London’s Big Ben to Fall Silent For Repairs in 2017

London’s House of Parliament will fall silent for several months during repairs to its crumbling clock tower Big Ben.

London’s iconic Big Ben clock tower will be shut in January 2017 for repairs for almost 3 years. (Photo: AP Screengrab)

British officials have announced that the famous bell next to London’s Houses of Parliament will fall silent for several months during repairs to its crumbling clock tower.

The work to the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the bell known colloquially as “Big Ben,” is due to begin in January 2017 and will last three years.

It is the biggest repair job on the tower for decades and Steve Jaggs, Parliament’s Keeper of the Great Clock, said that prolonged water damage means that it can’t wait much longer.

“Pieces are just flaking off. The tower is structurally sound, we just need to do the maintenance work,” said Jaggs.

Jaggs added that the 29 million pounds renovation will include work to repair corrosion to the cast-iron roof and to stop water seepage that threatens to damage the stonework on the iconic 160-year-old building.

The huge clock, which has run almost uninterrupted since 1859, will be stopped for several months so that Parliament’s clockmakers can work on the spring that holds the 4-metre (13-foot) pendulum and remove the hands – along with every pane of glass – from each of the four faces.

The 13.5-British-tonne Big Ben bell will cease to sound the hours while the clock is stopped, and will be cleaned and checked for cracks.