Her Majesty's Royal Palace and
Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of
London (and historically as The Tower),
is a historic fortress and scheduled monument in central London, England
, on the
north bank of the River Thames.
It is
located within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
and is separated from the eastern edge of the
City of
London
by the open space known as Tower Hill
. It is the oldest building used by the
British government.
The Tower
of London is often identified with the White
Tower
, the original stark square fortress built by
William the Conqueror in
1078. However, the tower as a whole is a complex of several
buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and
moat.
The tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a
prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as
the
Princes in the Tower and
the future
Queen Elizabeth
I). This last use has led to the phrase "
sent to the Tower" (meaning
"imprisoned").
It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an
armoury, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the
Crown Jewels of the United
Kingdom
.
Today the Tower of London is cared for by an independent charity,
Historic Royal Palaces, which
receives no funding from the Government or the Crown.
Location
The Tower
is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
, at the eastern boundary of the City of London
financial district, adjacent to the River Thames and Tower Bridge
. Between the river and the Tower is Tower
Wharf, a freely accessible walkway with views of the river, tower
and bridge, together with HMS Belfast
and London City Hall
on the opposite bank.
The
nearest London
Underground station is Tower Hill
on the Circle and District Lines. The nearest Docklands Light Railway station is
Tower
Gateway
. London Fenchurch Street
is a nearby National
Rail station. River cruise boats and Thames Clipper services stop at the Tower
Millennium Pier
.
Construction history
The White Tower

The White Tower and courtyard

Norman chapel inside the White
Tower
At the
centre of the Tower of London stands the Norman White
Tower
built in 1078 by William the Conqueror (reigned
1066-87) inside the southeast angle of the city walls, adjacent to the Thames.This
was as much to protect the
Normans from the
people of the City of London as to protect London from outside
invaders. William appointed
Gundulf,
Bishop of Rochester, as the
architect.
Fine Caen
stone, imported from France, was used for the corners of the
building and as door and window dressings, though Kentish
ragstone was used for the
bulk of the edifice. According to legend the mortar used in
its construction was tempered by the blood of beasts. Another
legend ascribed the Tower not to William but to the Romans.
William Shakespeare in his play
Richard III stated that it was
built by
Julius Caesar.
The White Tower is 90 feet (27 m) high and the walls vary from
15 feet (4.5 m) thick at the base to almost 11 feet
(3.3 m) in the upper parts. Above the battlements rise four
turrets; three of them are square, but the one on the northeast is
circular, in order to accommodate a spiral staircase. This turret
was briefly used as the first royal observatory in the reign of
Charles II. Completing the
defences to the south of the Tower was the
bailey.
In the 1190s, King
Richard the
Lionheart (reigned 1189-99) enclosed the White Tower with a
curtain wall, and had a
moat dug around it filled with water from the Thames. Richard
utilised the pre-existing Roman city wall, to the east, as part of
the circuit. Part of the wall he built was incorporated into the
later circuit wall of Henry III and is still extant, running
between the Bloody Tower and the Bell Tower, the latter of which
also dates to his reign. In 1240
Henry III had the exterior of the
building whitewashed, which is how it got its name.
The Inmost Ward
In the early thirteenth century Henry III (reigned 1216-72)
transformed the Tower into a major royal residence and had palatial
buildings constructed within the Inner Bailey to the south of the
White Tower. This Inmost Ward was entered by the now ruined
Coldharbour Gate to the NW and bounded by a wall, fortified by the
Wakefield Tower to the SW, the Lanthorn Tower to the SE, and the
now ruined Wardrobe Tower to the NE. The well appointed Wakefield
Tower and the Lanthorn Tower were integral parts of this new royal
palace, and adjoined the now demolished Great Hall situated between
them. The Tower remained a royal residence until the time of
Oliver Cromwell, who demolished some
of the old palatial buildings.
The Inner Ward
White Tower and Inmost Ward are situated in the Inner Ward,
defended by a massive curtain wall, built by Henry III from 1238
onwards. In order to extend the circuit the city wall to the east
was broken down, despite the protests of the citizens of London and
even supernatural warnings, according to chronicler
Matthew Paris. The wall has thirteen
towers:
- Wakefield Tower — the largest of the towers in the curtain
wall. According to tradition this was where the imprisoned King
Henry VI was murdered as he knelt at prayer.
