Sounds of silence: London's Big Ben to be shut for repairs
LONDON — Officials say the chimes of Britain’s Big Ben bell will fall silent for several months during a three-year restoration of Parliament’s crumbling clock tower.
The Big Ben. Photo: Reuters
LONDON — Officials say the chimes of Britain’s Big Ben bell will fall silent for several months during a three-year restoration of Parliament’s crumbling clock tower.
The work — due to begin next January and cost £29 million (S$57 million) — is the biggest repair job on the tower in decades. It will include work to stop water seepage that threatens to crumble the stonework on the iconic 160-year-old structure.
The huge clock will be stopped for as long as four months, and the giant Big Ben bell will cease to sound the hours for another stretch of the project.
Mr Steve Jaggs, Parliament’s Keeper of the Great Clock, promised Monday (April 26) that the bongs of Big Ben will still ring in the New Year throughout the renovation. AP
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