Big Ben is going the way of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

[Candlelight]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/5760433/Big-Ben-is-tilting-experts-warn

Whether the British parliament is leaning to the left or right depends on your point of view but Big Ben is officially tilting.
And surveyors say it is getting worse.
A new report has found the top of the famous clock tower, which stands above the parliament in central London, is now just under half a metre off the perpendicular.
That is so far off that experts believe the tilt is visible to the naked eye.
"The tilt is now just about visible," said John Burland, a senior research investigator from Imperial College London who has worked on Big Ben and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
"If it started greater acceleration, we would have to look at doing something but I don't think we need to do anything for a few years yet."
Civil engineers believe the tower is sinking more quickly on the north side than the south side of the Palace of Westminster.
Monitoring instruments have suggested the tilt has increased by about a centimetre a year since 2003, about 40 per cent faster than the long-term average.
The tower is now leaning towards the northwest at an angle of 0.26 degrees, meaning the top of the tower is 43.5cm from vertical.

It'll be the pyramids next.

 

[RobertVA]

I just saw a documentary today about the expansion of the Beijing subway system copying a technique that had been used to alleviate concerns about the settling of Big Ben resulting from a new subway/tube tunnel. The show indicated that horizontal holes had been drilled to pernit the injection of mortar to stabilize the ground under the building. Apparently Beijing has many areas where wet sand in some areas under the city makes it dificullt to keep a tunnel from colapsing between digging the tunnel face away and installing the concrete tunnel lining.

They were also developing LED strips to mount on the tunnel walls to be "more entertaining" than the usual darkness and occasional tunnel light through the subway car windows.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Now doubt they will find out that the tilt has been caused by MP's stealing bricks from the foundations.

(Oh so close to political satire).

 

[SmoothieX]

So he hurt his foot last week. Still kicked the Titans' butts yesterday.

 

[Ethros]

It would take another 4000 years or so for it to match the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which leans by about four degrees.

I really wouldn't worry about it

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Big Ben is properly the name of the bell, not the clock tower.