To Celebrate the launch of the 2012 Olympics today (27 July 2012) Bells will ring out in a once in a lifetime cacophony. At 8.12 AM the official launch day of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ‘Work No.1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes’ by Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed, will be performed throughout the UK. The nation is invited to ring thousands of bells at the same time, whether schools bells, church bells, town hall bells, bicycle bells or door bells.
To make this performance happen, the All the Bells team invites bell ringers and those interested in ringing bells to sign up and get involved in the performance, alongside thousands of people across the country. Even Big Ben will be joining in, chiming over forty times in three minutes. By ringing any kind of bell – hand bell, church bell, bicycle bell, door bell – you will be part of the performance and involved in welcoming the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to the UK.
Big Ben, the hour bell of the Palace of Westminster, will chime more than 40 times from 8:12AM – 8:15AM to ring in the Olympic Games. This is a historic occasion for one of the world’s most famous bells, as it is the first time that the strike of Big Ben has been rung outside its regular schedule since 15 February 1952, when it tolled every minute for 56 strokes from 9:30AM for the funeral of King George VI.
Three hundred children will be ringing bells on HMS Belfast, which will fire its canons in a countdown to 08:12.
All four Parliaments in the UK, The National Assembly for Wales, Stormont, Holyrood and the House of Commons, will be ringing in unison.
The Royal Navy and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary will be participating across the UK and overseas with as many ships, shore bases and naval establishments as possible, including HMS Bulwark and RFA Mounts Bay in Weymouth, HMS Ocean in Greenwich and HMS Alliance in Gosport.
British Embassies around the world will be joining in, including the British Embassy in Beijing, which is inviting the sole survivor of China’s 1948 London Olympics team to ring a bell cast to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Outside the British Embassy in Bangladesh they will be ringing rickshaw bells and in Botswana where cows are important they will be ringing cow bells.
Over a hundred people will be joining The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh for bell-ringing on the famous Scotsman Steps, an important part of the cityscape featuring Work No. 1059, a public artwork by Martin Creed that was commissioned in 2010 and has been central to the renovation of the steps.
St Alban’s Cathedral has decided by popular vote to play Chariots of Fire on their carillon of bells.
In Skaw, a tiny settlement on the Shetland island of Unst, people will be ringing bells outside Britain’s northernmost inhabited house.
Six hundred Girl Guides will all be ringing bells at an Olympic-themed camp in the New Forest.
In towns across Yorkshire several Town Criers are enthusiastically organising bell-ringing events for their local communities.
Cheddar Gorge will echo with the sound of the U3A Handbell Ringers who will be ringing their bells.
In a remote part of Aberystwyth, Wales, a local church has invited the whole parish and four local schools within a 15-mile radius to join them for bell-ringing and breakfast. They are all super excited to be involved with the Olympic Games.
St Columb’s Cathedral, the mother church of the Anglican Church of Ireland, and its Catholic counterpart, St Eugene’s Cathedral, face each other in Derry and will be ringing in unison.
A research team from the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera station in Antarctica are looking forward to ringing and joining the Olympic celebrations.
Tresco Bike Store on The Isles of Scilly will supply bikes for people to ride to the most Westerly church in the UK, and ring bicycle bells alongside the church bells.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago will be ringing bells at 2.12 am local time to be part of All The Bells, along with the Rockefeller Chapel and the University of Chicago.
5000 people at the Cambridge Folk Festival will be ringing bells.
At a Jo Jingles session at Hadleigh Castle, near to the mountain biking Olympic
track, 150 under 5’s will play sleigh bells.
The Parish of Dunkeld Handbell Ringers have organised a bell-ringing procession through scenic Dunkeld in Scotland.
A number of National Trust properties will be ringing bells, including Castle Drogo, whose Chapel Bell can be heard across the Teign Gorge on Dartmoor. At famous Shaw’s Corner, the home of writer and playwright George Bernard Shaw, in Hertfordshire, staff will be ringing Shaw’s hand bell.
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the most famous bell foundry in the world, will be ringing a variety of bells in their courtyard and on the pavement outside.
The Parish of Dunkeld Handbell Ringers have organised a bell-ringing procession through scenic Dunkeld in Scotland.
The Australian Gold Coast Philharmonic Orchestra in Queensland, Australia will be joining in and ringing bells at the start of a concert.
The historic bells from St. Martins in the Fields, London, are now housed in the spectacular Bell Tower in Perth, Western Australia, and will be ringing to join the celebrations.