- Lanthorn Tower
- Salt
Tower

- Broad Arrow Tower
- Constable Tower
- Martin Tower. The Crown Jewels were kept here from 1669 until
1842. This was the scene of the attempted theft of the jewels by
Colonel Blood in 1671.
- Brick Tower
- Bowyer Tower
- Flint Tower
- Devereux Tower
- Beauchamp Tower (pronounced 'Beecham')
- Bell Tower — the oldest tower in the circuit, built in the
1190s as part of the fortification of Richard I and later
incorporated into that of Henry III. Named after the curfew bell which has been rung from this tower
for over 500 years.
- Bloody Tower (or the Garden Tower), so named after a legend
that the Princes in the Tower
were murdered there.
The Outer Ward
Between 1275 and 1285
Edward I
(reigned 1272-1307) built an outer curtain wall, completely
enclosing the inner wall and thus creating a concentric double
defence. He filled in the moat and built a new moat around the new
outer wall. The space between the walls is called the Outer Ward.
The wall has five towers facing the river:
- Byward Tower
- St Thomas's Tower, built between 1275-1279 by Edward I to
provide additional royal accommodation for the King.
- Cradle Tower
- Well Tower
- Develin Tower
On the north face of the outer wall are three semicircular
bastions, the Brass Mount, the North Bastion and Legge's
Mount.
The water
entrance to the Tower is often referred to as Traitor's
Gate
because prisoners accused of treason such as
Queen Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas More are said to have passed through
it. Traitor's Gate cuts through St Thomas's Tower and
replaced Henry III's watergate in the Bloody Tower behind it.Behind
Traitors Gate in the pool was an engine used to raise water to a
cistern located on the roof of the White Tower. The engine was
originally powered by the force of the tide or by horsepower and
eventually by steampower; this was adapted around 1724 to drive
machinery for boring gun barrels. It was removed in the 1860s.The
Tudor Timber Framing seen above the great arch of Traitor's Gate
dates from 1532 and was restored in the 19th century.
The western entrance and moat

The Middle Tower (centre) guards the
outer perimeter entrance across the (now) dry moat
ditch or moat, now dry, encircles the whole, crossed at the
southwestern angle by a stone bridge, leading to the Byward Tower
from the Middle Tower — a gateway which had formerly an
outwork, called the Lion Tower.
The Tower today is principally a tourist attraction. Besides the
buildings themselves, the British Crown Jewels, an armour
collection from the
Royal Armouries,
and a remnant of the wall of the
Roman
fortress are on display.
The tower is manned by the
Yeomen
Warders (known as
Beefeaters), who act as tour guides,
provide security, and are a tourist attraction in their own right.
Every evening, the warders participate in the
Ceremony of the Keys as the Tower is
secured for the night. All warders have residence within the Tower,
and must also own a residence outside of the Tower, so, that upon
their retirement, they may return to a home outside of the
Tower.
Royal Armouries
The
Royal Armouries can be traced
back the
middle ages when
armour was manufactured at the Tower for the
Kings of England in. In 1545, it is
recorded that a visiting foreign dignitary paid to view the
collection at the Armoury. By the time of
Charles II, there was a permanent
public display there, making it the first
museum in Britain. From 1414, the Tower was home to
the
Master of the
Ordnance and the Ordnance Office (later the
Board of Ordnance) who were responsible
for providing weapons to both the
Army
and
Navy. The Tower was engaged in the
development, manufacture and storage of a wide variety of weaponry
until the Board was abolished in 1855, however the historic
collection remained.
Only a small part of this could be displayed
and in 1995, much of the artillery
collection was moved to Fort Nelson
in Hampshire and the
following year a new Royal Armouries Museum
was opened in Leeds. The Tower still holds
an important range of arms and armour dating from the middle ages
onwards, notably that belonging to the
Tudor and
Stuart kings.
