NY party’s off – but at least Big Ben will bong
LONDON’S New Year’s Eve celebrations may have been cancelled for a second year running – but at least Big Ben will bong to welcome in 2022.
All faces of the Houses of Parliament’s clock tower will be on display for the first time in four years when the bell is struck 12 times to mark the New Year.
It comes after London mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the capital’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Trafalgar Square was being cancelled because of the surge in Omicron cases.
The event for 6, 00 key workers and members of the public had been announced in November as a replacement for London’s traditional fireworks display on the Thames, which was cancelled for a second consecutive year.
The project to restore the Palace of Westminster’s Elizabeth Tower is nearing its end. In the days running up to December 31 the Big Ben bell will be heard chiming as engineers test it ahead of the celebrations.
The chimes to mark the new year will also be the final occasion that Big Ben will be struck using a temporary mechanism.
From the spring, Big Ben and the four quarter bells will once again sound out the Westminster Quarters
melody and resonant bongs throughout the day – the first time they have done so since the restoration began in 2017.
Over the past four years, the Elizabeth Tower and the clock and bell mechanism within it have undergone the biggest conservation project in the tower’s 160-year history. The tower, which is also known as Big Ben after the bell inside, has been covered in scaffolding.
As this has been removed in recent months, a view of the clock face’s restored original paint colour has emerged. When black paint was stripped away from the dials, it was discovered that it was originally painted in Prussian blue.