*Location:
Swiss Centre
Leicester Street at Swiss Court
(Leicester Square)
Westminster,
London, W.1, England
OS Ref. TQ 298 808
LL: N 51.51061, W 0.13112
*Player:
(unknown)
*Contact:
Switzerland Tourism 30 Bedford Street London WC2E 9ED T: 020/7420 4900 E: info.uk@myswitzerland.com
*Schedule:
Bells & animated figures, automatic, Mon-Fri noon, 5,6,7,8pm; Sat-Sun noon, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8pm.
*Remarks:
Glockenspiel with clock; often described as 23 bells representing 23 Swiss cantons and 23 London wards, but actually more. 2006: Building was sold and will be demolished, but the glockenspiel is to be retained in the replacement building. Oct.2011: Bells refurbished by Rüetschi and reinstalled in a freestanding tower by Smiths of Derby.
*Technical data:
Electric-keyboard carillon of 27 bells
Pitch of heaviest bell is C in the treble octave
Transposition is up one octave
Keyboard range: C E / ----
There are two missing bass semitones
The whole instrument was installed in 1985
with bells made by Rüetschi
Year of latest technical information source is 1988
*Links:
Video of the history and rededication
News article on restoration and dedication, with before-and-after photos
News article, with clickable photo of the glockenspiel (two clicks needed to get the slightly larger version)
News article on the combining of a historic clock with these historic bells
Article which provides the original text for some of the above articles, with a different photo of the tower and bells, plus a video. But the link for a downloadable copy of the press release doesn't work.
Stock photo of Leicester Square Swiss tourist office (original location)
Stock photo as relocated, still in Leicester Square
Night view, illuminated
News article with building photo
Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Rüetschi bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Ranking among all British Isles non-traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all British Isles non-traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all British Isles non-traditional carillons by year of completion.
Index to all tower bell instruments in England.
*Status:
This page was built from the database on 30-Nov-11 based on textual data last updated on 2011/11/25 and on technical data last updated on 2007/11/01
Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.
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