Britain's Largest Clocks

The Brits used to love their clocks but with the advent of the mobile phone few people now rely on house clocks or watches to tell the time any more.

In memory of these once prized time pieces I thought it may be fun to show you some of Britain's largest clocks, those that are found all over the land on churches, in railway stations and in town squares.  

BRITAIN'S MOST FAMOUS CLOCK FACE 

Britain's most famous clock and probably the world’s most famous clock too, is the clock face that sits atop of the Elisabeth Tower in the Palace of Westminster, or as it is better known the Houses of Parliament, located in the city of Westminster in London.

Wrongly titled Big Ben by everyone on the planet (including Brits), this clock has been wrongly called that since it's first chime in 1859.

Each of the four clock faces are twenty three feet in diameter with each Roman numeral two feet long and spaced one foot apart.

The copper minute hands are 14 foot long and the gun metal hour hands are nine feet long. This makes this clockface the largest chiming clock face in the world and the 17th largest clock face,  by size, in the world.

The name Big Ben actually pertains to the name of the bell, the part you hear but never see. 

It’s world renowned chimes are familiar with everyone in the world as they are not just heard by Londoners but by the entire British public and even the world, as they are published by the BBC’s World Service. Every hour on the hour.

BRITAIN'S LARGEST CLOCK FACE

Surprisingly Big Ben isn’t the the largest clock face in the land, that honour goes to the clock face located at the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool, shown above.

The two clock faces, which are ranked as the sixteenth largest clock faces in the world, are twenty five feet in diameter and have graced Liverpool's skyline since 1911.  
They were made this large in order that passing ships could tell the time as they sailed into the Port of Liverpool. 

Despite these two huge clock faces this iconic building is actually better known for being the location of the two Liver Birds which sit at the very top of the building.

BRITAIN'S OLDEST CLOCK FACE

The title of oldest and still fully functioning clock in the country goes to the clock face on the north transept of Wells Cathedral located in the county of Somerset.

The clockface dates to between 1386 and 1392, although the original workings of the astronomical timepiece have now been removed and taken to the Science Museum in London which, by the way, are still in working order. 

BRITAIN'S BIGGEST RAILWAY STATION CLOCK  

Most of Britain's two thousand railway stations are graced by a large clock. The clocks were manufactured so large in order that passengers could see the time from wherever they were positioned in the station.

There doesn’t seem to be any research done into which station clock is the largest in the land but most of them are between five and six feet in diameter. Most of these are modern electric clocks with few of the original nineteenth century clocks still remaining.

One station that does still sport an original J.B Joyce of Whitchurch clock is Liverpool's Lime Street station. It’s massive dial is situated high up on the wall of the station's main concourse and features Roman numerals and an ornamental surround.  

BRITAIN'S LARGEST TOWN SQUARE CLOCK

I omitted the word face with this one as there doesn’t seem to be a clock in Britain that holds the distinction of being the largest in any town square, but if there was this one in Tredegar in Monmouthshire, Wales would certainly be a likely contender.

Standing an impressive seventy two feet high and made entirely from cast iron, the illuminated striking clock was presented to the town by iron foundry owner's wife, Mrs R.P Davis, in 1858.

The clock’s four dials are a five foot three inches in diameter with two foot two inch long minute hands and one foot seven inches long hour hands. 

BRITAIN'S MOST IMPORTANT CLOCK FACE

All clocks are important but there is one here in England that is particularly important, not just to Brits but to each and everyone in the world.

That clock is the Greenwich Meridian Clock, the one clock in the world that sets the time for the whole of the world's time zones.

Situated at the Greenwich Observatory in the UNESCO site of the Royal London Borough of Greenwich and officially known as the Greenwich Chronometer, the United Kingdom has been home to the Prime Meridian since an international agreement in 1884.

BRITAIN'S MOST PHOTOGRAPHED CLOCK  

Even more than the clock on the Palace of Westminster this particular clock is classified as the most photographed in the land.

The clock is the one which graces the Eastgate Tower situated in the country's finest Roman walled city of Chester. The clock first appeared in 1897 after it had been built in order to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

This impressive clock, built into the walkway along Chester Walls above the city's Eastgate entrance, is cuboid in shape and made from cast iron with a wrought iron fretwork surround which depicts lions rampant, a cupola and a weather vane.

The clock was designed by Chester architect John Douglas and the clock mechanism was built by clock makers J.B Joyce of Whitchurch.

The bright red clock face surround and it's heavy gilt work is unusual for a clock so large as is it's  height, which completely dominates the upper arch of the ancient stonewalled gateway. 

BRITAIN'S THIRD LARGEST CLOCK FACE

Not only does this fine timepiece rate as the third largest in the land, it is encased at one of London's finest Art Deco buildings.

The Shell Mex House, is a twelve storey building that towers one hundred and ninety feet above London's Strand.

The beautiful Art Deco period building, constructed in 1930, houses London's second largest clock face and Great Britain's third largest clock face and is known as Big Benzene, after the BP oil company who were first to own the building and to have had the clock commissioned.