Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building. Some other buildings also have clock faces on their exterior but these structures serve other main functions.
23-791: The Victoria Clock Tower , also known as the Diamond Jubilee Clock Tower , is a heritage-registered clock tower located in Christchurch , New Zealand. Designed by Benjamin Mountfort , it is registered as a "Historic Place – Category I" by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust . Mountfort designed the clock tower in ca 1858, to be placed on top of the first (wooden) section of the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings . The iron tower and clock
46-463: A church or municipal building such as a town hall . Not all clocks on buildings therefore make the building into a clock tower. The mechanism inside the tower is known as a turret clock . It often marks the hour (and sometimes segments of an hour) by sounding large bells or chimes , sometimes playing simple musical phrases or tunes. Some clock towers were previously built as Bell towers and then had clocks added to them. As these structures fulfil
69-474: A mannequin , every hour. It was possible to re-program the length of day and night daily in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, and it also featured five robotic musicians who automatically play music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel . Line (mains) synchronous tower clocks were introduced in the United States in
92-650: A clock added in 2002, has a roof height of 240 m (790 ft), and an antenna height of 272 m (892 ft). The Abraj Al Bait , a hotel complex in Mecca constructed in 2012, has the largest and highest clock face on a building in the world, with its Makkah Royal Clock Tower having an occupied height of 494.4 m (1,622 ft), and a tip height of 601 m (1,972 ft). The tower has four clock faces, two of which are 43 m (141 ft) in diameter, at about 400 m (1,300 ft) high. Elizabeth Tower Too Many Requests If you report this error to
115-753: A clock was put up in a clock tower, the medieval precursor to Big Ben , at Westminster , in 1288; and in 1292 a clock was put up in Canterbury Cathedral . The oldest surviving turret clock formerly part of a clock tower in Europe is the Salisbury Cathedral clock , completed in 130. A clock put up at St. Albans , in 1326, 'showed various astronomical phenomena'. Al-Jazari of the Artuqid dynasty in Upper Mesopotamia constructed an elaborate clock called
138-421: A community project, financed by local businesses, in 1978. More substantial renovation was carried out in 2003–2004, including earthquake strengthening. The middle section of the tower was braced with steel, and rods were inserted into the stonework. The renovation budget was NZ$ 295,000. On 2 April 1985, the clock tower was registered as a Category I heritage item, with the registration number being 3670. The tower
161-486: A reminder of the earthquake. Christchurch City Council began restoration work on the historic clock tower, corner of Montreal and Victoria Streets, in March 2013. On 22 October 2014, Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel officially unveiled the newly restored Central City landmark, Jubilee Clock Tower, and placed a time capsule on the site for future generations to discover. The careful restoration has included deconstructing each of
184-563: Is significant, as it is a landmark in Christchurch, and it was part of Mountfort's original design for the Provincial Council Buildings. The tower is further a remarkable example of High Victorian ironwork, and its use as a monument to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee are an indication of the colonial ties between New Zealand and Britain. The clock tower was seriously damaged in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake , with
207-517: The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat a structure is defined as a building if at least fifty percent of its height is made up of floor plates containing habitable floor area. Structures that do not meet this criterion, are defined as towers . A clock tower historically fits this definition of a tower and therefore can be defined as any tower specifically built with one or more (often four) clock faces and that can be either freestanding or part of
230-797: The Parliament of Canada in Ottawa , and the Zytglogge clock tower in the Old City of Bern , Switzerland . The tallest freestanding clock tower in the world is the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower (Old Joe) at the University of Birmingham in Birmingham , United Kingdom. The tower stands at 100 metres (330 feet) tall and was completed in 1908. The clock tower of Philadelphia City Hall
253-437: The "castle clock" and described it in his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206. It was about 3.3 metres (11 feet) high, and had multiple functions alongside timekeeping . It included a display of the zodiac and the solar and lunar paths, and a pointer in the shape of the crescent moon that travelled across the top of a gateway , moved by a hidden cart and causing automatic doors to open, each revealing
