Big Ben: Technicians struggle to correct London’s iconic but ‘temperamental’ clock

The most famous clock in the world is wrong: the bongs of London’s Big Ben have been mysteriously running fast over the past fortnight, clocksmiths admitted Tuesday.

PM presenter Eddie Mair said the Big Ben was not uncommon for the start of the chimes, which ring in 6pm at the end of the early evening Radio 4 programme.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t actually know why it happened”, he added.

The Houses of Parliament’s three dedicated clocksmiths have tried to deal with the problem by removing weights from the pendulum.

The Great Clock that towers over the British parliament can be out by up to six seconds, with its keepers admitting the cherished national icon is “a little temperamental” at 156 years old.

Jaggs said in a statement that Big Ben is a mechanical clock and is not digital.

Westworth said he and his team are trying to make corrections in the clock since the time they have come across with the issue.

Mr Westworth said coins had been gradually removed from the system to correct the time, although this had initially led to the clock running too slowly. It went from being fast to being slow.

We have got three highly skilled members of staff dedicated to looking after all the clocks. We have been up their most days just getting it right.

Big Ben was cleaned past year for the first time since 2010.

‘Traditionally, we phone up the speaking clock and at five minutes to the hour, start a stopwatch, go up to the belfry, stand by the bell and the hammer.

“We can tell if it is going slightly fast or slow”.

Surveyors checking on the tower recently found it tilts 18ins from vertical.

It has been the marker by which Londoners set their watches by for 156 years, but Big Ben’s bongs have been firing incorrectly, interrupting live radio broadcasts and confounding clocksmiths.

Each clock face, installed in 1859, is made up from 312 pieces of pot opal glass, a type of glass which is opaque.