Guy Fox Explores....

2011-08-25T21:51:00.000+01:00

Pious Edward the Confessor

Built Westminster Abbey, yes sir.

But he did not, that saintly Ed,

Appoint a King when he was dead.

Harold and Wills both wanted the crown,

So William brought his team to town.

At Hastings, they battled, mob against mob.

William conquered and demanded the job.

William was good at wielding his power.

The Domesday Book and London's Tower:

William I did all these things

And fathered two of England's kings.

William II, the redheaded one,

Then Henry I, William's other son.

Then Stephen and Matilda, like a boxing bout,

Fought for the crown, 'til Stephen knocked her out.

When Stephen died (such a shame, boo hoo!),

Matilda's son was crowned Henry 2.

He changed the Law, but Thomas Becket

Opposed the Law and tried to wreck it.

The careless words which Henry bade

Caused Thomas Becket to be slayer.

You should hear that tale — it's gory!

But that, my friends, is a different story!

Back to our Kings and Queens for now:

The first Richard, then John I with his civil row.

John was smart, but the Lords were smarter;

They forced him to sign the Magna Carta.

John passed the crown to the next in line.

That's Henry III, who was only nine!

Edward I was the next to reign.

He did some good, but caused some pain.

Edward II got himself killed.

Then Edward III led on the battlefield.

He fought the French in the Hundred Years' War,

While Black Death killed the rich and poor.

Who's next on the throne, you query?

Richard II who was young and very

Cultured but weak. You can guess his fate.

The Lords forced him to advocate.

Up next: Henrys Four, Fiveand Six,

Then Edward IV in the regal mix.

Then there's the mystery of Ed Number Five,

Sent to the Tower, not since seen alive.

His uncle Rick killed him? Maybe!

And crowned himself Richard Number Three!

Remembered as a 'wicked snake',

History gives Richard an unfair shake.

Then came the Tudor queens and kings

Who did all sorts of royal things.

First Henry VII, then Henry Eight,

Whose reign was long and girth was great.

Henry's kids followed their dad.

Edward VI died when just a lad.

When 'Bloody Mary' became the Queen,

She used religion to act very mean.

Protestant people, she sent them to burn.

When Mary died, it was the Catholics' turn.

Elizabeth I was very exciting:

Her reign saw the Spanish armada and Shakespeare's writing.

The Church of England, she founded that.

Then Catholics lost their heads — and their hats.

James I tried to fill her shoes.

He prevented Guy Fawkes from lighting his fuse.

James was blessed with great ability

Which improved England's stability.

Then Charles I, with the things he said,

Made Parliament mad, so he lost his head.

Oliver Cromwell, you know his fate!

He gave England a taste of a King-free state.

When Ollie died, what did Parliament do?

They asked Charles to become King Charles II!

(These were the years, you may have learned,

When the Plague returned, and London burned.)

After Charles, James II, his brother,

Ruled. But one problem after another

Caused a revolt, so James had to go.

And William and Mary ran the show.

Then Queen Anne was the head of state.

Her reign was long. Her weight was great!

Then came the Germans — George the First

Was a mediocre king, but he could've been worse.

George II was the next to rule

And continued the Hanoverian school.

After him, there was George the Third.

He was mad, or so I've heard!

Then the prince became the King:

George IV, an extravagant thing!

When George passed, he left no heir,

So his brother was crowned and ruled with no flair.

William IV had good intentions;

His wife Adelaide deserves a mention.

Then Victoria took the throne,

And when Albert died, she ruled Britain alone.

In the longest reign of all monarchs, she

Ruled through the age of industry.

Those Victorians leaped ahead by streets

With their science and engineering feats.

Edward VII followed his mother,

Then George V, and then another

Edward, this time Number Eight.

But he abdicated to marry his mate.

George VI reigned next and when he died,

Around the world, people mourned and cried.

His daughter, Elizabeth, was overseas

In a hotel in the top of the trees.

It has been said, by those at the scene:

'She arrived a princess and departed a Queen.'

She was crowned in '53,

As Elizabeth II but who will be

The future King, the future Queen,

The future King of England?

www.guyfox.org.uk

2010-11-12T14:06:00.000Z

In Year 43, the folks from Rome

Decided to call 'Londinium' home.

