Notable Bells
The foundry has produced a number of famous bells, including many of those in the London churches commemorated in the children's rhyme Oranges and Lemons. Westminster Abbey is one of the most longstanding customers, the two bells that call people to services dating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The current ring of ten bells was cast at Whitechapel in 1971.
One of the most historically significant bells cast at Whitechapel is the first casting in 1752 of the bell which was to become known as the Liberty Bell. This bell cracked when first rung and it was locally recast prior to its use in the proclamation of American Independence. Whitechapel cast a replacement to celebrate the bicentenary of American Independence in 1976.
Big Ben which tolls the hour at the Palace of Westminster was cast in 1858 and at 13½ tons is the largest bell ever cast at the foundry. This bell also cracked because too heavy a hammer was initially installed. The crack and the subsequent retuning give Big Ben its distinctive tone. A profile template of Big Ben surrounds the entrance door while Big Ben's original moulding gauge is retained near the foundry's furnaces.
Whitechapel supplied peals of 10 bells (later augmented to 12) for Guildford Cathedral in Surrey in the years following the Second World War, recast and augmented the bells of Canterbury Cathedral to a peal of 14 in 1981, and for the National Cathedral in Washington DC in 1964.
Many churches across the world have bells cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, including: Armenian Church, Chennai, Liverpool Cathedral, St Dunstan's, Mayfield, St Dunstan's, Stepney, St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside and St Stephen's Anglican Church, Newtown and St James' Church, Sydney both in New South Wales, Australia.
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry designed and commissioned the Olympic Bell seen at the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games, although it was not forged on the premises. The furnaces at Whitechapel could not provide the 23 tons of molten metal required to make the bell, so it was actually manufactured at a factory in the Netherlands which normally produces ship's propellers. This bell is the largest in Europe at over 11 feet wide, and sounds the lowest tone of any bell ever made - it's 'hum tone' is a bottom B on the chromatic scale.
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