Menagerie
A Royal
Menagerie was established at the tower in the
13th century, possibly as early as 1204 during the reign of
King John, and probably stocked
with animals from an earlier menagerie started in 1125 by Henry I at his palace in Woodstock
, near Oxford
; William of Malmesbury reported that
Henry had lions, leopards, lynxes and camels among other animals there. Its year of
origin is often stated as 1235, when
Henry III received a wedding gift of
three leopards (so recorded, although they may have been lions)
from
Frederick II, Holy
Roman Emperor.The Tower of London housed a polar bear in 1252,
which was a gift from the King of Norway. In 1264, they were moved
to
the Bulwark, which was duly renamed
the Lion Tower, near the main western entrance. It was opened as an
occasional public spectacle in the reign of
Elizabeth I. A lion skull was
radiocarbon dated to between 1280 and
1385, making it the earliest medieval big cat known in
Britain.
The menagerie was open to the public by the 18th century; admission
was a sum of three half-pence or the supply of a cat or dog for
feeding to the lions. This was where
William Blake saw the
tiger which may have inspired his poem
The Tyger. The menagerie's last director,
Alfred Cops, who took over in 1822, found the collection in a
dismal state but restocked it and issued an illustrated scientific
catalogue.
Partly for commercial reasons and partly for
animal welfare, the animals were
moved to the Zoological Society of London's London Zoo
when it opened. The last of the animals left
in 1835, and most of the Lion Tower was demolished soon after,
although Lion Gate remains.
Ravens
-
.jpg/250px-White_Tower_(July-2003).jpg)
A Tower raven perched on a sign saying
Caution: Ravens may bite.
It had been thought that there have been at least six
ravens in residence at the tower for centuries.
The legend of these Ravens in the Tower of London is so important
to the people of England that ten ravens (6 on duty and 4 young
spares) are actually employed by the Tower of London at the expense
of the British government, in return for their service they are
treated very well and in deference to the ancient legend and the
decree of King Charles II at least six ravens are provided with
Raven's Lodgings at the Tower of London. A Yeoman Warder, or
Beefeater, has the specific role of Ravenmaster at the Tower and
takes care of their feeding and well being. The Ravenmaster builds
this relationship with the ravens as he takes the fledglings into
his home and hand rears them over a period of about six weeks.
Ravens live up to an average of 25 years, but have been known to
reach the age of 45 years. To prevent the birds from flying away
one of their wings is clipped by the Ravenmaster. This does not
hurt or harm the raven in any way. Clipping their wing unbalances
their flight ensuring that they don't stray too far from the Tower.
Ravens are members of the crow family, Corvus, and are eaters of
carrion and live mainly on dead flesh. The Raven's lodgings are
located next to the Wakefield Tower and are kept at the Tower of
London at the expense of the British government.It was said that
Charles II ordered their
removal following complaints from
John
Flamsteed, the Royal Astronomer.
However, they were
not removed because Charles was then told of the legend that if the
ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the White Tower, the
monarchy, and the entire kingdom would fall (the London Stone
has a similar legend). Charles, following
the time of the English Civil War,
superstition or not, was not prepared to take the chance, and
instead had the observatory moved to Greenwich
.
The earliest known reference to a tower raven is a picture in the
newspaper
The Pictorial World in 1885. This and scattered
subsequent references to the tower ravens, both literary and
visual, which appear in the late nineteenth to early twentieth
century place them near the monument commemorating those beheaded
at the tower, popularly known as the “scaffold.” This strongly
suggests that the ravens, which are notorious for gathering at
gallows, were originally used to dramatize tales of imprisonment
and execution at the tower told by the
Yeomen Warders to tourists. There is evidence
that the original ravens were donated to the tower by the
Earls of Dunraven, perhaps
because of their association with the
Celtic raven-god Bran.
However wild ravens,
which were once abundant in London and often seen around meat
markets (such as nearby Eastcheap
) feasting for scraps, could have roosted at the
tower in earlier times.
During the
Second World War most of
the Tower's ravens perished through shock during bombing raids,
leaving a sole survivor named 'Grip'. There is evidence that the
ravens were used as unofficial spotters for enemy planes and bombs
during the Blitz. Before the tower reopened to the public on 1
January 1946, care was taken to ensure that a new set of ravens was
in place.