They settled on a site on a hill near a river

In a place that’s so cold, it caused them to shiver.

They built loads of roads and a temple or two.

They built and they built, but before they were through,

Queen Boudicca attacked and left thousands dead!

But the Romans survived it, because they all fled.

The Romans built a wall after that episode

To keep out invaders and to protect their gold.

Around Year 400, the Romans left – every single one!

They must’ve missed the Italian sun!

Next into town, the Anglo-Saxons came

And decided ‘Lundenwic’ would be the new name.

In 851, the Danes rowed into town

And burnt the City right to the ground!

Those Vikings attacked, in battle after battle

Which caused London Bridge to shake and to rattle.

Of course, as you know, London Bridge did fall down,

And then 'Lundenburgh' became the name of this town.

Under the Danes, the City grew powerful and rich.

After them came Edward, then in 1066,

William conquered England, but the City kept its power.

That's why he had to build the White Tower!

(The king needed the City to be rich, you see,

But he guarded his power jealously!)

We'll have to skip over a few hundred years,

Or else we won't finish the poem, m'dears!

The 17th century was a chaotic time,

Which probably deserves its very own rhyme!

To give you an idea, here’s a brief overview:

There was religious unrest, and a black plague or two.

England was at war, and the King lost his head,

And then one night, while baking the bread,

In Pudding Lane, a spark ‘came a blaze

Which ignited the City and burned for days.

After the Great Fire of 1666,

There wasn’t much left, just rubble and sticks.

The fire destroyed churches and ‘most every guild.

And afterwards, there was nothing to do but rebuild.

Sir Christopher Wren was given the duty

Of restoring the City to its former beauty.

At the end of that century, in 1694,

The King built the Bank to finance his war.

By the time Victoria ascended the throne.

London had grown and grown and grown.

Workers were living further away,

So they traveled into the City each day.

They walked in on foot, they rode in by horse,

And when trains were invented, they used those, of course!

Traffic was a mess, no matter the hour,

And they needed a bridge that was east of the Tower.

Horace Jones came up with a stunning design,

And eight years later Tower Bridge came on line.

Through fires and wars, the City's survived.

It's endured, it's grown and yes, it has thrived.

The next time you walk around the Square Mile,

You'll see plenty of sights that will make you smile.

To help you remember, here's a quick City guide:

The Bank of England, which has gold inside,

The Old Bailey, which condemns and forgives,

The Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor lives,

The Guildhall and its mythical giants,

The Monument, secretly designed to do science,

And on top of a hill, the most beautiful of all,

Is the splendid Cathedral of St Paul.

And if you look closely, you may just see

The Roman Wall built in AD 70.

THE END

(For Now!)

www.guyfox.org.uk

2010-09-12T13:16:00.000+01:00

HOW DID THEY BUILD TOWER BRIDGE (PART TWO)
First, they built the Towers
The steel for the towers was made by William Arrol and Company in Scotland, and it was shipped to London and brought up the river on barges.

There wasn't much space to store equipment and materials, so the steel was brought up the river when it was needed. Crews of workers set about 200 rivets per day – by hand. There are two million rivets in Tower Bridge – so you can do the math.The work took a long time!

Slowly but surely, the steelwork rose from the Thames like a huge black skeleton. Each tower had four steel pillars. The two pillars on the land-side of the tower would support the suspension chains, while the river-side pillars would support the high level walkways.

When the structure was in place, workers built the Walkways.
When the pillars were finished, workers started building the high level walkways. They worked 46 metres above the river, without safety nets!

Boats would pass below them, so workers had to be extra careful not to drop a tool onto someone's head.

The workers on Tower Bridge were paid an outstanding wage of £2 per week! It may not seem like much, but it was twice the wage of a London policeman.

Separate crews worked on cantilevers extending from each tower. A cantilever is a section supported at one end, which can bear its own weight.

When the cantilevers extended far enough toward the middle, a central section linked them together.

Good ole William Arrol & Company in Scotland had tested their steel to make sure it would all fit snugly together once it arrived at Tower Bridge.

Next step: Building the Chains & the Bascules
The workers built an abutment on each land-end of Tower Bridge. An abutment is a structure which anchors suspension chains.

Then the workers built the suspension chains, using scaffolding to support them as they went. When the chains were finished, the workers added rods and girders to keep the chains from swinging in the wind.

