It’s the contrast between the two that accounts for Big Ben’s peculiar appeal, and which all those pale imitations round the world manage to miss.

But let’s not forget Big Ben itself, that magnificent bell which strikes the hour with a massively sepulchral, almost threatening sound. For the same reason it’s eminently exportable, and can be heard a thousand times a day in town halls and churches round the world. Because the tune itself is so sturdily recognisable, it can be played on the cheapest door-chime and still be recognisable. Vaughan Williams used them in his ‘London’ Symphony to symbolise the city’s bustling, indomitable energy. Older readers might remember those wonderful black and white films from the 1950s made by ‘London Films’, with stars like Alec Guinness and Celia Johnson, which started with those familiar chimes. It’s become a symbol of London worldwide, borrowed endlessly for film themes. Joseph Jowett, but more likely the work of the brilliant Cambridge undergraduate William Crotch.Īs well as the ingenious tune, there’s something about the brazen cheerful sound of the chimes that evokes the hearty, beef-eating England of old. It’s a tribute to the ingenuity of the composer, which according to the official record was the Cambridge law professor the Rev.

However many times you’ve heard them, it’s hard to remember exactly what the next phrase is. That irregularity, plus the way pairs of phrases lead away from the key note and then back to it, gives the chimes a pleasing sense of surprise and order combined.

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