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So say I wanted to climb Big Ben...

13:31 / 01.12.04

... and unfurl a banner from the clock face. And yes, I know Big Ben is the name of the bell and the tower is variously called The Clock Tower or St Stephen's Tower. So, how would I go about it?

I know Greenpeace got two people up there in March this year via "free climbing".

How would one free climb up Big Ben? Would it be feasible to fly two small hang-gliders to the top of the tower? If so, where would I fly them from in central London? What's the likelihood of getting shot en route?

If you take a tour of Big Ben, which I believe you have to arrange through your MP, can you see anything from the top of the tower? Are there any windows?

14:49 / 01.12.04

Have you read/seen the Thirty Nine Steps? I've only seen the film, but IIRC in that he goes up the stairs inside the tower and climbs out onto the clock face through an opening in the face itself. Maybe not as exciting as climbing up the outside though ...

14:49 / 01.12.04

This page has some information about the tower above the clock, and some photographs therefrom. Window-cleaners have to abseil down from the higher parts of the tower to clean the clock-face. The tower itself rises some 100 feet aboe the belfry, which is itself 50 stsairsteps above the clockroom. The "disused ventilating chimney" angle sounds interesting to, as does the "prison cell in the lower regions of the tower" bit.

As far as the climbing goes: these guys may be able to give you some practical advice...

01:02 / 03.12.04

PM Mirror (he's still active in the Laboratory).

I once met him IRL to discuss doing something very similar with the Tampa Skyway Bridge.

10:44 / 03.12.04

Is Mirror a free-climber, or something, grant?

And Jack - that ventilating shaft does sound veeeeery eeeenteresting indeed.

Loomis - got it in one. In a kind of homage-y type thing.

11:46 / 29.12.05

Has anyone ever read The Thirty-Nine Steps, and if so can they tell me whether the Big Ben sequence that happens in the 60s film version starring Robert Powell happens in any form in the original Buchan text?

12:31 / 29.12.05

Hot air balloon?

(There was a bit in something what I wrote a while ago now where the characters flew a couple of these over the Houses of Parliament - it's illegal, but it's feasible as long as the balloons stay under the relevant flight paths. And it nearly got published, godamnit, the novel...)

12:35 / 29.12.05

I'm now thinking a grappling hook guns and a long steel cord... but to what? What are the nearest buildings to the Palace of Westminster on the clock tower side? I seem to remember being stung for a packet of Marlboro Lights at a newsagent with a clear view of Big Ben not so long ago?

And what's the security arrangements around the base of the clock tower these days? Can you actually walk up to it and touch it's erect magnificence?

pointless & uncalled for

13:22 / 29.12.05

The only way to get to Big Ben in a legitimate fashion is on the inside of the HP on a guided tour or as an acredited member of parliament.

The HP are surrounded by a wrought iron fence some 50 meters from the actual bulding except at the river. Armed guards are on 24h patrol and the closest building is on the other side of the fence some wide pavements and five lanes of busy traffic.

The ways only to gain access via external means would be either to use a ballistic grappeling hook which has a low chance of success or from a guided tour that includes the gardens. Once leaving the tour you would have to evade the security forces and free-climb the outside, which has been made far more difficult in an attempt to prevent a repeat of Greenpeace.

14:12 / 29.12.05

That's very useful, SK. You don't happen to know how recent this picture might be, do you? Is this taken from Westminster Bridge? The tower looks pretty close to the road and that looks a pretty scaleable wall/gate to me.

pointless & uncalled for

14:35 / 29.12.05

That image is fairly recent as the bus stop numbers are on the new Zone 1 pay before boarding yellow plates. Other than that it's difficult to tell.

The image was taken from the north west corner of the junction of Parliament Sq and Whitehall. the picture has subsequently been inverted, note the road markings and incongruous light trails.

I guess 50m was an over estimate, maybe more like 50ft which is still quite a leap. bear in mind that there is going to be another 10-12ft on that wall beneath what you can see, this houses the anti-climb feature and people with machine guns.

14:51 / 29.12.05

if its a 39 steps homage, wouldnt you be better sticking with the simple stair climbing by stealth option? your protagonist neds to be some kind of ninja to do the climb, but ze could fluke the stealth stuff if all ze had to do was avoid guards.
as ras al ghul says, invisibility is all agility and patience. this one is more patience i reckon.

06:04 / 30.12.05

Well, possibly, but there's going to be three or four of them and they're going to be dressed as super-heroes, a la Fathers4Justice. And the point is visibility, really. Getting them down and away isn't going to be a problem, thanks to a nifty deus ex machina. And for the purposes of the plot, they are all really excellent free-climbers and builderers. So I feel happier about it, now.

Next question: What's the clock tower made of, and what architectural style is it? Neo-Gothic?

pointless & uncalled for

09:23 / 30.12.05

GCP from wikipedia.

The tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design of a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of October 16, 1834. The tower is designed in the Victorian Gothic style, and is 96.3 m (316 ft) high.

The 61 m (200 ft) tower consists of brickwork with stone cladding; the remainder of the tower's height is accounted for by a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 15 by 15 m (49 by 49 ft) raft, made of 3 m (9 ft) thick concrete, at a depth of 7 m (23 ft) below ground level. The tower has an estimated weight of 8,667 t. The four clock faces are 55 m (180 ft) above ground.

Due to ground conditions present since construction, the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 mm. It also oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west, due to thermal effects.

Also from wikipedia on the Palace of Westminster regarding the stonework.

The stonework of the building was originally Anstone, a sand-coloured magnesian limestone quarried in the village of Anston in South Yorkshire. The stone, however, soon began to decay due to pollution. Although such defects were clear as early as 1849, nothing was done for the remainder of the 19th century. During the 1910s, however, it became clear that some of the stonework had to be replaced.

In 1928 it was deemed necessary to use Clipsham Stone, a honey-coloured limestone from Rutland, to replace the decayed Anstone. The project began in the 1930s, but was halted due to the Second World War, and completed only during the 1950s. By the 1960s, however, pollution had once again begun to take its toll. A stone conservation and restoration programme began in 1981, and ended in 1994.