‘Hang on,’ I hear you shout. It already has one in the shape of Big Ben, St Stephen’s Tower, the Clock Tower of Westminster Palace. ‘And there’s an even bigger one,’ (me shouting this time), known as Big Benzene, downstream at Shell Mex House.

A third horological marvel is now planned for the north bank of the Thames, this time at East India Dock, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. A tag-team of artists and scientists want to build a 40m-wide lunar clock powered by the tidal Thames.

The oversized timepiece would show the lunar phase, the lunar day cycle and the tidal phase. As chronometers go, it’s perhaps not the most useful. But it’s hoped that the monument would act as a local landmark in an otherwise little-visited part of town, and pique interest in older methods of marking time. Funding is still being sought, but the project has the backing of the Mayor and other big names.

Find out more about the project over at the Aluna website.