Today marks the unveiling of a new temporary display in the Clockmakers’ Museum at the Science Museum, focussing on a key figure of 19th century British clockmaking, the royal clockmaker Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy.
This champion of British craftsmanship is strongly associated with the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, who own the collection that forms the Clockmakers’ Museum. Acting as their Master (the highest role in the Company) a record-breaking five times, Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy used his position to advocate for British clock and watchmaking at a time when it was struggling against the effects of a market flooding with cheaper foreign imports. He also recognised the importance of preserving the rich heritage of the craft and was one of the main driving forces behind the foundation of the Clockmakers’ Museum and Archive. He sourced many of its first acquisitions and stored the early collection at his business premises. Not only that, but his name is associated with some of the highest quality craftsmanship of the 19th century.
The most exclusive of businesses
Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy was the last of four generations of royal clockmakers. For over 100 years(1753 – 1854), the Vulliamy firm was based at 68, Pall Mall, an area with some of the grandest residences in London. It was the sort of store where the wealthy could personally shop for exclusive goods like fine watches, pedometers and scientific instruments, and counted the royalty and aristocracy amongst its customers. When Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy became head of the firm upon his father’s death in 1811, the business was known for its ornamental clocks, objects d’art and furnishings made from metal, but it also produced watches, regulators and turret clocks – a type of clock mounted into the exterior wall of a building. The latter was an area of particular interest for Benjamin Lewis, who introduced various improvements to the mechanisms to make them work more efficiently and easier to maintain.
Supplying an ever-expanding city
At the start of the 1800s, London was growing into the world’s largest city, developing as a centre for commerce, finance, the arts and science, and as the administrative capital of a global empire. Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy took over the business at a moment in time where he could push it in a new direction, supplying the vast number of new institutions, clubs and government departments with his clocks. Their qualities of reliability and accuracy would make them ideal for a society more and more governed by time.
The large rebuilding programme also enabled Vulliamy to supply his turret clocks, which he promoted as far superior to the competition. In all, around 100 turret clocks around the world were designed by him, including at St Pauls Cathedral in Kolkata, India, and at the Old Town Clock in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Palace of Westminster
During the 1840s and 1850s the Palace of Westminster was rebuilt after a catastrophic fire destroyed most of it in 1834. Vulliamy supplied at least 30 clocks for the new building but ultimately failed to secure the contract for what is probably the most famous clock in the world, ‘Big Ben’. He was invited by his friend the architect Sir Charles Barry to design a clock that could drive the time on four enormous dials, ring the quarters on four bells, and sound the hours on a bell weighing a hefty 14 tons, all some 60 metres above ground. Vulliamy took two years to complete his designs, but just like in politics, there were many disagreements between the stakeholders of the project. The contract was eventually awarded to the clockmaker Edward John Dent. Copies of Vulliamy’s plans are still preserved in the Parliamentary Archive and the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Vulliamy’s legacy
Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy was an Associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, having been originally introduced by his friends, the Bramah family of engineers, whom he used in the production of his turret clocks. However, his interests didn’t just extend to clockmaking and mechanics. He was also a fellow of the Royal Geographical, Zoological and Astronomical Societies, and had an extensive library of art and architecture, as well as mechanics and horology (the study of clockmaking and time). Over the years he fought many battles to protect the horological craft around him but knew that the Vulliamy business would end with him, as none of his children wanted to continue in the trade.
It is perhaps for this reason that he created a different legacy – the items he donated to the institutions or societies to which he was associated. Over his lifetime he gave or bequeathed numerous items to the fledgling museum and library collection of the Clockmakers’ Company and suggested the purchase of many more. Upon his death the Institution of Civil Engineers received his extensive library of mechanics and horology. The Society of Antiquaries were also beneficiaries, receiving a regulator – a type of accurate clock – made by his grandfather and great-grandfather. And it is a testament to the quality of his work that many of the 19th century monumental buildings of London still have a working clock by Vulliamy on, or in them today.
Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy: A Champion of British Craftsmanship is now open at the Clockmakers’ Museum in the Science Museum until 2 November 2025.