The ravens' names/gender/age are (as of June 2009):
- Gwylum (male, 18 years old)
- Thor (male, 15 years old)
- Hugin (female, 11 years old)
- Munin (female, 11 years old)
- Branwen (female, 3 years old)
- Bran (male, 3 years old)
- Gundulf (male, 1 year old)
- Baldrick (male, 1 year old)
- Fleur (female, 4 years old)
- Colin (male, 2 years old)
The oldest raven ever to serve at the Tower of London was called
Jim Crow, who died at the age of 44.
In 2006, ahead of the
H5N1 avian influenza scare, the ravens were moved
indoors; as of June 2006, they are once again free to roam about
the grounds within the tower complex.
Prisoners
first prisoner was
Ranulf Flambard
in 1100 who, as Bishop of Durham, was found guilty of
extortion. He had been responsible for various
improvements to the design of the tower after the first architect
Gundulf moved back to Rochester. He escaped from the White Tower by
climbing down a rope, which had been smuggled into his cell in a
wine casket.
Other prisoners include:
- Gruffydd ap Llywelyn
Fawr (c. 1200 1 March, 1244) a Welsh prince, the eldest but
illegitimate son of Llywelyn the
Great ("Llywelyn Fawr"). He fell to his death whilst trying to
escape from a cell in the Tower.
- John Balliol King of Scotland -
after being forced to abdicate the crown of Scotland by Edward I he was imprisoned in the Tower
from 1296 to 1299.
- David II King of
Scotland
- John II King of France
- Henry Laurens, the third President
of the Continental
Congress of Colonial
America.
- Domhnáill Ballaugh Ó
Catháin, the last chieftain of Clan Ó
Catháin died in the Tower in 1626.
- Charles I de Valois,
Duke of Orléans was one of the many French noblemen wounded in
the Battle of
Agincourt
on 25 October, 1415. Captured and taken to
England as a hostage, he remained in captivity for twenty-five
years, at various places including Wallingford Castle
. Charles is remembered as an accomplished
poet owing to the more than five hundred extant poems he produced,
most written while a prisoner.
- Henry VI of England was
imprisoned in the Tower, where he was murdered on 21 May 1471.
Each year
on the anniversary of Henry VI's death, the Provosts of Eton College
and King's College, Cambridge
, lay roses and lilies on the altar that stands
where he died.
- Margaret of Anjou, consort of
Henry VI.
- George
Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of King Edward IV of England.
- Edward V of England and his brother
Richard of Shrewsbury, also
known as the Princes in the
Tower, popular legend states that their uncle, Richard Duke of Glouchester locked
them in the tower for their own protection, then, later, ordered
their deaths.
- Sir William de la Pole. A
distant relative of King Henry
VIII, he was incarcerated at the Tower for 37 years (1502-1539)
for allegedly plotting against Henry VII, thus becoming the
longest-held prisoner.
- Edward Seymour,
1st Duke of Somerset, and his steward Sir John Thynne.
- Thomas More was imprisoned on 17
April 1535. He was executed on 6 July 1535 and his body was buried
at the Tower of London.
- Anne Boleyn, Queen of England,
imprisoned on 2 May 1536 on charges of adultery, treason, and
incest.
- The future Queen Elizabeth
I, imprisoned for two months in 1554 for her alleged
involvement in Wyatt's
Rebellion.
- John Gerard, S.J., an English
Jesuit priest operating undercover during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I, when Catholics were being persecuted. He was captured
and tortured and incarcerated in the Salt Tower before making a
daring escape by rope across the moat.
- Sir Walter Raleigh spent
thirteen years (1603-1616) imprisoned at the Tower but was able to
live in relative comfort in the Bloody Tower with his wife and two
children. For some of the time he even grew tobacco on Tower Green,
just outside his apartment. While imprisoned, he wrote The
History of the World.
- Nicholas
Woodcock spent sixteen months in the "gatehouse and tower" for
piloting the first Spanish whaleship to Spitsbergen
in 1612.
- Niall Garve O'Donnell, an
Irish nobleman, a one-time ally of the English against his cousin,
Red Hugh O'Donnell.
- Guy Fawkes, famous for his part in
the Gunpowder Plot, was brought to
the Tower to be interrogated by a council of the King's Ministers.
However, he was not executed at the tower. When he confessed, he
was sentenced to be hanged,
drawn and quartered in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster;
however, he escaped his fate by jumping off the scaffold at the
gallows which in turn broke his neck and killed him.
