London's Big Ben is turning in to Leaning Tower of Pisa

Big Ben, the great bell of the Palace of Westminster in Londen is officially leaning.

A new report has found the top of the famous clock tower, which stands above the parliament in central London, is now just under half a metre off the perpendicular.

A senior research investigator from Imperial College London who has worked on Big Ben and the Leaning Tower of Pisa says it is getting worse. Even passers-by and tourists can notice the tilt.

If civil engineers are to be believed the tower is sinking more quickly on the north side than the south of the Palace.

Surveys suggest the tilt has increased by about a centimetre a year since 2003, about 40 per cent faster than the long-term average.

The clock tower has not been perfectly vertical for years because of shifting ground conditions and tunnelling for Tube lines.

Cracks have been noticed in walls inside the House of Commons but it is not known if the cracks appeared due to the leaning of Big Ben.

Big Ben is the nickname of the tower’s largest bell but the public generally use it as the name of the whole clock, built in 1853.

It would take another 4000 years or so for it to match the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

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