The Clock Tower:

Unlike that suggested by the title, this is not the tower at the top of which is a large clock, instead this is a tower entirely filled with clocks. Why there is a tower entirely filled with clocks is a mystery. The ticking sound is somewhat overwhelming for the unprepared. Big ones, small ones, all styles and shapes. Many of the clocks are the standard round face with internal clockwork but some are more ornate or involve a variety of working mechanisms. Each one is labelled – the name of a country perhaps, or a figure of note. There is a clock for every department in the building and a clock for things that are harder to describe, such as a single clock labelled ‘past’. The faces on the clocks don’t always show what you’d expect either – some have the usual 12 hours, some show days, weeks or months at a time while still others display strange symbols that have yet to be deciphered. If venturing into the clockroom it’s best to try and expect the unexpected.

Dominating the room are two enormous swinging pendulums suspended from somewhere high above hidden in shadow. What these two pendulums are connected to is somewhat unclear – reasonably you might expect it to lead to the big clock in the tower but the problem is that from the window of the Clock Tower you can see the clock that does overlook the quad quite clearly. These two pendulums swing very slightly out of time with one another leading to a very strange effect where together they almost make a ‘thu-thump, thu-thump’ sound – almost exactly like a heartbeat…

No one knows who winds these clocks, and there is no official clock master as far as any student is aware, but so far no one has ever spotted a stopped clock.