Ahhh I'm at the Tower of London! I'm sunburned, and my hair is a windblown mess from riding around on the open deck of a double decker bus, but I'm at the Tower of London! How sweet is that?!? Sorry, I have this thing for Normans. And castles. And Norman castles. Good thing I went! The Tower of London is pretty much the most awesome place ever and everyone should visit. It's actually even moderately priced as far as London tourist attractions go.
Here's a shot from outside the outermost perimeter wall. As you can see, they've put scaffolding up on the side of the White Tower, which is the central keep within the complex, because whenever I go someplace to see something awesome, the something awesome has scaffolding up. Exhibit a) York Minster. Exhibit b) Ponte di Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs, Venice). Exhibit c) Hagia Sophia (more on that later). Luckily the scaffolding is only on that one wall so I've got some shots from the other side from within the curtain walls.
And these guys might just be the coolest people ever. This is Dave. He's a Yeoman Warder or "Beefeater." He's also freaking awesome and hilarious. 35 of these guys live at the Tower and theoretically serve as protectors of the Crown Jewels, prison guards (although prisoners haven't been kept here since 1952), and nowadays, as tour guides. Tours with a warder are totally free and totally worth it. They're more story-telling than actual tour, but amusing and as factually accurate as any tour is, plus they get you into the Tower chapel, which is usually closed to visitors. We're currently standing on the bridge over the castle's moat, which was drained way back when, so now it is just a ditch. But apparently they hold concerts and such there sometimes, which sounds pretty much awesome. Anyway, moving on.
Here we are in the gap between the two perimeter walls known as the outer ward. The outer curtain wall was built in the late 1200s by Edward I, enclosing the entire inner curtain wall (which in turn encloses the inner ward). The inner curtain wall was built in the earlier 1200s by Henry III. Both of these constructions were designed to strengthen the fortifications of the castle. At this point you may be wondering about the name, Tower of London. Well, there's actually 20 towers at the Tower of London. "The tower" is the White Tower, which we'll come to later, built by William the Conqueror to intimidate the people of London, who weren't thrilled about the whole conquering thing, and to strengthen his control over the country. The other towers are located along the curtain walls as defensive strongholds.
Ignore the seagulls and check out the raven. There are six ravens kept at the Tower at all times because legend has it that if the ravens leave the Tower, the Tower will fall and the kingdom along with it. So now it is law that at least 6 be on hand to prevent disaster from occurring :) It almost happened in World War II, when only one of the Tower's ravens survived to the end of the war. Considering how close a thing the war was for awhile there, with Britain nearly surrendering, there might be something to that legend. When the war was over and the Tower reopened to the public, they made sure that new ravens had been brought in.
Ta-da! The White Tower is the oldest part of the castle, built by William I after he took over England in 1066. The tower got its name after Henry III had the tower completely whitewashed. The tower and other palatial buildings served as the royal residence until Cromwell's rise to power. The inside is now a sort of armory museum with all kinds of swords and armor and horse things.
Over the centuries, the inside of the Norman keep saw a lot of changes, and much of the original architecture is lost. Except for this room: the chapel.
Pretend those chairs are about a thousand years old and you're looking at something close to what William the Conqueror saw in his chapel. Pretty awesome.
Now of course the White Tower isn't all that's at the Tower of London. Almost a thousand years of history means there's a lot that went on there. Of course, in modern consciousness, the Tower is perhaps best known for its role as a prison & execution site.
This is called the Bloody Tower, so called because it is thought to be where the two young sons of Edward IV were imprisoned (or "cared for," depending on which side of the story you believe) by their uncle, the future King Richard III, whose death finally brought about the end of the Wars of the Roses with the accession of Henry VII, who married Elizabeth of York (go York!) to unite the two bickering families. Anyway, the two boys were held/living here when they mysteriously "disappeared" (or where knocked off and their bones bricked up in a stairwell in the White Tower, again depending on how innocent you want to make Richard's kingship). The skeletons of two children were found under the stairway leading to the chapel in the White Tower pictured above in the 1600s during renovation work and were taken to be the two princes and given a stately burial in Westminster Abbey. The skeletons were examined in the 1930s to try to get a better idea of whether they really were the two princes, and while they do fit within the age range of the two children, it wasn't possible to determine sex of the kids and no further attempts at identification have been made. So maybe it's them, maybe it's not. I tend to lean towards yes, but who knows?
Most of the executions that took place at the Tower actually took place just outside the gates on Tower Hill. If you were one of the fortunate few, you got your head chopped off here, at Tower Green. Only 7 nobles (and 5 of them were women. Of course, 2 were also Henry VIII's wives) were awarded this privilege of a private execution The glass circle above serves as a monument to those who were killed here.
And here is the Waterloo Barracks, one of the newest buildings at the Tower and where they keep the royal jewels. Helloooo, pretties! Unfortunately no photography is allowed inside, but it was really neat to check out. Did you know that a lot of the jewels on the various crowns and scepters and orbs and whatnot used in various state functions are hired for the event and then replaced with fake ones before being returned to their vaults here? The collection of crowns however do include several sweet gems, including two stones (Great Star of Africa & the Lesser Star of Africa) cut from the Cullinan diamond, once the largest flawless diamond in the world until the discovery of the Jubilee diamond, Edward the Confessor's Sapphire (said to have come from a ring dug up from his shrine), and the Ruby of the Black Prince. 99% of the items contained in the Crown Jewels date to after the restoration of the monarchy after Cromwell in 1661. Cromwell sold off crowns and the like or had them melted down so the gold could be sold.
So there you have it. I really enjoyed running around the Tower of London. I think it would be completely awesome to be able to be present for the Ceremony of the Keys, where the Warders lock up the castle for the night, in one of the oldest running ceremonies in the world (it has been going on since the 14th century!). And they take it seriously too! During the air raids over London in WWII, bombs fell near the Warder & his escort, knocking them off their feet. But they got up and proceeded with the ceremony. Then the Warder sent a letter of apology to the King for the delay. The king kindly wrote back that the warder should not be punished, seeing as how the delay was the result of enemy attack. But they allow only a limited number of people to be present each night, so you have to get your name on the list 3 months in advance! So plan early and get your name in!
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