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Can we go inside Big Ben?

Inside Big Ben and how to visit You can visit Big Ben by booking a 90-minute guided tour that takes visitors up 334 stairs to see the clock mechanism room, behind the four clock dials and the Belfry, where the famous bell is located. Tours can be booked by visiting the official UK Parliament website.



Yes, you can go inside the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Bell famously known as Big Ben, but the access rules are quite specific and depend on your residency status. For UK residents, tickets are made available through a booking system on the UK Parliament website, and tours are free but must be booked well in advance due to extreme popularity. For international visitors, there are limited paid tour slots that allow you to climb the 334 stone spiral steps to the top of the tower. These tours take you behind the four clock faces and provide a close-up view of the mechanism and the massive bells. It is important to note that the climb is physically demanding and there is no elevator, so visitors must be in good health. Following a massive multi-year renovation that concluded recently, the interior is more accessible than ever, but security remains very tight. You cannot simply walk in off the street; a pre-booked ticket and a security screening are mandatory for every guest wishing to see the inner workings of London's most iconic landmark.

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The 96-meter (315-foot) tower is a symbol of London and the United Kingdom, and its distinctive chimes are known to people all over the world. After being closed for two years for renovations, Big Ben tours are finally reopening in July 2023.

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Inside Big Ben and how to visit You can visit Big Ben by booking a 90-minute guided tour that takes visitors up 334 stairs to see the clock mechanism room, behind the four clock dials and the Belfry, where the famous bell is located. Tours can be booked by visiting the official UK Parliament website.

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But since 2010, the only visitors who have been permitted to tour the landmark have been British citizens. For security's sake, a regulation required Big Ben tour-seekers to write their representatives in Parliament?and of course international visitors don't have any.

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Inside Big Ben and how to visit You can visit Big Ben by booking a 90-minute guided tour that takes visitors up 334 stairs to see the clock mechanism room, behind the four clock dials and the Belfry, where the famous bell is located. Tours can be booked by visiting the official UK Parliament website.

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Big Ben's chimes were silenced in 2017 to allow for a refurbishment of the 96m (315ft) Elizabeth Tower. Costs ballooned to £80m and the project took a year longer than expected. After five years, the 13.7-tonne bell finally chimed again and was officially unveiled in January.

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Big Ben also stopped on April 30, 1997, and once more three weeks later. Big Ben is actually the clock's 13-ton bell, which was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the British commissioner of works at the time the clock was built. The official name for the Gothic tower holding Big Ben is St.

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1716: The bell from the clock tower is recast and later hung in the South West Tower of St Paul's Cathedral. If Big Ben is ever unable to strike, the bell in St Paul's is heard instead.

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The moniker Big Ben has been in use for over 150 years, and the nickname was originally applied only to the enormous bell inside the tower. The Great Bell received i's sobriquet in honor of Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner for Works, who raised Big Ben to its current place atop the tower.

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The 13-tonne Big Ben bell was largely silenced for five years while a major restoration of the Elizabeth Tower took place, with the “bongs” finally resuming regular service in November 2022.

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