Where Big Ben was cast
In 2012 one of the most remarkable companies in London was working flat out. Whitechapel Bell Foundry had received orders from churches all over the country to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Elizabeth II, and was responsible for designing and tuning (though not casting) the 23-ton bell that chimed during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in that year, the biggest commission in the company’s history.
This history is something to be proud of. Founded in 1570, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry is the oldest continuously producing company in England. The first bell-founder who worked in Whitechapel, Robert Mot, made bells that still ring today. Two of them hang in the north-west tower of Westminster Abbey. In 1738 production moved to the present site, where famous bells have been cast. They include Big Ben (1858), at 13.8 tons then the largest bell ever made in Britain. It was carried to Parliament on a cart pulled by 16 beribboned horses across London Bridge, through Southwark and then over Westminster Bridge as crowds lined the streets. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia (1752), a hallowed symbol of the independence of the United States, also came from Whitechapel.
Info
Address 32–34 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DY | Public Transport Aldgate East (District, Hammersmith & City Line) | Hours Museum Mon–Fri 9am–4.30pm; for tours of the foundry, see www.whitechapelbellfoundry.co.uk| Tip A short walk from the foundry, Tayyabs (83 Fieldgate Street, tel. 020/72479543, reservation recommended, Mon–Sun noon–11.30pm) is known for its excellent Punjabi food.
Today, the fourth generation of the Hughes family runs the business. The offices and a small museum are on the ground floor of a house built in 1670. Visitors walk through a template showing the size of Big Ben into small exhibition rooms to see historic photos, details of bells that have been cast in Whitechapel, and a home-made model of the foundry to illustrate the stages in the production process. The popularity of church bells in Britain is cause to be optimistic that the company’s future will be as long as its history. The inscription on the Olympic bell backs this up with a fitting quote from Shakespeare’s »The Tempest«: »Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises«.
Back
To the online map