True and correct facts, one presumes, from the parliament.uk website:
The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but the name was first given to the Great Bell.
The Elizabeth Tower, which stands at the north end of the Houses of Parliament, was completed in 1859 and the Great Clock started on 31 May, with the Great Bell’s strikes heard for the first time on 11 July and the quarter bells first chimed on 7 September.
Q. Is it called St Stephen’s Tower, the Clock Tower or the Elizabeth Tower?
A. The name of the tower is no longer the Clock Tower and is now the Elizabeth Tower. It was called St Stephen’s Tower by Victorian journalists. They referred to anything to do with the House of Commons as news from ‘St Stephens’, as originally MPs used to sit in St Stephen’s Hall.
Q. Why is the Elizabeth Tower’s bell called Big Ben?
A. The most likely explanation is it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner for Works, whose name is inscribed on the bell. Another theory is it was named after Ben Caunt, a champion heavyweight boxer.
