Big Ben will finally chime again from early next year as the restoration of Parliament's Elizabeth Tower nears completion.
The £89million refurbishment of the Westminster landmark was originally expected to be finished in late 2021 but was delayed as the Covid-19 crisis held up work.
Parliament authorities said in a statement: "The Elizabeth Tower conservation project is due to complete in the second quarter of 2022, and Parliament has revealed a number of important milestones that are expected on the project over the next 12 months.
"These include the removal of further scaffolding, the re-installation of the Great Clock and the return of Big Ben's world-famous chimes."
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The "complex task" of installing the restored clock mechanism will begin this summer.
"Following years of painstaking conservation work, the clock hands, now resplendent in their original Victorian colour scheme, will be added to the clock dials, with the restored mechanism returning to the Tower later in the year," the statement said.
“Visitors to Westminster will begin to see further scaffolding removed from the Tower from the autumn of 2021 and continuing through the winter.”
Early next year the bells, including the iconic Big Ben, will be reconnected to the original Victorian clock mechanism "and will ring out across Westminster once again".
Then the gantry, which has protected the Palace of Westminster, a World Heritage Site, throughout the works will be removed before the site is fully cleared ahead of next summer.
The iconic, 177-year-old Tower has been wrapped in scaffolding since summer 2017.
The Great Bell, nicknamed Big Ben and cast in the Whitechapel Foundry, first rang out across London on July 11, 1859.
It has been largely silent since 2017 but has been reconnected for significant occasions such as Remembrance Sunday and to herald midnight on New Year's Eve.
The Mirror told last year how work to revamp the Tower would cost almost £19m more than planned as the budget soared from £61.1m to £79.7m.
That revelation came less than three years after the cost climbed by £32m.
Experts blamed the discovery of “extensive” Second World War bomb damage, pollution and asbestos for the price hike.
Latest reports suggest the bill will hit £89m.
