Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower

]] Designed as part of the initial phase of the Edgbaston campus by architects Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, the tower was constructed between 1907–1909, and stood at the centre of a semicircle of matching red brick buildings. The tower is modelled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena. The original tower designs were amended due to Chamberlain's great admiration for the Italian city's campanile. On 1 October 1905, the Birmingham Post reported that Chamberlain had announced to the University Council an anonymous gift of £50,000 (the donor in fact was Sir Charles Holcroft). This anonymous gift was announced some two months later in the Birmingham Post as "to be intended for the erection of a tower…

The base is solid concrete, 50 ft square by 10 ft thick, with foundations that extend 328 ft below ground to ensure stability. Joyce of Whitchurch built the clock, the face of which is 5.25 m across, the largest bell weighs 13619 lb with all the bells together weighing 20 LT; the minute hand is 4.1 m long, the hour hand is 2 ft across, the pendulum is 15 ft long. The clock hands are made out of sheet copper. There are ten floors served by an electrical lift in the SW corner. The tower was built from the inside, without scaffolding, up to the level of the balcony. It is built of Red Accrington brick with Darley Dale dressings and tapers from 29 ft square to 23 ft below the balcony. Owing to…