Inside Big Ben's Makeover

I'm in a truly unique location only a handful of times in history has temporary scaffolding and they would people to stand here outside the clockface have robbed the world's most famous landmarks we're here to show you how the clock tower known as Big Ben he's getting a 21st century makeover [Music] [Music] it's one of our most loved buildings this country it represents the country around the world so we've got to get it right to bring up this building to a 21st century it's essential to maintain it for our future generations Big Ben doesn't belong to one single person it belongs to everyone it's going to be enormous ly rewarding when we get to take down the scaffolding and get to show everyone what we've been working on for the last few years [Music] rising dramatically above the Palace of Westminster in the political heart of the UK's capital the Elizabeth tower has witnessed some of the most significant moments in British history standing as a symbol of resilience through two world wars to emerge as an enduring beacon of democracy while the tower is widely referred to as Big Ben this name actually refers to the clocks main Bell which first marked the hour on the towers completion back in 1859 in the 160 years since as London has evolved from the capital of the British Empire into one of the world's leading financial centres the tower has been subject to weathering pollution and wartime bomb damage despite undergoing several deep cleans and refurbishment over the decades 2017 saw the first complete restoration commenced set to cost almost 18 million pounds the four year project will restore the building's external fabric renovate the clock itself improve internal areas add energy-efficient lighting and installed an elevator working on a project of this profile in such a secure and demanding location above a life Parliament is an extreme task with its bells silence to avoid deafening workers and only ringing to mark Remembrance Day and New Year UK contractor Robert McAlpine first enclosed the entire tower in scaffolding a careful process that took six months to complete rebuilt the scaffold obviously from the ground up to the top and then the works of the exterior envelope of the building start from the top and then work down to the bottom so right at the top of the scaffold it's the cast iron roof which is about the top third of the tower all of the roof is made of cast iron so we've got cast iron tiles which set on the cast iron structure and then it's various other bits of ornamentation so wrought iron ornamentation and copper and brass and things the iron roof tiles and much of the decorative detailing at the top of the tower was removed and taken off-site for hand restoration their contracts are looking after the cast iron roofs before us has a really well thought out system every single component has a unique number on it and regardless of where it is in the country were able to log on and see where its location within the tower what work has been done to it whether it's been recast and where its current location within the country is progressing down the tower the quality of every piece of stonework was assessed where replacements dome is needed craftsmen painstakingly hand carved replacements in an on-site facility at the base of the tower in total more than 700 new segments were created and installed this here is a great place to see three generations of stonework in one location so this here is an original stone that was put in when the Elizabeth tower was first constructed this is actually a replacement piece of stone that was put in and in earlier restoration but as you can see they actually used a more porous type of stone work and this hasn't weathered as well as the original stone work despite this being newer and then this down here is a new stone that was put in as part of this restoration projects now unfortunately this stone from the original quarry isn't available anymore as this tower was constructed 160 years ago what the team have done is match the stone work as best they can and in time this will weather so Big Ben will look much more like it did when this first constructed this here is stone that has been restored as part of this project and this is the color that the stone was before this project started so you can see the color difference is extraordinary [Music] the most impressive part of these works is undoubtedly the restoration of the clock faces themselves and being able to get up close and actually touch the face of Big Ben was a once-in-a-lifetime experience each of the three hundred and twenty four pieces of hand-cut glass on each face are being replaced while the coloring of the hands numerals and surrounding decoration is being restored to the striking blue green and gold shown on the towers original design the works that would enter the clock faces are more significant than have been done in the past so the glass you can see at the moment is all entirely new it was lastly glazed in the 1950s after damages caused by bombing in the Second World War so what we've done is we've taken all of the glass out we blasted all of the paint systems off the clock Dallas has come right back to the original past time the reason for doing that is we have to do repairs to the cast iron so there's there's a limited amount of corrosion but there's also some original casting defects so little pinholes in the cast iron then the drilling out so they can be filled and repaired and then we put the highest quality paint system back on again as part of that obviously we strip all of the previous layers of paint off so we have to do a lot of research about what the previous color schemes were so finding out the history of the colors has been really really exciting I'll see the blue is very new addition for everyone to say yeah Ceylon - y'all close to it here you really get just help us with differences it's fantastic it's not needed layout really shines in the sunshine with a requirement for at least one face of the tower to be left exposed at all times during the works Londoners have been getting a glimpse of what awaits them when the restoration is complete [Music] before 2017 the only way to reach the top of the tower was by a narrow stone staircase a daunting obstacle for clock keepers and the visitors alike but since the towers been built there's only been one way up on one way down from the belfry which has been the the spiral stone staircase in the corner of the tower what sits next to the spiral stone staircase is a ventilation shaft that goes all the way from the basement all the way up to the belfry and so what we're doing is we're fitting a lift into the ventilation shaft so that you'll have two ways up in two ways now the new elevator added in these works cleverly hidden within the Elizabeth towers original structure improves access for maintenance and evacuations the team began their works at the top of the tower and are steadily working their way down gradually removing the scaffolding as they progress Big Ben is now beginning to reimagine London skyline and the extent of its transformation is dramatic led by a young and technology savvy team from craftsmen to information modeling specialists the restoration of this heritage structure has been helped by some truly 21st century techniques many of the original paper plans and records from previous Masons projects were incomplete or inaccurate and understanding the towers structure and condition was a challenging task to address this and make future restorations easier the project team are creating detailed digital records of almost every aspect of the Elizabeth tower building off the tagging and tracking system used in the works what we did at the start was a point cloud of the project to understand how how the building was working so for instance we have a slight lean in the lift shaft so to place a vertical structure in in that space we needed to have this information knowing exactly how the building had been working and then understanding this - for the construction so we have a full model of the tower we have a model of each individual stone and each individual tile in a tower as well so we can actually we can apply loads of information about what happens to those elements in the past what we're doing now and then hopefully be useful in the in the future in the heart of the tower which is the clock we don't have a full comprehensive set of Records and as part of this project we are engaging with those new technologies to ensure that we have a full comprehensive set of OMS and also the computer models which will support that in the future so if there's ever a need to make a new component we don't need to stop the clock or so we can go and have it cast separately as this team worked to restore Big Ben for our generation they've discovered notes and messages tucked into crevices and openings in the stonework left behind from previous workers wishing them well [Music] the restoration of Big Ben is in fact taking place in advance of a much larger and highly complex refurbishment across the Palace of Westminster as works progress into the Lord's and Commons chambers the UK's Parliament will be temporarily relocated standing through the rains of six British monarchs the ten years of 30 different Prime Minister's and some of the greatest and darkest moments of its country's history Big Ben has witnessed the birth of modern Britain despite falling silent in recent years what the remarkable team have achieved behind this scaffolding through thousands of hours of carving gilding and documenting with extreme care and attention to detail will return this British icon to its former glory allowing it to stand as a symbol of freedom ah cracy for generations to come if you enjoyed this video and would like to get more from the definitive a video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m [Music]

Channel: The B1M

Views: 1,860,952

Rating: 4.9099865 out of 5

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, Big Ben, Elizabeth tower, uk parliament, Boris Johnson, Queen Elizabeth 2, London, united kingdom, britain, british empire, Houses of Parliament, Palace of Westminster, Westminster, Queen, Elizabeth, makeover, restoration, Queen Elizabeth II, UK, brexit

Id: UCwZ1iI3pdw

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 15 2020