of the tower restoration and would “serve to reinforce the symbolism of the tower in its international representation of the United Kingdom”.
He added: “As part of the major repair and conservation of the Elizabeth Tower, we have carried out extensive research into the original decorative scheme for the clock faces and the adjacent areas.
“Using historic paint analysis and references, including Barry’s original design watercolour, contemporary illustrations and archival photographs, we have recreated the original colour scheme.”
Palace of WestminsterPalace of Westminster
LondonLondon
House of CommonsHouse of Commons
ScotlandScotland
WalesWales
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
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