- Johan Anders
Jägerhorn, a Swedish officer from Finland, Lord Edward FitzGerald's friend,
participating in the Irish independence movement. He spent two
years in the Tower (1799-1801), but was released because of Russian
interests.
- Lord George Gordon,
instigator of the Gordon Riots in 1780,
spent 6 months in the Tower while awaiting trial on the charge of
high treason.
- Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the
German Nazi Party, the last State prisoner to
be held in the tower, in May 1941.
- The Kray twins, were among the last
prisoners to be held, for a few days in 1952, for failing to report
for national service.
Torture
Inside the
torture chambers of the
tower various implements of torture were used such as the
Scavenger’s daughter, a kind of
compression device, and the
Rack,
also known as the
Duke of
Exeter's Daughter.
Anne Askew is the only woman on record to
have been tortured in the tower, after being taken there in 1546 on
a charge of
heresy. Sir Anthony Kingston, the
Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to torture Anne in an
attempt to force her to name other Protestants. Anne was put on the
Rack. Kingston was so impressed with the way Anne behaved that he
refused to carry on torturing her, and Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor
had to take over.
Executions
-

The Tower in 1597 (an 18th century
engraving)
Lower-class criminals were usually executed by hanging at one of
the public execution sites outside the Tower.
High-profile
convicts, such as Sir Thomas More, were
publicly beheaded on Tower Hill
. Seven nobles (five of them ladies) were
beheaded privately on Tower
Green
, inside the complex, and then buried in the
"Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad
Vincula
" (Latin for "in chains," making him an appropriate
patron saint for prisoners) next to the Green. Some of the
nobles who were executed outside the Tower are also buried in that
chapel. (
External link to Chapel webpage)The names of the seven
beheaded on Tower Green for treason alone are:

Traitors' Gate
George, Duke of Clarence,
the brother of
Edward IV of
England, was executed for treason in the Tower in February
1478, but not by beheading (and probably not by being drowned in a
butt of
Malmsey wine, despite what
Shakespeare wrote).
When Edward IV died, he left two young sons behind: the
Princes in the Tower. His brother
Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, was made Regent until the older of
his two sons, Edward V, should come of age. According to
Thomas More's
History of Richard III, Richard hired men
to kill them, and, one night, the two Princes were smothered with
their pillows. Many years later, bones were found buried at the
foot of a stairway in the Tower, which are thought to be those of
the princes. Richard was crowned King Richard III of England.
The last execution at the Tower was that of German spy
Josef Jakobs on 14 August 1941 by firing squad
formed from the
Scots Guards.
Recent history
The military use of the Tower as a fortification, like that of
other such
castles, became obsolete with the
introduction of
artillery, and the moat
was drained in 1830. However the Tower did serve as the
headquarters of the
Board of
Ordnance until 1855, and the Tower was still occasionally used
as a prison, even through both World Wars. In 1780, the Tower held
its only American prisoner, former
President of the
Continental Congress,
Henry
Laurens. In
World War I, eleven
German spies were shot in the Tower. Irish rebel
Roger Casement was imprisoned in the Tower
during his trial on treason charges in 1916.

Reconstruction of the interior of the
Bloody Tower
In 1942,
Adolf Hitler's deputy,
Rudolf Hess, was imprisoned in the tower
for four days. During this time,
RAF Wing Commander George Salaman was placed in the same cell
undercover, impersonating a
Luftwaffe
officer, to spy on Hess. Although acting covertly and not held as a
true inmate, Salaman remains the last Englishman to be locked in
the Tower of London. The tower was used as a prison for German
prisoners of war throughout the conflict.
Waterloo Barracks, the location of the Crown Jewels, remained in
use as a base for the
1st Battalion Royal
Fusiliers into the 1950s; during 1952, the
Kray twins were briefly held there for failing to
report for national service, making them among the last prisoners
of the Tower; the last British citizen held for any length of time
was the traitorous Army officer
Norman Baillie-Stewart from 1933 to
1937. The tower is now home to the regimental museum of the Royal
Fusiliers.
