Big Ben bongs for the first time since New Year in test ahead of Remembrance Sunday

Big Ben’s bongs have returned for the first time since New Year.

The world-famous chimes have been silenced since August last year while a four-year restoration scheme is carried out.

They return only for special occasions, and were last heard at New Year.

But the iconic sound of Big Ben’s bongs returned on Thursday night as the bell was tested ahead of Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve.

Labour MP Stephen Pound, who led a backlash against the silencing of the bells, was outside Parliament to hear the rare chimes.

The Ealing North MP said: “It’s quite sort of an elegiac moment tinged with a certain sadness, because on the one hand it’s absolutely right that the bells will chime on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month for the 100th anniversary of the ending of the Great War, it’s entirely right.

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He added: “But on the other hand, could we not have actually done the work a bit sooner, and if we can sound those chimes of freedom now, could we not have done it a wee bit sooner?

“All I can say is all round Parliament Square, people were stopping and listening and turning their eyes up, and the smiles on people’s faces. It means such a lot. It may be sort of a melancholy sound, but really it’s also the chimes of freedom, and people love to hear it.”

Mr Pound described the chimes as the “rhythm of Westminster life” and said they were the “soundtrack” of his life and work.

“It’s the single most impressive sound for London. It’s the one that is more emblematic of London than any other sound you could imagine,” he said.

The Elizabeth Tower, home to the Great Clock and the Great Bell – known as Big Ben – is undergoing a complex programme of conservation works to safeguard it for generations to come.