Tower of London

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Wednesday was another gorgeous day, so I decided to take advantage of the weather and do something outside, so I headed to the Tower of London. Despite its name, the Tower of London is not really a tower. It used to be used as a castle. Edward the Conqueror, after conquering England, ordered the Tower to be built. Unfortunately, he died before its completion, but his son and subsequent kings used it as a castle due to its strategic position on the Thames. The Tower is quite intimidating visually, so it makes sense that it was used to defend London, for in those times, he who controlled London controlled England.

The White Tower

The first thing I decided to do was to head to St. John’s Chapel in the White Tower for a short tour. The White Tower used to be used a royal residence, so it featured a lot of interesting architectural features. The first one was the guarderobe, or in other words a toilet. During that time, people believed that the fumes from the toilet contained something that cleaned/protected clothing, so the king would hang his robe over the door while he was in the guarderobe, thus “guarding” his “robe.” The second interesting feature was the Norman fireplace. When it came to building fireplaces, the Normans were smart. They knew that chimneys were a dead give-away as to the inhabitance of the castle. If there was a lot of smoke, there were a lot of people in the castle; if there was no smoke, the castle was empty. So, in order to trick their enemies, they used a different kind of fireplace that didn’t require a chimney. Instead of being built in the center of the room, the fireplace was built on a wall. From there, the smoke went up into the wall and out two holes hidden in the side of the wall. By the time the smoke reached these holes, it had all but dissipated, so no smoke was actually visible coming out of the castle. After my tour of the upper floors of the White Castle, I went back downstairs to see the armory. They had several rows of armor used by Kings of England, such as King Henry V and King Henry VIII.

The exit to the White Tower spit me out at the building that holds the Crown Jewels and the line wasn’t long, so I went in there next. The exhibit for the Crown Jewels was really interesting and I learned things about the coronation ceremony that I didn’t know. Amongst the Crown Jewels are all the regalia used in the coronation ceremony including the Sceptre with Cross, the Sceptre with Dove, the Anointing Spoon, and the Crown. Everything is more impressive in person because up close, the dozens upon dozens of gemstones are visible.

Memorial Site

After the Crown Jewels, I went to the memorial site for where the execution scaffold used to be, which is where people such as Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard (both wives of King Henry VIII), and Lady Jane Grey (the Nine Days’ Queen) were beheaded. Following that, I went into Beauchamp Tower, which is right next to the memorial site. Beauchamp Tower is where they used to hold prisoners awaiting execution. The most interesting thing about the tower was the carvings on the walls that were done by prisoners held there.

Tower Green and the Queen's House

Exiting Beauchamp Tower, I walked along Tower Green, which is a lawn in front of the Queen’s House. When the Tower was used as a royal residence, the Queen’s House was used by the queen (as the name implies). Anne Boleyn spent the night in that house the night before her wedding to King Henry VIII. Another interesting fact about the Queen’s House is that it is one of the only buildings in all of London to have survived the Great London Fire in 1666.

Sign at the entrance of the Bloody Tower

Right next to the Queen’s House is the Bloody Tower. The Bloody Tower has a lot of interesting history, including being the place where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for 13 years. There, he wrote part of The History of the World. Interestingly enough, the Bloody Tower was set up in such a way so as to accommodate not only Sir Walter Raleigh, but also his family. The Bloody Tower was the last thing I was able to see before heading back to the college for classes. I could have spent all day at the Tower. I was only able to stay about two and a half hours, but I don’t think I saw half of everything there. It is definitely a place I want to go back to if I ever make it back to London.