London's Big Ben chimed for the final time for a while Monday, as the iconic clock is set to undergo a 29 million Pound sterling restoration.
Many in the crowd gathered below wiped their eyes as the clock rang at 12 noon. While the 158 year-old clock will still chime on national holidays and the Queens birthday, it will otherwise go silent until 2021.
The Great Bell, popularly called Big Ben, rings every hour, and is accompanied by four quarter bells, which chime every 15 minutes.
The decision to shut down the clock was made for the safety of the workers restoring the tower, despite the calls of Prime Minister Theresa May for the icon to continue chiming.
Of course we want to ensure people’s safety at work but it can’t be right for Big Ben to be silent for four years,” she said in Parliament.
"I hope that the Speaker, as the chairman of the House of Commons commission, will look into this urgently so that we can ensure that we can continue to hear Big Ben through those four years.”