Public Art: Little Ben

Artist: Phil Gamblen

The artwork entitled Little Ben by artist Phil Gamblen was installed on 27 March, 2018 adjacent to Penistone Park Community Sporting Facility. It was commissioned as part of the City’s upgrade of the facility.

Little Ben is a conceptual artwork with a playful sound component. It is designed to be an engaging and tongue-in-cheek response to Big Ben in London. The artwork chimes the Westminster Chimes quarterly, and also marks the hour. The bells have been replaced by metal rubbish bins and buckets, which play the Westminster Chimes ‘tune’ with a deep, resonant and somewhat humorous sounding “chime”.

As the ‘tune’ is made by solenoid mechanisms that strike the bottom of the bins, the sound is reminiscent of someone putting dustbins out, or banging and clanging on galvanised metal buckets. Originally designed to chime on the hour, the artist has adapted the artwork and it now chimes between 9 am and 5 pm only.