Although
it is no longer a royal residence, the Tower officially remains a
royal palace and maintains a permanent guard: this is found by the
unit forming the Queen's Guard at
Buckingham
Palace
. Two sentries are maintained during the
hours that the Tower is open, with one stationed outside the
Jewel House and one outside the
Queen's
House.
In 1974, there was a bomb explosion in the
Mortar Room in the White Tower, leaving one
person dead and 35 injured. No one claimed responsibility for the
blast, however the police were investigating suspicions that the
IRA was behind
it.
In 2007,
Moira Cameron became the
first female Beefeater in history to go on duty at the Tower of
London. Cameron beat five men to the job as a Yeomen Warder.
The Tower was featured in the BBC documentary series
Tales from the Palaces.
On July 18, 2009,
USS
Halyburton became the first non-British ship to take part
in the Tower's Constable's Dues ritual. Dating back to the 14th
century, it involved the crew being challenged for entry into the
capital, mirroring an ancient custom in which a ship had to unload
some of its cargo for the sovereign to enter the city.
Commander Michael P
Huck led the crew to the Tower's West Gate, where after being
challenged for entry by the Yeoman Gaoler armed with his axe, they were marched to Tower Green
accompanied by Beefeaters, where they delivered a
keg of Castillo Silver Rum, representing the dues, to the Tower's
Constable, Sir Roger Wheeler.
Administration
The Tower
of London and its surrounding area has always had a separate
administration from the adjacent City of London
. It was under the jurisdiction of
Constable of the Tower who also held
authority over the
Tower liberties until 1894.
In
addition the Constable was ex-officio Lord Lieutenant of the Tower
division
of Middlesex
until 1889 and head of the Tower Hamlets Militia until 1871. Today the Tower is
within the boundaries of the London Borough
of Tower Hamlets
.
Yeomen Warders
The tower is fully staffed with 35
Yeomen
Warders (also known as
Beefeaters), at all
times, the most senior is titled the Chief Yeoman Warder, and his
second-in-command is titled the Yeoman Gaoler, they answer to the
Constable of the Tower.
Yeomen
Warders have served as defenders of the Crown
Jewels
, prison guards, and, since the time of Queen Victoria, tour guides to visitors, and
they have become a tourist attraction in their own right, something
the warders themselves acknowledge. The current role of the
Yeoman Warder is that of tour guides, and, should the need arise,
prison guards.
Crown Jewels

The Imperial State Crown
The Crown
Jewels have been kept at the Tower of London since 1303, after they
were stolen from Westminster Abbey
. It is thought that most, if not all, were
recovered shortly afterwards. After the coronation of
Charles II, they were locked away and
shown for a viewing fee paid to a custodian. However, this
arrangement ended when Colonel
Thomas
Blood stole the Crown Jewels after having bound and gagged the
custodian. Thereafter, the Crown Jewels were kept in a part of the
Tower known as Jewel House, where armed guards defended them.
They were
temporarily taken out of the Tower during World War II and reportedly were secretly kept
in the basement vaults of the Sun
Life Insurance company in Montreal
, Canada, along with the gold bullion of the
Bank of
England
.
Ghosts
The Tower of London is reputedly the most haunted building in
England. The ghost of Queen
Anne Boleyn,
beheaded in 1536 for treason against
King Henry VIII, has allegedly been seen
haunting the chapel of St Peter-ad-Vincula, where she is buried,
and walking around the White Tower carrying her head under her arm.
Other ghosts include
Henry VI,
Lady Jane Grey,
Margaret Pole, and
the
Princes in the Tower. In
January 1816 a sentry on guard outside the Jewel House witnessed an
inexplicable apparition of a bear advancing towards him. The sentry
reportedly died of fright a few days later.
In fiction

- The Tower of London, as a place of death, darkness and
treachery, is most famously evoked in William Shakespeare's play, Richard III, where it forms the backdrop
of Richard's seizure of the throne and the scene of the notorious
murder of the Princes in the
Tower, and other victims (see above). A classic film version of
this is Richard III
(1955) with Laurence Olivier in the
title role. This story is also reprised in the historical horror
film Tower of
London (1939) and its 1962 remake.
- The Tower of London (1840) by William Harrison Ainsworth though
written in fictional form, contrives to give a detailed account of
the history and architecture of the Tower. He however included
extensive underground passages and dungeons which did not actually
exist.