The suspension chains of Tower Bridge are really heavy. They weigh one ton per foot!

The Bascules were next!
Remember, these were the "arms" of Tower Bridge which would raise and lower to let the ships pass through. Workers built sections forty feet long, strengthened with long girders and cross-girders.

Then they built the counterbalance. The counterbalance is the part which balances the bascule, kind of like a person on the seat of a seesaw. If you have only one person, the seesaw can't move. The bascule itself had a weight, so it needed a counterbalance in order to go up and down.

On the counterbalance, they constructed a huge gear, which fit into the gear of the steam engine. When the steam engine built up pressure, the gears would turn, opening the bridge for ships! When it released pressure, the bascules lowered.

With its bascules, the suspension chains and the steam engine, Tower Bridge was a triumph of engineering! Its nickname was "the Wonder Bridge."

After 8 years of hard work, Tower Bridge was finally finished and ready for its grand opening.

On 30th June 1894, the Thames River was packed with barges, steamships and ferries. People crowded along the embankments and bridges for a peek at the new bridge. The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived amidst the excitement. The Prince made an official declaration that the bridge was open for traffic; then he pushed a button which raised the bascules for the first time.

2010-06-05T18:46:00.003+01:00

HOW DID THEY BUILD TOWER BRIDGE? (PART ONE)
From the bottom up! It's not a joke. When you look at Tower Bridge, you see a magnificent structure, but did you know that more of the bridge is below the water than above the water?

You start with the foundation. And in the case of Tower Bridge, you start deep, deep, deep under the surface of the Thames - 10 metres below the surface of the water, in fact.

On 22nd April 1886, divers started preparing the riverbed for the massive piers. It must have been a scary job - after all, it was 1886. They didn't have scuba gear and safety devices and computer equipment. The divers wore leather suits with metal helmets, and they were connected to the surface by air tubes. They used hand tools and shovels.

Above them, on barges, other workers built caissons. What is a caisson? I'm glad you asked.

A caisson is an open-ended watertight metal box, with sharp edges.

Workers lowered each caisson into the river - down, down, down - until it rested on the riverbed. While the sharp edge of the caisson dug into the riverbed, the workers forced them deep into the soil. They sunk the caissons to 9 metres deep, into watertight London clay. The London clay would support the enormous weight of Tower Bridge!

Twenty-four caissons (12 in each pier) were constructed, and when they were complete, they were filled with concrete. The workers left space within each pier for steel pillars (which would support the towers), and for the bascule machinery.

It took four years to construct the piers!

Four years!

To learn more about HOW they built Tower Bridge, you'll have to read the next blog! But that's all for now.

2010-03-23T10:20:00.002Z

Ten years ago, on 23rd March 2000, Kourtney Harper received a letter from the Peabody Trust, which notified her that her application for a Leaders for London Millennium Grant had been successful.
Woohoo!

You see, Kourtney had had this vision, as far back as 1998, to create a cartoon character who would educate children about London's culture, art and heritage. She had this crazy idea to create an illustrated magazine for local children, and she had an even crazier idea that the magazine would be FREE.

In January 2000, she saw an ad in the newspaper: "Do you have an idea that would benefit your local community?"
("Yes, I do!' she said to herself.)

"Do you require funding to make your idea a reality?"
("Sure. That would be really good.")

The ad said, "Contact the Peabody Trust to discuss your idea."

So Kourtney contacted the Peabody Trust to discuss her idea.

A nice lady named Manjeet Edwards helped her fill in the application. They put together letters of support (thank you, Alan McLean, Sandi Bain and Grazina McCarthy), along with a few samples of Kourtney's cartoons, and they sent the application to the Millennium Commission.

Three months later, a letter dropped through the mail slot. That letter was the official birth of me – Guy Fox!

We launched the first magazine, 'Guy Fox: History on the Sly' in July 2000.

We had a little party at the brand new Tate Modern (which will celebrate its tenth birthday this May). We served cookies and juice and fizzy saucer sweets, on plastic trays that we'd purchased from the 'Mr Pound' store. We gave awards to primary school children who'd drawn pictures for our art competition. We made a speech or two and we unveiled the first magazine. It was a big night.

