HN Reader

PSA: The Big Ben tour (not Parliament) includes a climb to the clock room, and all the way up to the bells. Take the 11 a.m. slot and you’ll catch all 12 bongs at noon.

The story of how it was designed and built is full of engineering mischief and process hacking. Very much in the HN spirit. Highly recommended.

I wonder if he still uses his playdate to check the time.

https://social.panic.com/@playdate/113749875959498684

And the men who used to clean the clockface: https://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cneezrj0981o

Certainly scary enough for Hallowe'en.

The first thought that popped into my mind when reading this article was whether Andrew Strangeway was the Elder who maintained The Internet on Big Ben, because the sitcom "The IT Crowd" has ruined me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg

Technically, Big Ben is the bell, not the clock, from the article as well:

> A common misconception is referring to the entire tower as Big Ben, when in fact, that's just the name of the bell. Andrew clarified: "So it's The Great Clock inside the Elizabeth Tower that rings Big Ben."

Time change was last week in London :)

And they say no man can stop the march of time.

Little Ben

His name is Strangeway, he's sporting this preposterous mustache, and he looks after Big Ben. The guy is basically a living meme lol. He must be fun at parties; at least for like 2 minutes haha.