Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOWER OF LONDON
Tower of London and around
Tower Hill is choked with tourists who flock here to see one of London's most
famous landmarks, Tower Bridge and the adjacent Tower of London. Despite
all the attendant hype and heritage claptrap, the Tower remains one of
London's most remarkable buildings, site of some of the goriest events in the
nation's history, and somewhere all visitors and Londoners should explore at
least once. Sitting beside the river, at the eastern edge of the old city walls,
the Tower is chiefly famous as a place of imprisonment and death, yet it's
also been used as a royal residence, armoury, mint, menagerie, observatory
and - a function it still serves - a safe-deposit box for the Crown Jewels. And,
finally, it's easy to forget that the Tower is, above all, the most perfectly
preserved (and restored) medieval fortress in the country.
