Tower of London

Where: London, England

When: June 16, 2012

With: Elyse and Kelly

Elyse was in town for a business trip and as she's never been a tourist in London before, I thought the Tower of London would be the ideal place to go. 

The original tower was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. Over the years, additional castle walls and towers were added, but basically, it's looked the same since the 13th century. While it originally served as a palace, it is more famously known for its time as a prison and the location of several famous English executions.

The original structure, or the White Tower, is the original palace built by William the Conqueror. 

 

Inside the White Tower are tons of suits of armor from many of the kings of England. There is one room where the armor is set up with wooden horses, one for each king. Interestingly, this has been set up as a formal tourist attraction since the 1800s. 

Other items in the tower are a chopping block used in executions, and a dragon made out of weapons. A bit of a contrast. 

Other things to see while in the Tower of London - the Crown Jewels! They are housed in the walls of this building. The room that holds them has doors that are at least a foot thick with giant bolts bigger than your head (understandably so). Not understandable is that after you pass through all the millions of dollars of jewels and sceptres and crowns, there's a bucket asking you to make a donation to the preservation of the site. Yeah, right, like you need it.

Another building in the tower houses the Regimental Museum. You can see relics of all the recent wars fought by the British, as well as the various medals won by some of Britain's most celebrated heroes. 

You can also walk around the outer walls of the tower, giving you some great views of Tower Bridge.

Most people think that all executions were carried out in the Tower of London. But actually, only 112 executions happened within the walls of the tower (still a lot, but compared to the thousands and thousands of people that have been executed in British history, it's small beans). Most people set for execution were brought up to Tower Hill, just outside the Tower. Even weirder is that only 7 executions had been performed in the Tower BEFORE the 20th century, so most happened in the last 100 years. (Many were war criminals captured during World War II).

This memorial was created to remember those seven that died within the walls of the tower, including Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Katherine Howard.

When you come into the tower, you have the opportunity to take a free tour with a "yeoman warder", or "beefeater". Historically, their main job would have been to tend to the prisoners of the tower and protect the crown jewels. Now, they mainly act as tour guides. They are absolute naturals at their new role, most of them really funny, yet to qualify for the job, you still must be one of the nation's most decorated military servicemen (so don't mess with them). They live on the grounds of the castle in these little houses. It's funny to peep in the windows of these old, historic buildings to see flowery curtains and wash hanging on lines.

The ravens at the Tower are as important as the jewels. Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the Tower and the British monarchy will fall. Therefore, their feathers are cut in such a way that they can't fly in a straight line for any long distance. Apparently, in the 1600s, when the Royal Observatory was still located at the Tower, the ravens kept getting in the way of the scientists' work. Instead of moving the ravens, King Charles II had the observatory moved (to Greenwich!)

Definitely one of my favorite tourist attractions in London. A must do while there.