Sydney Town Hall clock tower.

Town Hall Clock

The Town Hall clock was manufactured by English clockmakers Gillet & Co in 1883 and installed into the tower the following year. Gillet & Co, which operated from Croydon, Surrey, had a fine reputation for large turret clocks, which continue to keep time in palaces, parliaments, town halls and courts throughout the world. The mechanism, which has been wound by hand for over 120 years, uses a system of rods and counterweights to rotate the hands. The four glass clock faces are position exactly towards north, south, east and west and are illuminated at night. The hour hand measures 1.1metres, the minute hand 1.7 metres in length.

The Westminster quarter chimes, similar to those used on ‘Big Ben’ at London’s Houses of Parliament, are thought to have been adapted from music composed by George Frederick Handel in 1741 (The Messiah ‘I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’). These and the hourly strikes are struck on four large bronze bells, also supplied by Gillet & Co. For the comfort of inner city residents, the bells are silenced between 10pm and 6am.