At the end of the evening, we packed up our belongings onto a trolley and left it in the Turbine Hall. A few museum-goers thought that higgledy-piggledy stack of magazines, plastic cups and leftover juice cartons was a piece of modern art, perhaps an homage to Duchamps' 'Fountain'. They were admiring it even as we loaded it into the taxi. (We still giggle about that now.)

Ten years on, we've grown. We have our own office. We have three staff members and a team of volunteers and contractors who contribute their talents and enthusiasm. We've worked with over 1,200 children in London, developing more than 50 educational resources which have been distributed to over 100,000 children in the UK and beyond.

But some things haven't changed. We still have those plastic trays from Mr Pound. We still do our best to create activities which empower children to explore the world around them. We still laugh every day.

And we are still looking toward the future, trying to improve our work and make a real impact on the lives of the children we work with. After all, there's always more work to be done. But more importantly, there's always more fun to be had!

2009-11-21T19:33:00.004Z

Smack dab in the centre of the City of London, on Fish Street Hill, you will find one of the world's tallest free-standing stone columns, The Monument. You can visit it any day except Christmas. Just buy yourself a ticket, then hike up 311 steps -- each one EXACTLY six inches high. When you get to the viewing platform, you will see amazing views of the City of London, the Thames River, and beyond.

And the view feels extra impressive, because you've earned it! Hiking up The Monument is not for everybody. It's a long, windy stone staircase, which gets narrower towards the top. There's only one way up and down, so while you are ascending, other tourists are walking DOWN the self-same six-inch steps as you.

Whatever you do, DON'T look down! (You're tempted now, right?)

If you do muster up the courage to look over the handrail, ALL the dizzy way down to the bottom (gulp!), you will see a red-lit chamber underneath the staircase. And THAT's where our story begins!

The Monument was designed by Robert Hooke after the Great Fire of London (1666). Robert Hooke was one of those unsung geniuses of the 17th century; some people call him "London's Leonardo da Vinci." We like to say, "he was an architect in the age of Wren and a scientist in the age of Newton."

So, despite his contributions to both architecture and science, Robert Hooke was outshone by Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Isaac Newton. They must've had better PR agents!

In his role as City Surveyor, Robert Hooke designed The Monument. Officially, it was meant to be a monument to the rebuilding of the City of London after the Great Fire.

Unofficially, Robert Hooke (along with Christopher Wren) wanted the Monument to be a giant xenith telescope, which they could use to make astronomical observations. So Robert Hooke built a cellar underneath it, where he would lie and watch the sky at night.

Did it work? Yes. Did it work well? No. Unfortunately, passing traffic (carts and horses, of course, in those days) caused too many vibrations, and idea of the giant xenith telescope was abandoned. Bad news for The Monument, but GREAT news for the tourists who visit London every year and make the hike up the stairs to stare at the view.

Before you visit The Monument, be sure to download The Monument Activity Sheet. And if you're a teacher, you will LOVE my FREE Monument Teachers Kit. Both are available from my website, at www.guyfox.org.uk

2009-11-05T15:52:00.017Z

The truth be known, it's actually called 'Guy Fawkes' Day. Every year in England, on the fifth of November, people celebrate something which did NOT happen. And my oh my, do they celebrate!

What did NOT happen? A large explosion, that's what. A large explosion on 5th November 1605 at the State Opening of the Houses of Parliament. A large explosion which the plotters had intended to kill the newly-crowned King James I along with other members of the Royal Family and the aristocracy. You see, the plotters wanted England to be a Catholic country. Or at least to be a country which did not persecute Catholics.

(A quick recap of 17th century religious ping pong: Henry VIII had separated from the Roman Catholic Church over his divorce(s) and created a Protestant religion; his heirs, in turn, were Catholic (Mary I) and Protestant (Elizabeth I). Whenever a Catholic was in charge, the Protestants were persecuted; and vice-versa. Not particularly friendly behaviour on either part!)

So when Elizabeth I died, leaving behind no heir, the throne went to James (of Scotland) who was a Protestant; this made Catholics itchy. Of course, most of them did NOT plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but that is what Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters did.

It was known as the Gunpowder Plot. They rented a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament, which they filled with kegs of gunpowder. You'da thought someone might've been suspicious when that delivery was made, but no. The gunpowder in the cellar idea was actually Plan B. Plan A had been to dig a tunnel under the building and to fill the tunnel with explosives.

