You're reading: Britain rings in 2012 Games

LONDON — Thousands of bells, big and small, rang out across Britain for three minutes on Friday as the country prepared for the London Olympics opening ceremony later in the day.

Churches across the UK and British embassies around the
world got into the spirit of the bell-ringing extravaganza,
devised by artist Martin Creed as part of a 12-week programme of
cultural events celebrating the arts alongside sport.

People were encouraged to ring any kind of bell — from a
church, a bicycle, a door and even a mobile phone as the
harmonious ringing spread from Wales in the west to Weymouth in
the south.

One of the biggest bells taking part was London’s Big Ben in
parliament’s clock tower, the first time it has rung outside its
regular hours since the funeral of King George VI in 1952.

It chimed about 40 times between 8:12 (0712 GMT) and 8:15
a.m. after special permission was granted by parliament.

Creed, whose won the famous Turner prize with an
installation of lights going on and off in an empty room,
created “Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as
quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes.”

“It was open to anyone to take part,” he told BBC
television.

“I was thinking of trying to make something like a sculpture
or something for the Olympics, but I was thinking to look at
something you have to go to the place to look at it.

“I thought that maybe if I did something with music or
making a noise it could go out across the city, you know, and
across the country.”

More than 10 million listeners were expected to have tuned
in to the live broadcasts shown on TV, radio and online. The BBC
showed British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt ringing handheld
bells at an event on London’s HMS Belfast ship on the River
Thames.

In Beijing, the British embassy rang its bell which was cast
in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee while staff at the
High Commission in Bangladesh rang rickshaw bells.

In Brussels, the British ambassador rang the bell at the
Belgian Stock Exchange to begin the day’s trading.