Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower

The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, known locally as Old Joe, stands in Chancellor’s Court at the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston. It is the tallest clock tower in the United Kingdom, though its exact height is debated. The university gives figures of 110, 99 and 100 metres, while a 1945 lecture by the university secretary listed it as 100 metres tall. The clock faces measure 5.2 metres across, and the largest bell weighs more than five tonnes. Designed by Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, the tower was built between 1907 and 1909 as part of the Edgbaston campus. Old Joe was erected to honour Joseph Chamberlain, the university’s first chancellor, with his commemoration carved into the stone at the base. The tower was originally suggested to be named after Professor John Henry Poynting, one of the university’s earliest academics. It was funded by an anonymous gift of £50,000, later revealed to be from Sir Charles Holcroft. The design was inspired by the Torre del Mangia in Siena, following Chamberlain’s admiration for the Italian city. In 1940, Sir Mark Oliphant used the tower for radar experiments. Visitors find a solid concrete base supporting a brick tower that tapers from nearly nine metres square at ground level to seven metres below the balcony. The tower has ten floors, reached by an electrical lift in the southwest corner. The clock hands, made of sheet copper, measure up to four metres long. The largest bell alone weighs more than six tonnes, and the pendulum stretches nearly five metres. The brickwork was pointed in 1914, then again in 1957 and 1984–85, after being built from the inside without scaffolding. The tower remains a landmark visible for miles around the campus.