Useful things to know before your visit
Address: Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Parliament Square, Westminster SW1. Website: parliament.uk
How much do the tickets cost?
You can buy adults tickets from £55, and children (11-17 years) from £35. Children under-11 are not allowed; Tickets are released on the 2nd Wed of every month, three months in advance.
What are the opening hours?
The tours run at 9.45am, 10.45am, 11.45am, 12.45pm, 2.45pm, 3.45pm or 4.45pm (Mon-Sun).
How much time do you need?
A typical visit to Big Ben takes 1¾ hours.
Which buses go to Big Ben?
Bus routes 11, 24, 148 and 211 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Westminster, which connects with the Circle District and Jubilee lines. It only takes a minute to walk to Big Ben.
Which other attractions are nearby?
These attractions are all within 15 minutes walk of Big Ben: Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Jewel Tower, Churchill War Rooms, Downing Street, SEA LIFE London Aquarium, Banqueting House, London Dungeon, London Eye, Horse Guards, Household Cavalry Museum, St. James’s Park, Garden Museum, Benjamin Franklin House and Nelson’s Column.
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Email My review of Big Ben
Apparently Big Ben has started leaning two feet to the west because of all the tube trains rumbling under his feet, so I always picture him as a cantankerous old grandad stooping on his arthritic knees, bellowing at the tourists whilst they’re standing there staring at him. If I were him I’d start whizzing my hands around at 100 mph just for the sheer hell of it, just to break the monotony and let everybody know that I was still there. I’d hammer my ten-tonne bells until the MPs came charging out of Parliament demanding that I shut up.
Guided tour of Big Ben
Photo: londondrum.comIt’s not as easy to get into Big Ben as it is to get into Parliament itself, which is a bit weird. You can’t just turn up and ask for a tour. You have to write a letter to your local MP first and ask for an invite. I did that way back in May and was given a tour date four months later – so that shows you how far in advance you have to plan it (or maybe I just have a lousy MP).
When you finally get the acceptance letter they make it sound a lot scarier than it actually is. First of all they make you fill in a spreadsheet with all your personal details so the security people can check you’re not a terrorist, and then they insist that you bring along two forms of ID (like a passport, driving license or utility bill) and if you turn up one minute late you won’t be allowed in (no exceptions!).
Photo: londondrum.comOn the next page they start talking about the stairs: no one with a heart complaint, no one with breathing problems or vertigo can go, and pregnant women shouldn’t even think about it. It’s 334 spiral steps to the top which is twenty more than The Monument, and I remember having problems climbing those with my dodgy knees, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to Big Ben after reading that letter. I was seriously starting to have second thoughts.
Photo: londondrum.com
Photo: londondrum.comMPs’ offices in Portcullis House
The meeting point for the tour is across the road in Portcullis House where most of the MPs have their day-to-day offices. It’s quite an interesting place to begin because it lets you have a quick nose around a normally inaccessible building – and you can see those notorious trees in the atrium. (So that’s where all of our taxes are going – the MPs are planting trees indoors!) After that you get led through an underground tunnel that takes you below the road towards Big Ben.
The tour doesn’t include any part of Parliament other than the clock tower itself, so it’s strictly about Big Ben. And the first part is by far the hardest – 115 steps to the first room. So rest assured that you don’t have to climb all 334 steps in one go, which was certainly a big relief to me. So when you get that scary letter warning you to write your will beforehand, just ignore it – if you’ve ever managed to climb to the top of The Monument or seen the view from the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral then you will find this easy-peasy.
Photo: londondrum.com
Photo: londondrum.comThe clock mechanism
The first part of the talk was all about the history of the bell: who designed it, who built it, and who installed it. Our guide was pretty good and he went into plenty of detail, but there wasn’t a lot to actually see in this first room, just a big poster on the wall and some seats were we could rest and catch our breath. After that he took us up another flight of stairs to the clock mechanism. This room looked more like a mini-factory with pulleys, pendulums, cogs and whirring wheels all over the place.
Just before it struck half-past nine he warned us of a coming cacophony of noise and he wasn’t joking. When the whole thing whirred into action it scared the living daylights out of us. Imagine the sound of a factory gone wrong: long levers banging up and down, cogs clanking round and round, and heavy hammers bashing the bells tens of meters above your head.
