In London’s official New Year’s Eve fireworks display, Big Ben is traditionally used as the countdown clock.
Big Ben is the nickname commonly given to the Great Bell in the Elizabeth Tower at the Palace of Westminster. During the countdown, television coverage focuses on the clock tower and its chimes as midnight approaches, followed by fireworks over the River Thames.
The official display is staged around the London Eye and the South Bank, so the London Eye is a major visual centre of the fireworks themselves. This creates a common mix-up: Big Ben provides the famous time signal, while the London Eye is one of the principal launch and viewing landmarks.
The Elizabeth Tower clock resumed striking after a major conservation project in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Big Ben therefore remains both a working national time symbol and a central part of London’s New Year imagery.