Why was Big Ben blue? Reddit users in London ponder why landmark changed colour on Thursday

Many Londoners have been left scratching their heads this morning, after Big Ben’s clock face was lit blue on Thursday evening. Such has been the curiosity why the structure, which completed a four year renovation early this year, was lit that one redditor took to r/casualuk to pose the question “anyone know what’s going on with Ben tonight?”

This of course led to a raft of jokes throughout the post, which currently has been upvoted over 13,000 times in the subreddit. Of the more popular answers that redditors enjoyed came responses including Big Ben acting as the beacon Doctor Who uses every year to make people forget about aliens (or the year that many of us felt) and a raft of Eiffel 65 jokes.

The most popular answer simply informed redditors that Big Ben was simply in pairing mode, and the blue glow indicated it was searching for another bluetooth device to pair up with. However, scrolling through the number of amusing comments and anecdotes, the closest answer came from redditor Trusting_Nautilus.

“They did it in 2015 in support of UNICEF,” the redditor explained. “Not seen any specific news around it this year but would guess it’s a similar charity support signal.” Indeed, back in 2015, UNICEF revealed that they would change the clock face of Big Ben blue to mark their Resolution for Children campaign.

However, having reached out to the House of Commons team, they have confirmed to Londonworld that “these were just tests of the new lighting scheme – as you may be aware, the lights have the ability to change colour now, so last night visitors to Westminster saw blue, green, red and yellow on the Elizabeth Tower. No more tests are expected over the coming days.”

This isn’t the first time that Londoners have been left confused about the colour scheme of the Westminster landmark; in 2021, many were left perplexed when the hands and digits on the clock face changed from black to blue. It was later discovered that the change in colour was a hark back to the original colour scheme the clocktower had upon its construction.