Best answer: Big Ben is very old, now about 150+ it's had repairs done in the past, but this time it's a big job and that means switching off the chimes, which inside the tower are absolutely deafening. I've thought about this and checked some of the available ear defenders, at best most will not even stop the sound of a referee's whistle let along the bongs of Big Ben. It's decibels you see. But four years with no bongs does seem excessive. What puzzles me is that several House of Common committees dealing with the issue seemed not to notice just how long BB will be switched off. Blimey!

So far the bongs will be heard at New Year (thank God for small mercies) and also on Remembrance Sunday in Whitehall at the Cenotaph.

Enjoy the bongs but don't blame me if you go deaf - what?
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_q...

Big Ben bongs or more correctly chimes
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_q...

I think the people prefer the onomatopoeia word bongs, to chimes.

There is a City of London inside London where the financial district is. There is also a City of Westminster inside London. The rest of London is not called a city. Why not just call the whole thing one city of London?

I'm going on a trip to the UK for a week and I know on the landing form they ask for 'occupation', not really an issue per se as I am employed but I have what I'd consider my first occupation as it's my hearts work and I love it (but the work is spotty and often takes a lot of time to complete without upfront pay hence occupation number two), then I have my second occupation which is more of a "hey lets make ends meet and not worry about stuff like paying bills on time because it pays weekly" and also keeps me from being bored when I'm between assignments with occupation number one. My thoughts would be to write I'm a Occupation 1/Occupation 2 but should I just write down occupation two to simplify things as that's where my funds for travel come from (as I suppose they want to know to get a good idea of if you can afford it not oh that's a really cool job but you don't get regular pay stubs from it). I know I'm probably way over thinking this but as I couldn't find anything on Google so I thought I'd ask.

Best answer: We have them ALL over the UK (and in Ireland). A pub is just a bar for drinking alcohol in. The name stands for "public house".

It's not a club, there's no charge to get in, you can just go in for a drink, though of course you have to be 18 to buy anything alcoholic. Some are more welcoming towards families than others - traditionally it's a place for men to drink beer and socialise, but that has changed and more than ever now serve food as well. No fancy food, just traditional hearty British dishes. There are also some that occasionally have live music.

You don't HAVE to do anything. There's a bar, tables and chairs, and that's essentially it. People just sit or stand and talk over a drink, basically, unless they're having food as well. It would be very typical to meet friends in the local pub.

They've been around so long that traditionally they have names that can be represented by a picture, so people who couldn't read would recognise the pub from the picture outside. The Plough, The Crown, The King's Arms or The Swan would be pretty typical. Some can be a bit obscure but they'll relate back to a picture.

Of course they're all completely legal and have to be licensed by the local council to serve alcohol.

Best answer: The point of stopping it is so workers don't get deafened while they do the repairs. It takes about half a day to disconnect the bells from the clock mechanism, so it isn't practical to do that every day and silence Big Ben and the other bells just during working hours! So unfortunately it just makes more sense to have no bongs at all until the work is done.

The plan is to have the bells connected again for the times we expect to hear them, like NYE and Remembrance Sunday morning. And one face of the Great Clock will still be working, though driven by an electric motor rather than the clockwork mechanism which will be taken apart and rebuilt.

A capital city should be a city. If Westminster has parliament then the capital should be called Westminster not London. Really.

Best answer: To add to Stephen's answer, there is a Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street, Although they say they are 221b, they are between numbers 237 and 241.
http://londonist.com/london/museums-and-...

Best answer: It is old and needs repair, it will take 4 years. They have to take it apart, fix or replace the parts and put it back together again. They also need to repair the tower!

Why have two districts called cities within a place that is considered one city? Why not just make all of Greater London into a single city? London is called the capital of the U.K. not the City of Westminster, unlike the City of New Delhi in Delhi, India.

Or is there a Japan section of London?

For me personally I enjoy it's culture and it's diversity. There is so much going on although the downside is that it can be very busy (LOL I was taking a photo and it was almost impossible to take one as someone was in my way everytime).

Hello, i decided to go on a day trip to London from Brighton, 9am to 7pm, recommendations on where to go? Thanks

I mean the weather sucks, most people are cold, everything closes at 8 or sooner and the style of life in general is really boring

Because I am from London and I have never seen it?! However, I now live in Japan with my girlfriend and this style is very common here. So much so, that she cannot live in a place where the toilet is in the same room as the bath / shower. We want to move back to London in a couple of years, but she explicitly said to me that where we live has to have what I have just mentioned. Does anyone know if places like this actually exist?