IT’S always leaned slightly, but construction work on a new line for the
London Underground threatened to give the tower of Big Ben a real tilt.
Engineers have had to prop up its foundations to prevent it damaging the rest of
the Houses of Parliament.
To control the tower’s movement, engineers pumped a cement-based grout into
the soil beneath it. The tower now leans an extra few centimetres, but engineers
say it is stable. The tilt is only visible to the most eagle-eyed observer.
Between 1995 and 1997, contractors building the extension to the Jubilee line
dug a 40-metre-deep hole…
