Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Begun as a simple watchtower, built by William the Conqueror to keep an eye on the
City, the Tower had evolved into a palace-fortress by 1100. The inner curtain wall
and towers were built under Henry III, while the outer fortifications, and an even
wider moat, were added by Edward I, on his return from the Crusades, which means
that most of what's visible today was already in place by 1307, the year of Edward's
death. The Tower has been besieged on a number of occasions - firstly, in 1191,
when the unpopular Bishop Longchamp held out against Richard I's brother, John,
but caved in after only three days - but sacked only once, during the 1381 Peasants'
Revolt, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury, among others, was
dragged out and lynched.
he Tower's first prisoner , the Bishop of Durham, arrived in 1101, imprisoned by
Henry I, and promptly escaped from the window of his cell by a rope, having got the
guards drunk. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr, heir to the Welsh throne, attempted a
similar feat from the White Tower in 1244, with less success: “his head and neck
were crushed between his shoulders…a most horrid spectacle.” - the window he used
was subsequently bricked up and can still be seen on the south side of the Tower.
Incidentally, the most famous escapee from the Tower was the Jacobite 5th Earl of
Nithsdale, who, the night before his execution in 1716, managed to get past the guards
dressed as his wife's maid (despite his red beard), and lived in poverty and happiness for
almost thirty years in exile in Rome.
Following the Restoration in 1660, the general public were admitted to the Tower
for the first time to view the coronation regalia and the impressive displays of arms
and armour - by the end of Victoria's reign, there were half a million visitors to the
fortress each year. Nevertheless, during both of the world wars, the Tower was still
used to hold prisoners: Roger Casement , the Irish nationalist, was held here briefly
before his trial and hanging in 1916, and the last VIP inmate was Rudolf Hess ,
Hitler's deputy, who flew secretly into Britain to try to sue for peace in May 1941
and was held in the tower for a few days. The last execution took place on August
14, 1941, when Josef Jakobs, a German spy who (like Hess) had broken his ankle
while parachuting into Britain, was given the privilege of being seated before the
firing squad.
12
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Opening hours March-Oct Mon & Sun 10am-5.30pm,
Tues-Sat 9am-5.30pm; Nov-Feb closes 4.30pm.
Admission £22. To avoid queuing (and save some money),
buy your ticket online.
Contact details T 020 3166 6000, W hrp.org.uk.
Tube Tower Hill.
Eating There's a spacious and fairly decent café in the New
Armouries building, and plenty of benches on which to
picnic. Alternatively, you can obtain a re-entry pass and
have lunch outside the Tower.
Tours You can explore the Tower complex independently,
or with an audioguide (£4), but it's a good idea to get your
bearings by joining up with one of the free, entertaining
hour-long guided tours, given at regular intervals by one of
the Tower's Beefeaters - it's also the easiest way to visit the
Chapel of St Peter-ad-Vincula.
BEEFEATERS
Formed in 1485 by Henry VII as a personal bodyguard, The Tower's forty or so Beefeaters are
o cially known as Yeoman Warders - the nickname “Beefeaters” was coined in the
seventeenth century, when it was a term of abuse for a well-fed domestic servant. These
self-assured, eminently photogenic guards are best known for their scarlet-and-gold Tudor
costumes, but unless it's a special occasion you're more likely to see them in dark-blue Victorian
“undress”. The Beefeaters have all done at least 22 years' military service, reached at least the rank
of sergeant major and are aged between 40 and 55 on appointment. The first-ever woman
Beefeater was appointed in 2007; two years on, two of her male colleagues were dismissed for
harassing her. All the Beefeaters live in the Tower and one of their many duties is to give
theatrically irreverent guided tours to the tourists, which many of them clearly relish.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search