Little Ben

Met a friend for lunch in London, Victoria today. I arrived very early and had a wander. The buildings have changed dramatically since I worked in that area quite a while ago now. One structure that hasn't is Little Ben.
Little Ben is a cast iron clock tower placed at a busy thoroughfare in Victoria. It was erected in 1892 and removed in 1964, restored and re-erected in 1981 by Westminser City Council with sponsorship from Elf Aquitaine Ltd "offered as a gesture of Franco-British friendship".

There is a rhyming couplet affixed to the body of the clock:-

My hands you may retard or may advance
My heart beats true for England as for France


The couplet is a reference to the plan that the clock be permanently on Daylight Saving Time leading to the time being correct for France during the winter months and correct for the UK during the summer. However this policy was either changed or never implemented as it is always on GMT in the winter and BST in the summer.