The BBC First Broadcast the Chimes of Big Ben
On this day · 31 December 1923
On New Year's Eve 1923, an engineer scaled a Westminster rooftop so the whole nation could hear midnight strike.
On 31 December 1923, listeners across Britain heard a sound that would become a national ritual: the twelve midnight strokes of Big Ben, carried live over the radio by the BBC to ring in the New Year. It was the first time the great bell of the Palace of Westminster had been broadcast.
The young broadcaster had no permission to place equipment inside Parliament, so engineer A.G. Dryland climbed onto a rooftop opposite the Houses of Parliament and aimed a microphone at the clock tower. The result captured not only the bells but the rumble of passing traffic from the streets below.
The chimes were heard as accurate markers of time and a symbol of Britishness itself.
That improvised rooftop relay launched one of broadcasting’s longest-running traditions. Every year since, the “bongs” of Big Ben have marked the turn of the year on air, and a microphone was later installed inside the tower so the chimes could be carried throughout the day.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
