Blimey, Birmingham does love its clocks dedicated to Joseph Chamberlain. But don’t confuse this with the smaller clock in the Jewellery Quarter, for this is a completely different beast. The tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower was built in 1908 in honour of its namesake, the first chancellor of Birmingham University and one of the most important British politicians of his era. The city knows the clock as ‘Old Joe’, one of the tallest buildings in the country.