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[EU News] After Big Ben rings out, the sound of silence in London

Started by lioneatszebra, Aug 21, 2017, 10:54 PM

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lioneatszebra

After Big Ben rings out, the sound of silence in London

Ask not for whom the bell tolls — at least not for the next four years at Parliament.

Big Ben's distinctive and reassuring chimes, which have marked the passage of time since the Victorian era, fell silent after ringing out at noon on Monday as a $37 million restoration project got underway for the tower that houses the bell.

Crowds gathered around Parliament to hear the final set of bongs that have been an almost constant presence, heard not just in London but around the world: Two BBC News bulletins each day, at 6 p.m. and midnight, begin with the famous sound, which the broadcaster first used in 1924.

During World War II, when the bells carried on tolling after a brief interlude, the sound of Big Ben gave troops a lift in morale and provided hope to those in occupied countries like France.

"It was our lifeblood, and it was our comfort, and it kept us sane," Ginette Spanier, a former director of the Paris fashion house Pierre Balmain, once told the BBC.

The length of disruption to the chimings of the country's most famous clock has brought a variety of complaints, including one from Prime Minister Theresa May, who has said that it "cannot be right" for the stoppage to last four years.

The work comes at a time of national upheaval, with Britain preparing its withdrawal from the European Union, known as "Brexit." Many supporters of that move attach huge symbolic importance to institutions like Parliament, with some calling for the restoration of such emblems of past imperial greatness as the royal yacht.

The idea that parts of Big Ben would be draped in white cladding and muted while the country completes its divorce from the European Union has been too much for some of the politicians driving Brexit. Several of its supporters, including the Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, have called for the bells to ring at midnight on March 29, 2019, when the country is scheduled to leave the European Union.

Perhaps worried about accusations of nostalgia, hard-line supporters of Brexit seemed to stay away from Parliament on Monday. A handful of lawmakers spotted in the crowd outside Parliament said they were there on other business.

But Stephen Pound, a lawmaker from the opposition Labor Party, not only showed up but posed for pictures — perhaps not entirely seriously — with a handkerchief to dab his watering eyes.

He insisted, however, that this was a genuine time of national introspection. "It's a desperately sad moment — you don't know what you've got till it's gone," Mr. Pound said. "And I think in some ways it is the passing of something that means a great deal to a great many people."

During the restoration work, Big Ben's Great Clock will be dismantled piece by piece with each cog examined and restored — a process that, alone, is expected to take about two years. During that time, a temporary solution will be found to allow Big Ben to ring in the new year and to chime each November to remember Britain's war dead.

The tower needs further work, and the parliamentary authorities say that it would be impractical to have the bells toll daily or even weekly, as stopping and starting the mechanism is a complex process that takes about half a day to complete.

Worker safety also enters into the considerations. At 118 decibels, Big Ben is so loud (over the human pain threshold and louder than a jet taking off) that it might at the least startle people working at heights and could possibly damage their hearing permanently.

Though they have concluded it would be impractical to start and stop the bells each day, the parliamentary authorities "will consider the length of time that the bells will fall silent," they said in a statement last week after the complaints from lawmakers.

For all of the hand-wringing, this is not the first time Big Ben has been silenced, which perhaps explained the less sentimental approach taken by Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labor Party. "It's not a national disaster or catastrophe," he said.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the main bell. (It has several cracks, but those are what give it its distinctive sound, and officials have issued assurances that it will be left alone.)

It is the tower, officially known as the Elizabeth Tower and commonly referred to as Big Ben, and the clock mechanism and faces that are showing signs of aging, like the rest of the crumbling Palace of Westminster. Paint is flaking, the masonry is cracking, the roof is leaking and the metalwork is rusting. All need to be addressed to keep the tower from disintegrating.

Those who gathered outside Parliament for the final bell — admittedly, a self-selecting audience — said the bongs would be sorely missed. David Dummigan, from Cumbria, in the north of England, said he had experienced "a lump" in his throat when he heard the last chime for four years.

"It's our heritage," he said. "People come from all over the world to look at it and listen to it. It's part of British history."

"It's a shame it is going to be silenced for four years," added Sue-Ann Samuel, who lives in London. "It is very dear to a lot of our hearts."


From The New York TImes
nytimes.com
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