- The Tower is the setting for Gilbert and Sullivan's 1888 light opera The Yeomen of the Guard.
- Apparitions of Anne Boleyn at the Tower are the theme of the
song "With Her
Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm".
- The Mad Hatter
Mystery, a detective novel by John Dickson Carr, where the Tower serves
as scene of a murder (Harper & Row Inc., New York, 1933,
1961).
- There was an adventure computer game called Traitors Gate
released by Swedish Daydream Software in 1999. In the game, the
player is an american agent who must secretly steal the crown
jewels in 12 hours. The game took place in a highly realistic [CGI]
recreation of the whole Tower area.
- The Tower Of London features frequently, and is described in
exhaustive detail, in Neal
Stephenson's Baroque Cycle,
especially The System of
the World, in which the tower is the setting for one of the
series' grandest set pieces.
- The Tower Of London also features in the 2005 Christmas special
of the long-running BBC television science fiction series Doctor Who, in which it was the secret
headquarters of fictional military organisation UNIT.
- The Tower is the setting for the final battle in the anime
version of Hellsing, where Alucard faces
against Incognito.
- The Tower is the setting for Johnny
English when the crown jewels are stolen by Pascal
Sauvage.
- Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Jonah and
Katherine try to save their friends Chip and Alex from the Tower of
London.
- The Tower of London is often portrayed in the Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud, as a prison.
- In the novel 'Stars and Stripes triumphant' the Tower of London
is partially destroyed by invading American ironclads.
Notes
- http://www.hrp.org.uk/aboutus/whoweare/default.aspx
- Adrian Tinniswood, "A History of British Architecture:
Buildings of the Middle Ages" (p.2), 2001-01-01, bbc.co.uk webpage: BBC-Arch.
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 18
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 5-6
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 28-9
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 20
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 20
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 24
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 20
- Peter Hammond (1987) The Tower of London: 28-9
- http://www.royalarmouries.org/visit-us/tower-of-london
- http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/70/7244.htm
- The Tower of London: A 2000 Year History, Geoffrey Parnell
& Ivan Lapper, Osprey Publishing, 2000
- "Big cats prowled London's tower" (report), BBC News
Online, webpage: BBC-908. 24 October 2005.
- Boria Sax, " How Ravens Came to the Tower of London," Society and
Animals 15, no. 3 (2007b), pp. 272-274.
- ibid, pp. 270-281.
- Maev Kennedy, "Tower’s Raven Mythology May Be a Victorian
Flight of Fantasy," The Guardian, 15 November 2004, p. 1.
- Boria Sax, " Medievalism, Paganism, and the Tower Ravens,"
The Pomegranate:The International Journal of Pagan Studies 9, no. 1
(2007), pp. 71-73.
- Jerome, Fiona. Tales from the Tower: 2006. pp.
148-9
- ^ Boria Sax, "Medievalism, Paganism, and the Tower Ravens," The
Pomegranate:The International Journal of Pagan Studies 9, no. 1
(2007), pp. 71-73.
- "Tower's raven mythology may be a Victorian flight
of fantasy", The Guardian 15 November 2004.
- "Tower's Ravens kept indoors", BBC News
Online, 3 January 2006.
- "Bird Flu Fears Coop Up London's Famous Ravens" (news),
Washington Post, 22 February 2006, webpage: WPost-01042: with oldest raven.
- The White Tower once held torture chambers
within its crypt From Mysterious Britain website.
Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- There was no permanent torture-chamber. The
basement of the White Tower was used. But prisoners could also be
tortured in their cells From Tudor website.
Retrieved 5 March 2007.
- Royal Fusiliers Museum
- "On This Day 1974: Bomb blast at the Tower of
London", BBC News Online, 17 July 1974
- D. Farson (1978) Ghosts in Fact and Fiction. Hamlyn:
London
- Christina Hole (1950) Haunted England: 61-2, 155
References
- Bennett, Edward Turner, The Tower Menagerie: Comprising the
Natural History of the Animals Contained in that Establishment;
with Anecdotes of their Characters and History, London, Robert
Jennings, 1829.
- A DVD box set of the Channel 4
documentary series 'The Tower' was released in June 2005.
External links