A plaque, close to the clock, reads:
"THE ROYAL CARRIAGE WORKS
JOHN THWAITES CLOCK 1806
The Clock Tower above, part of the original Listed Grade II Royal Carriage Works of the Royal Arsenal, houses a clock made bu John Thwaites of Clerkenwell in 1806. The clock has quarter ding dong chimes and strikes on the hour.
The clock was maintained by the military maintenance engineers of Woolwich Royal Ordnance Factories until they closed in 1967 and subsequently by 'The Friends of Woolwich Arsenal' who kept the clock working.
In 2005 the clock was vandalised, with damage to the clock workings and the destruction of the original hands. In 2007 the complete clock mechanism was removed to the workshops of John Smith & Sons of Derby, where it was restored and rebuilt, retaining all of its original parts, as part of the Berkeley Homes restoratio of the building.
The clock mechanism is described as a Posted Frame Cage Clock with Rack Quarter Chime and Rack Strike.
The clock mechanism drives four copper convex dials of 5' 3" diameter. Originally there were only two dials, but evidence suggests that the two extras, also installed by John Thwaites, were added later.
The clock sounds the quarter hours not on two bells of 21" and 24.5" diameter and sounds the hour on a 32" diameter bell. The bells are inscribed 'Thomas Mears of London'.
The clock has three trains (drives). Number one drives the time and dials, number two drives the quarter chime and number three drives the hour strike. The clock was originally driven by heavy weights, which would have been wound manually once a week by the appointed clockwinder. The timekeeping was previously achieved by a pendulum, which would have hung above your head, through an escapement known as the Graham deadbeat.
As part of the restoration works the strike and chime sections were converted to automatic winding, with the time side now driven by a synchronous clock movement. The clock now keeps precise time and is fully automatic, even changing time automatically in winter and summer. The final addition is an automatic night silencer for the strike and chime. The clock now runs without the attendance of a clockwinder or minder and needs only a yearly service.
The pendulum, chains, weights and winding gear have all been salvaged and are kept in the tower for occasional viewing."
NOTE: This plaque is on private property so please obtain permission, as I did, before entering the clock tower.
Thwaites & Reed was established in 1740 as manufacturing clockmakers, with antecedents from 1610. The Great Clock which everyone calls Big Ben was looked after by a team of up to 8 expert clockmakers from Thwaites & Reed for over 30 years.
John Thwaites, one of many Thwaites with that name, was a clockmaker at the beginning of the 17th century and from this extended family Aynsworth Thwaites founded the business now known as Thwaites & Reed in Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, London in 1740, and continued there until 1780. The company's earliest recorded commission and still in use, was a turret clock for Horseguards Parade made in 1740 but not finished until 1768. The complexity of the Horseguards clock is the result of many previous years clockmaking experience but older work has not been identified. Aynsworth was succeeded by John Thwaites, who was head of the firm from 1780 to 1816. In 1816, Thwaites partnered with George Jeremiah Reed, and the firm became Thwaites & Reed. John Thwaite remained at the firm's head until 1842.
In 1969 the family firm brought in outsiders to manage its business culminating in the British Government acquiring control of the business in 1978, only to return it to private ownership two years later after it had been modernised with substantial government investment. (Ref:- Thwaites and Reed Website (
visit link) )