Photo: londondrum.comThe clock tower belfry and Big Ben bell
After that bit of excitement we headed up to the belfry to see Big Ben himself. Incredibly, the guide even let us stand inside the bell room whilst it chimed ten. This was such a deep and visceral thrill that words can never do it justice. One minute the big bell was sleeping peacefully and then it was as if he’d suddenly become rage and thunder. There really was no escape from his anger. The guide had given us some earplugs beforehand which we were obliged to wedge into our lugs, but it was still astonishingly loud – loud enough to make my bones vibrate. It made my vision shake. I think a few of my teeth crumbled into dust as well. And it wasn’t just Big Ben chiming because there were several bells all around us (one for each note of the tune), all pounding out the sound into our vibrating skulls.
When we had recovered from that experience he took us back down the stairs and stopped off behind the huge clock faces, where we could see the shadow of the gigantic hands pass in front of the glass.
And that was it, sadly. All that remained was for us to walk back down, still shaking our heads and banging our ears with our palms, trying to make our hearing came back.
I’ve ranked Big Ben as ★1 in London’s most famous landmarks and ★5 in the best photo spots in London
It also appears in my how to spend one day in London itineraries, two days in London itinerary and one week in London itinerary
The Big Ben tour is definitely worth doing, but a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament is even better - some of the rooms inside there rival the ones at Buckingham Palace. If you want to see inside Parliament for free then try visiting the House of Commons public gallery, or request a ticket for Prime Minister’s Questions from your local MP
London Squire guidebook – Check out my guidebook available to buy at Amazon, Apple and Kobo. I’ve personally visited 210 London landmarks, attractions and hotels and collected all of my reviews, example itineraries, handy practical info, and advice about using the buses and trains into an eBook, along with 675 original photos
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What do you think? (13)
Ask a question, or share your experience of Big Ben
Hap Do you have to pay to get into Big Ben. (reply)
Craig You don’t have to pay, but you do need to write a letter to your local MP to get an invite ticket, which will probably take a couple of months at least. (reply)
Hap What should you write in your letter? (reply)
Craig Just tell them you’d like an invite to the ‘Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower Tour’. Give them a range of dates that you can do, at least three or four months in the future. Don’t just give them one date, because it books up ages in advance. Give them your full name, age and address (because they have to check you’re a constituent). My MP then sent me over some security questions which I had to email back. It was only after I did that that I received the ticket. (reply)
Hap Thank you ever so much for your reply, it’s very helpful. I shall send a link to our WI ladies. Thanks again. (reply)
Jenny Hello Craig. We are thinking of either climbing Big Ben or doing a tour of The Houses of Parliament. Which do you think is best? (reply)
Craig Hi, Parliament is easily the best. With Big Ben you get to see the bell and stand behind the clock faces, but with Parliament you get to go inside the House of Commons, the House of Lords, Westminster Hall, plus all of the other beautiful rooms like the Royal Gallery and Robing Room. Big Ben is definitely worth doing, but if you only have time for one then Parliament will be more impressive. (reply)
Richard I love the Big Ben Clock, but I can’t figure out why the clockmaker used the symbol F in stead of the Roman Numeral X usually used for clock dial. A theory of mine is that the Romans invaded Britain one time and that the British Royalty did not want to use the Roman numeral because of that. I would really want to know what the answer is to this question. Please help if you can. Thank you. (reply)
Craig Hi Richard. I can see what you mean about it looking like an F, but it’s just a stylised X with a line through the middle. (reply)
Sue When does the bell chime? (reply)
Craig Hi Sue. The main Big Ben bell goes off every hour. The smaller quarter bells go off at 15, 30 and 45 past the hour. (reply)
Kai H We were disappointed that tourists are not allowed to go on a tour of Big Ben. Why is that? We would have loved to seen inside but only UK people are allowed to visit. That doesn’t seem very fair. (reply)
Craig Hi Kai. You’re right, because you need to request an invite from your local MP, which a foreign visitor won’t be able to do. I don’t know the reason, but perhaps it’s because they need to do a security check on everyone first, which will be harder if you’re from overseas. But tourists can go inside the House of Parliament though, which is even better than Big Ben – attractions/houses-of-parliament.php (reply)
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