On the evening of 26th October 1605, someone (and we will never know who) sent a letter to Lord Monteagle (a Catholic) to warn him to stay away from the Houses of Parliament on 5th November.

He showed the letter to King James I who ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to search the cellars. And A-ha! They found the gunpowder and Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes was tortured, tried and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. He and other plotters met their end on 31st January 1606.

Many people believe that Guy Fawkes was set up by fellow plotter Robert Catesby. Catesby, in fact, was the mastermind of the Gunpowder Plot. But it is his name which was given to the date. If you think about it, 'Robert Catesby Day' doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November." Every year, people remember the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot by building bonfires and burning Guy Fawkes in effigy. There are also fireworks displays in many parts of the country.

And now you know the story behind my name: I was born on the 5th of November 1998, and, enjoying the pun, my parents named me 'Guy Fox'. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

2007-10-10T21:17:00.009+01:00

WHY did they build Tower Bridge?

Let me take you back to 1860. London had a problem: TRAFFIC! (Does that sound familiar?) Thousands of people and carts and horses crossed the River Thames. You could take a boat across the Thames, but that was slow and expensive. You could cross London Bridge for free, but it was really crowded. You could swim across, but that, well, it was wet! And in the winter, pretty COLD!

Obviously, the River Thames needed a new crossing. But the new crossing needed to 1) allow carts and horses and people to cross over it, and 2) allow ships to come into the Pool of London. At the same time!

After all, London was one of the world's busiest ports. The big question of the day was: How do you design a bridge which carts and horses can cross over, while tall ships to sail under it?

All sorts of architects submitted all sorts of designs -- there were TUNNEL designs; there were designs for really tall BRIDGES; or BRIDGES with steep roads; there was a design for a "rolling" bridge; one design had interlocking loops which would keep the traffic flowing above and below the bridge. But none of these ideas seemed practical.

Enter our hero: Horace Jones. He was the 'Architect and Surveyor to the City of London Corporation,' a job dating back to the 15th century. Horace Jones submitted a design for a bascule bridge. His bridge would raise its bascules to let the tall ships pass through. Plus, his design had walkways, high above the ships' masts, where pedestrians could cross as the ships passed underneath. Problem solved!

But that was only the DESIGN of Tower Bridge! Read my other blogs about Tower Bridge to find out the rest of the story!

2007-10-09T20:41:00.001+01:00

To really understand Iceland, you have to go WAAAAY back in history. To PRE-history, in fact. So let's [REWIND] about one hundred thousand years, to what geologists might call "yesterday." The Late Quaternary Period. (You know the one; it comes after the Pliocene Epoch in the geological timescale. The Quaternary Period started 1.8 million years ago, and we're still living in it today.)

One hundred thousand and ONE year ago, it seems, Iceland wasn't even here. It was just a burp on the ocean floor - deeeeep down beneath the waves. Hot magma spilled from the mid-Atlantic ocean rift and cooled into the land mass which is now the island of Iceland. (Ta da!)

And it's still happening! Iceland is getting larger - about 2 centimetres each year - because Iceland is straddling two geological plates.

Beep! Beep! Beep! (That's me, backing up a bit, to fill you in on some GEOLOGY!)

THE THEORY OF PLATE TECTONICS
"Plate Tectonics" is an idea that once upon a time (and we're talking once upon A LONG LONG LONG time ago) the continents of the world were joined up, as a single, large landmass. There were (and ARE) different geological plates and their movement made the large landmass break apart. Over time, the continents separated from each other, into the world as we know it today.

At the edges, where two or more plates touch each other, there's A LOT of activity. Iceland sits on top of the American AND Asian plates. So there you have it, Iceland's as geologically active as can be! There are about 30 earthquakes EVERY DAY. (Of course, MOST of the earthquakes are only tiny, so you wouldn't even notice them.)

The Reykanes Peninsula looks like the surface of the moon: No trees, no shrubbery, just jaggedy rocks as far as you can see. Of course, those rocks are the leftovers of volcanic lava. Steam - smelling of rotten eggs - billows out of holes in the rocky earth, so you have to watch where you're walking because you could break through the crust and... well, who knows what might happen. Seriously, you might burn your leg off.

Want to learn more? Check out my next Iceland blog! But that's all for now.

