Big Ben
Big Ben was the name of the clock bell and, by popular convention, the entire tower on the north end of the Palace of Westminster. Completed in 1858, it was located in the city of Westminster, in central London.
History
Clara Oswald, while serving as a governess under the alias, Miss Montegue, claimed to her young charges in 1892 that her 23 November 1867 birth occurred behind Big Ben's face. She said that accounted for her acute sense of time. (TV The Snowmen)
In 1924, Shade Vassily planned to use Big Ben to power his ship. (PROSE: The Clockwise Man)
During World War II in January 1941, Jack Harkness tethered his ship to Big Ben. (TV: The Empty Child)
In 1976, Big Ben's clock face was bombed by Black Star. (PROSE: Love and War, No Future)
In 2006, Big Ben was destroyed by a Slitheen craft, which sheared it in half. (TV: Aliens of London) This was seen by Elton Pope among many witnesses. (TV: Love & Monsters) Reconstruction proceeded shortly afterwards. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
The Eleventh Doctor barely avoided crashing his TARDIS into Big Ben as he attempted to stabilize it following his regeneration. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
- The exact timeframe of this is uncertain, as the TARDIS had dematerialised from 2005 prior to the near-crash and eventually landed in 1996 Leadworth.
In 2009, in an alternate timeline created by Sarah Jane's actions in 1951 in which the world was destroyed, Luke, Sarah and the Trickster stood near the remains of Big Ben. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
On 12 September 2012, Big Ben's tower was named Elizabeth Tower in honour of Elizabeth II.
In 2167, the chimes of Big Ben rang for the first time in years to celebrate the end of the 22nd century Dalek invasion after the First Doctor defeated the Daleks. Despite the initial bombardment prior to the invasion, Big Ben was unscathed. It still stood thirty years later. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
By the 28th century, Big Ben had been destroyed. (TV: "Strangers in Space")
In 4039, Big Ben was again destroyed in the Graxnix invasion of Earth. (COMIC: Hotel Historia)
Alternate timelines & universes
In the Trickster's World, Sarah Jane and Luke Smith stood on the rubble of Big Ben in the 21st century, and the Palace of Westminster, surveying the obliterated remains of London. Sarah Jane was revolted by what she had unwittingly caused by altering the timeline on 18 August 1951. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
In Pete's World Big Ben had a square face. However in another appearance it was circular. [source needed]
