2-979-743 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scaffolding for Raising the Quarter-Bells in the Clock Tower of the New Houses of Parliament, [London], 1857. St Stephen's Tower, (later renamed the Elizabeth Tower), was designed to hold 'Big Ben', the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster. View showing '...the pile of timbers which is now being put up within the limits of the roof of the Clock Tower, for the purpose of raising the bells. It rises nearly twenty feet above the bell chamber, resting mostly upon the iron framework which will eventually carry the bells. It is substantially put together. Upon the upper portion of this rests the machinery by which the hoisting is to be performed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.