Little Ben

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Little Ben is a cast iron miniature clock tower, situated at the intersection of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Victoria Street, in Westminster, central London, close to the approach to Victoria station. In design it mimics the clock tower commonly known as Big Ben of the Palace of Westminster found at the other end of Victoria Street.

Little Ben was manufactured, according to Pevsner, by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon, and was erected in 1892; removed from the site in 1964, and restored and re-erected in 1981 by Westminster City Council with sponsorship from Elf Aquitaine Ltd "offered as a gesture of Franco-British friendship".

Unusually for clocks in Britain, Little Ben is set one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time throughout the year. During the summer this coincides with British Summer Time, while in the winter this is the same as Central European Time. Although this means that the clock displays the local time for only half the year, it does demonstrate a preference for neither Britain nor Europe. This sentiment is captured in the rhyming couplet Apology for Summer Time signed J.W.R. affixed to the body of the clock:

My hands you may retard or may advance

my heart beats true for England as for France.