The Swan Bells are a set of 18 bells hanging in a specially built copper and glass

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. The tower is commonly known as The Bell Tower or the Swan Bell Tower. Taking their name from the Swan River, which their tower overlooks, and forming a sixteen-bell peal with two extra

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

notes, they are the second largest set of

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

bells in the

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, the largest being

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, more formally The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the ( ...

, which has nineteen bells. Twelve of the set are historic bells from

St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...

church in

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

; six others, cast in recent times by the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

, round off the set. The St Martin-in-the-Fields bells were donated to the State of Western Australia as part of the 1988

Australian bicentenary The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1988. It marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. History The bicentennial year marked Captain Arthur Phillip's arrival with the 11 ships ...

celebrations; the additional bells were cast with a subsequent donation of metals mined in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The six newer bells include five that were presented to the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

, the

City of Perth A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and to the people of Western Australia by the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

and a consortium of British and Australian mining companies, and one bell commissioned by the

Western Australian Government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

History of the St Martin-in-the-Fields bells

The St Martin-in-the-Fields bells can be traced to before the 14th century. They were recast in the 16th century by order of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

and again between 1725 and 1770 by members of the Rudhall family of bell founders from

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. Due to be recast leading up to 1870 instead they were tuned and restored at London's Whitechapel Bell Foundry and donated to Western Australia, on the initiative of local

bellringer A bell-ringer is a person who rings a bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularly those with an adv ...

and businessman Laith Reynolds. They are rare in that they are one of the few sets of royal bells, and more so since they are the only set known to have left England. The bells are also known to have rung as the explorer

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

set sail on the voyage in which he reached

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

The bell tower

The tower was designed by the local architects Hames Sharley. The 18 bells have a combined weight of about and, when rung, exert considerable forces on the support structure. To achieve the required rigidity, the six-story bell chamber was made with

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

cast ''in situ''. The bell chamber was designed by the structural engineering firm Arup. Soundproof louvres and doors are used to muffle the sound or direct the noise towards the city or the river as required. The glass-clad spire is designed using spokes that radiate horizontally from a centrally positioned axle, declining in width as it rises to a point. The solid-steel columns of the spire are rectangular and the concrete bell chamber is enveloped in copper sails and glass. The redeveloped

Barrack Square Barrack Square is an open public square on the foreshore of Perth Water on the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River, located at the southern end of Barrack Street, Perth, Barrack Street near the central business district of Perth, Western A ...

along

Barrack Street Barrack Street is one of two major cross-streets in the Perth central business district, central business district of Perth, Western Australia. Together with St Georges Terrace, Wellington Street, Perth, Wellington Street and William Street, Pe ...

precinct, which surrounds the tower, includes reflection pools as well as cafes, restaurants, shops and cycling and walking paths. An inlaid path made of ceramic tiles initially surrounded the tower, with each tile consisting of a list of some of the youngest and oldest cohorts of students from nearly every school in Western Australia from 1999, arranged alphabetically by school name. , the tiles were removed as part of the

Elizabeth Quay Elizabeth Quay is a mixed-use development project in the Perth#cbd, Perth central business district. Focusing on an area located on the north shore of Perth Water near the landmark Swan Bells, the precinct being developed by the project was nam ...

project, but have since been reinstalled in a new artwork to the east of the tower. In 2018, to commemorate the centenary of the World War One armistice on 11 November, a large bell was cast by VEEM Limited,

Canning Vale Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...

. Unlike the other bells in the tower, this is swung electronically using a motor, supplied by a Belgian firm. It is known as the "Great ANZAC Bell". Since 2013 the area around

Barrack Street Jetty Barrack Street Jetty is located on the edge of Perth Water on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia. It is no longer used on the Transperth ferry service between the Perth central business district and South Perth, having been replaced o ...

has under gone redeveloped; this included removal of part of the reflecting pool and creation of a boardwalk in front of the Bell Tower. The work is part of a larger foreshore project that also incorporates the Elizabeth Quay development.

Controversy

The A$5.5 million building was said to be built to commemorate the new

millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...

, but at the time the government and the

Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive bra ...

Richard Court Richard Fairfax Court (born 27 September 1947) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001 and as Australian Ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, ...

, received a fair amount of criticism from locals who opposed it, calling it a wasteful expenditure. However, it remains one of the only "icon" millennium projects that came in on time, on budget and is still open.

Gallery

File:Perth_Swan_Bells_Tower.jpg, The tower as seen from Barrack Street at dusk File:Swan Bells tower (4).jpg File:Swan Bells tower.jpg File:Swan Bells tower (1).jpg File:Swan Bells tower (2).jpg File:Swan Bells tower (3).jpg File:Swan Bells fountain.JPG, Fountains in front of Swan Bells File:Swan Bells SMC 2006.jpg, The Swan Bells

References

External links