50 free Big Ben trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Big Ben trivia quiz covers London's most famous landmark from every angle: the bell, the clock and the tower. The easy questions are the ones every visitor should know: what Big Ben strictly refers to, which palace the tower belongs to, what the tower was renamed in 2012, and roughly how tall it is. From there it digs into the details that horologists and Londoners love: the architect who drew the tower as his last design, the foundry that recast the cracked bell, why the bell still has a crack today, how old pennies keep the clock accurate, the light that told Queen Victoria the Commons was sitting, the starlings that slowed the minute hand, the prison room, why the dials were painted black, the Handel connection in the chimes, and how many strokes tolled for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry on Big Ben and the Elizabeth Tower before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our London, Buckingham Palace and British history quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Strictly speaking, 'Big Ben' is the nickname of what?
The bell
By extension the name is now used for the clock and the whole tower, though purists object.
Q 02What new name did the structure receive in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee?
Elizabeth Tower
The precedent was the palace's west tower, renamed Victoria Tower for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
Q 03Big Ben stands at the north end of which building?
The Palace of Westminster
The tower was part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace after the old one burned in 1834.
Q 04Which architect designed the tower, his last work before illness and death in 1852?
Augustus Pugin
He wrote that he had 'never worked so hard in my life' finishing the bell tower drawings for Barry.
Q 05In which year was the tower completed?
1859
Construction had begun on 28 September 1843, with the contractors Thomas Grissell and Morton Peto.
Q 06How tall is the tower?
316 feet (96 m)
That makes it only the third-tallest clock tower in Britain.
Q 07How many steps is the climb from ground level to the belfry?
334
That is 290 stone steps to the clock room plus 44 to the belfry; another 59 reach the top of the spire.
Q 08What event prompted the building of a new home for Parliament, and with it the clock tower?
A fire in 1834 destroyed the old one
Charles Barry was chief architect of the neo-gothic replacement but handed the tower to Pugin.
Q 09The tower's exterior is clad in sand-coloured Anston limestone quarried in which county?
South Yorkshire
Underneath the stone the tower is built of brick, topped by a spire of hundreds of cast-iron roof tiles.
Q 10Which fruit, the emblem of Catherine of Aragon, appears among the shields decorating the tower?
Pomegranate
The 52 shields also carry the Tudor rose, thistle, shamrock, leek, portcullis and fleur-de-lis.
Q 11The tower leans slightly in which direction because it stands on gravel over London Clay?
North-west
The lean is about 230 mm over 55 m; experts say it won't be a problem for another 4,000 to 10,000 years.
Q 12Building Westminster station for which Underground line required tons of concrete under the tower in the 1990s?
The Jubilee line
The tunnelling was allowed to add a planned maximum of 22 mm to the tower's tilt.
Q 13The Ayrton Light above the belfry is lit whenever what happens?
The House of Commons sits after dark
Q 21What was the original colour of the dials and hands, restored during the 2017-2021 conservation?
Prussian blue
They were painted black in the 1930s to hide the effects of air pollution; six colour schemes were found in the paint layers.
Q 22How long is the copper minute hand on each dial?
14 feet (4.3 m)
The gun-metal hour hands are 8.75 feet long.
Q 23Which Astronomer Royal co-designed the clock movement with Edmund Beckett Denison?
George Airy
Denison never patented his gravity escapement, which became standard on high-quality tower clocks.
It originally shone toward Buckingham Palace so Queen Victoria could see when the Commons was at work.
Q 14Who was the last person imprisoned in the tower's oak-panelled Prison Room, in 1880?
Charles Bradlaugh
The atheist MP for Northampton refused to swear a religious oath; the room now houses the Petitions Committee.
Q 15Victorian journalists commonly called the tower by what mistaken name?
St Stephen's
MPs originally sat in St Stephen's Hall, so anything Commons-related was 'news from St Stephens'.
Q 16Which prime minister announced the tower's renaming in September 2012?
David Cameron
Speaker John Bercow unveiled a plaque on Speaker's Green to mark the change.
Q 17What is the diameter of each clock dial?
22.5 feet (6.9 m)
Each dial contains 324 pieces of opalescent glass, said to be no two alike.
Q 18How many pieces of opalescent glass does each clock dial contain?
324
The Victorian glass was replaced during the 2017-2021 works with reproductions made in Germany.
Q 19Whose name is invoked in the Latin inscription at the base of each dial?
Queen Victoria
DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM means 'O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First'.
Q 20Unusually for a clock, how does the Great Clock show the number four on its dials?
IV rather than IIII
Most Roman-numeral clock faces use IIII for balance with the VIII opposite.
Q 24What did Denison invent for the clock instead of the planned deadbeat mechanism?
A double three-legged gravity escapement
It isolates the pendulum from wind, rain and snow pushing on the hands.
Q 25What is placed on top of the pendulum to fine-tune the clock's timekeeping?
Pre-decimal penny coins
Adding or removing one penny changes the clock's speed by 0.4 seconds a day.
Q 26By how much does adding or removing one penny change the clock's speed?
0.4 seconds per day
In 2009 three pennies were swapped for a £5 coin celebrating the 2012 Olympics.
Q 27How often is the clock hand-wound?
Three times a week
Each winding takes about an hour and a half; the horologists also look after some 300 other palace clocks.
Q 28During the First World War the bells were silenced and the dials darkened at night to avoid guiding what?
German Zeppelins
The bells returned at 11:00 am on 11 November 1918 to mark the Armistice.
Q 29What slowed the clock by four and a half minutes on 12 August 1949?
A flock of starlings on the minute hand
Snow on the hands has stopped the clock many more times, prompting little heaters behind two dials.
Q 30How late did Big Ben chime in the 1963 New Year after ice detached the pendulum on New Year's Eve 1962?
Nine minutes
The pendulum is designed to detach under such loads to prevent damage elsewhere in the mechanism.