( AP ) - Big Ben is losing its bongs - temporarily.
The famous bell in the clocktower of Britain's Houses of Parliament is to fall silent for a month of repairs, officials announced.
The House of Commons said Wednesday that the distinctive bongs would sound the hour for the last time at 8 a.m. Saturday before four to six weeks of maintenance work.
Both the sonorous hourly bongs and the chimes that mark each quarter-hour will be silent for the first time since 1956, officials said.
A team of specialist "industrial rope-access technicians" would rappel down the tower's south clock face Saturday, officials said in a statement. The team will spend a day cleaning and repairing the clock's faces.
A backup electric system will keep the clock running during the weeks of maintenance.
The neo-Gothic tower, designed by Charles Barry, is one of London's most recognizable landmarks. It is popularly known as Big Ben, although the name actually refers only to the 13-ton Great Bell inside.
The bell's characteristic sound is closely identified with England. A live broadcast of the 6 o'clock bongs precedes British Broadcasting Corp. radio's early evening news bulletin. The BBC said that during the repairs it would be replaced by the pips of the Greenwich Time Signal.
The latest maintenance work is the final phase of a renovation before the clock's 150th anniversary in 2009.