watercolour of Old Joe, the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower at the University of Birmingham. It was built between 1900 and 1908, is the university’s best-known landmark, and is widely described as the world’s tallest free-standing clock tower.
 
Old Joe was designed by Aston Webb and Ingress Bell as part of the first major phase of the Edgbaston campus.  It was built to commemorate Joseph Chamberlain, the university’s first chancellor, though the tower was at one point considered for the name “Poynting Tower” after physicist John Henry Poynting.
 
A key piece of the story is that the tower depended on philanthropy: an anonymous donation later identified as coming from Sir Charles Holcroft helped make it possible.  Its design was inspired by Italian campaniles, especially the Torre del Mangia in Siena, with some influence from St Mark’s Campanile in Venice in the earlier concept stage
 
Interesting facts...
Its not just decorative it's highly scientific. It was designed with the physics department in mind, later used in the 1940s for radar-related experiments, and it has also functioned as a working water tower.An asteroid, 10515 Old Joe, was named after it, and peregrine falcons have been known to nest at the top.