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#1732858375509276-931: The 1920s. Some clock towers have become famous landmarks. Prominent examples include Elizabeth Tower built in 1859, which houses the Great Bell (generally known as Big Ben ) in London , the tower of Philadelphia City Hall , the Rajabai Tower in Mumbai , the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin , the Torre dell'Orologio in the Piazza San Marco in Venice , Italy , the Peace Tower of
299-416: The definition of a tower they can be considered to be clock towers. Although clock towers are today mostly admired for their aesthetics, they once served an important purpose. Before the middle of the twentieth century, most people did not have watches, and prior to the 18th century even home clocks were rare. The first clocks did not have faces, but were solely striking clocks , which sounded bells to call
322-585: The sea journey, and it remained in the tower for a short time only. The iron tower, meanwhile, stood for several years in the courtyard of the Provincial Council Buildings. With the abolition of Provincial Government in New Zealand in 1876, the clock tower became the property of the Crown, but it was transferred to Christchurch City Council . After being stored for 30 years in a council yard in Worcester Street, it
345-477: The surrounding community to work or to prayer. They were therefore placed in towers so the bells would be audible for a long distance. Clock towers were placed near the centres of towns and were often the tallest structures there. As clock towers became more common, the designers realized that a dial on the outside of the tower would allow the townspeople to read the time whenever they wanted. The use of clock towers dates back to antiquity . The earliest clock tower
368-456: The time (12:51) stopped on the clock's face. Repairs in excess of NZ$ 700,000 were agreed to by Christchurch City Councillors in July 2012, with most of the cost to be reimbursed by insurance. Stones in the buttress columns and arches were loose or dislodged, and the finial spike needed to be repaired. The clock itself needed to be restored, but it was considered to leave one of the clock faces at 12:51 as
391-463: The tower legs and the construction of a new internal reinforced concrete structure to strengthen them. The existing foundations were strengthened. The original stone was cut and used as a veneer in the same place it used to be on the clocktower. The clocktower's spire was straightened, strengthened and reinstated. Work was also undertaken to divert the artesian well that was found under the clocktower away from Montreal Street. The original clock mechanism
414-612: Was also carefully serviced while restoration of the clocktower was underway. Clock tower Clock towers are a common sight in many parts of the world with some being iconic buildings. One example is the Elizabeth Tower in London (usually called " Big Ben ", although strictly this name belongs only to the bell inside the tower). There are many structures that may have clocks or clock faces attached to them and some structures have had clocks added to an existing structure. According to
437-566: Was constructed in Coventry and arrived in December 1860 in 147 boxes, but it was determined that the building structure would be unable to support the tower's weight. The clock was then placed in the stone tower of the Provincial Council Buildings in Armagh Street, and whilst its face could not be seen, the chime could be heard for a distance of 2 miles. The clock was not in good repair, impacted by
460-570: Was decided that the tower would be used as part of a monument to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria . A competition for a stone tower was held and won by the local architecture firm of Strouts and Ballantyne. The clock was returned to the United Kingdom for renovation, and the addition of chimes. In 1897 it was erected on a stone base at the intersection of Manchester Street, Lichfield Streets and High Streets and remained there until 1930 when it
483-608: Was part of the tallest building in the world from 1894, when the tower was topped out and the building partially occupied, until 1908. Taller buildings have had clock faces added to their existing structure such as the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw , with a clock added in 2000. The building has a roof height of 187.68 m (615.7 ft), and an antenna height of 237 m (778 ft). The NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building in Tokyo , with
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#1732858375509506-413: Was removed due to it being deemed a traffic hazard and impediment. The Hamilton Borough Council unsuccessfully tried to buy the clock tower at this point. It was relocated that year to its current location on a reserve at the intersection of Victoria and Montreal Streets and the clock was replaced. Restoration work was carried out in 1930 as part of the relocation. Further restoration was carried out as
529-632: Was the Tower of the Winds in Athens , which featured eight sundials and was created in the 1st century BC during the period of Roman Greece . In its interior, there was also a water clock (or clepsydra), driven by water coming down from the Acropolis . In Song dynasty China , an astronomical clock tower was designed by Su Song and erected at Kaifeng in 1088, featuring a liquid escapement mechanism. In England,
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