2007-09-03T23:37:00.002+01:00

Marc Brunel built the first tunnel under a river in the history of the world. Let me repeat that.

Marc Brunel built the first tunnel under a river in the history of the world. Ever. Impressive, no? (Well I think so, and so should you!)

They say the Assyrians dug an underwater tunnel in Babylon, but the Assyrians moved the River Euphrates out of the way, dug their tunnel, and then returned the river to its original course so that the tunnel ran underneath it.

It's odd to say Marc Brunel 'built' the tunnel; maybe I should say he 'dug' the tunnel. But many men had tried to dig a tunnel under the River Thames, and exactly for that reason, they had failed.

You see, the soil underneath the River Thames (or any river) is very soft. When you dig a hole underneath a river, the water creeps in and collapses it. If you've ever dug a hole in the sand at a beach, you'll know what I mean. The waves come along, and it's 'good-bye' hole. Just a bunch of soggy sand where your hole once was.

But Marc Brunel decided to BUILD a tunnel. Here's the best part: his inspiration was a VERY HUNGRY WORM!

While working in the Chatham Dockyard, Marc had observed a wood worm (teredo navalis) tunneling into wood. When teredo navalis burrows into wood, it digs with its head. It chews up the wood, which goes through its body and passes out the back end. So there's no danger of collapse, because the worm's body supports the hole as he digs. Quite a genius, that worm!

Marc Brunel thought the same. So he designed a tunneling device which would act like a giant worm! He would build a shield to support the earth as men dug through it, and the dirt they excavated would be made into bricks. While workers dug at the front end, other workers would brick the freshly-dug tunnel passage behind them. The bricks would support the tunnel and keep it from collapsing.

The idea of a SHIELD, to support the tunnel as it was being excavated, is still used today. Next time you travel on the Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf, or through the Channel Tunnel, you may want to give a little thought to Marc Brunel and the very hungry worm.

I'll write more about Marc Brunel and the Thames Tunnel soon. But that's all for now!

2007-07-25T21:12:00.003+01:00

There are THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR steps to the top of the clocktower (whew!) which houses Big Ben.

That's right, Big Ben is NOT the clocktower. And he's NOT the clock. Big Ben is the BELL, the really BIG BELL, which hangs alongside four other bells in the clocktower at the Palace of Westminster.

I know what you're thinking: "Hold it, there! I thought Big Ben was in the clocktower at the HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT." And yep, you're right. It's the self-same clocktower. But the OFFICIAL name of the "Houses of Parliament" is, in fact, the Palace of Westminster. Feel free to impress your friends with that little fact, the next time you're chewing the fat.

Despite the fact that Big Ben is ONLY the BELL (and you might think I'm pedantic for having mentioned it), most people think of 'Big Ben' as the whole tower, the clock mechanism, the clock face, and the bells. So you'd be forgiven for thinking the same thing (except, of course, if you were at a meeting of horologists).

But I digress.... back to Big Ben (the BELL).

What's that you say? The name? Ah yes, I was getting to that. I want to tell you first, about a custom: it is traditional to give names to big bells. St Paul's Cathedral has Great Tom, and Southwark Cathedral has had St Nicholas, Augustus, and even Anna Maria. (By the way, little bells are NOT named. So the four other bells in the clocktower, which hang alongside Big Ben and chime the quarter hours, are nameless.)

So how did Big Ben come to be called "Big Ben"? Like so many things in London, there are TWO stories:

Story #1: Big Ben was named after Benjamin Caunt, a famous heavyweight bare knuckle boxer at the time. He weighed 17 stone (91 kilogrammes), and he was nicknamed 'Big Ben'.

Story #2: OR Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the Commissioner of Works and MP for Marylebone. Benjamin Hall was a jovial fellow, and people really liked him. At 6 feet 4 inches, he was as wide as he was tall and was known as 'Big Ben'. Legend has it, the members of Parliament were debating what to call the bell. The debate went on and on and on. Benjamn Hall was speaking, and an MP, who must've been ready to go home, yelled, 'Why not call it Big Ben?'

Everybody burst out laughing and the name stuck. Hansard (the official record of Parliament) doesn't mention the debate, or the laughter, so we may never know the real truth.

I'll write more about Big Ben soon. But that's all for now!