Big Ben

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Big Ben

Who is Big Ben named for? When the clock first began operating on May 31, 1859, its 13-ton bell was called Big Ben, supposedly after Britain's First Commissioner of Works, Sir Benjamin Hall. Later, the name came to refer to the entire clock. The clock first arrived at its home at Westminster Palace on this date in 1859. It traveled from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry — Britain's oldest manufacturing company — on a carriage drawn by sixteen horses. Big Ben holds the record as the world's largest four-faced chiming clock. At the bottom of each face, written in gilt letters, is the inscription, "Domine Salvam Fac Reginam Nostram Victoriam Primam" — "O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First."