"The night before her execution in 1536, Anne Boleyn told her jailer that the executioner was 'very good, and I have a little neck.' She put her hands around it and laughed. The next morning, a French swordsman — specially imported — took her head with a single stroke on Tower Green."
About
The Tower of London is not one tower but twenty-one, and it has been a palace, a prison, a zoo, a mint, an armoury, and a place of execution — sometimes several of these on the same afternoon. William the Conqueror built the White Tower in 1078 to terrify London into submission, and nearly a thousand years later, it still works. The building is so massive, so blunt in its Norman geometry, that it makes the glass towers of the City behind it look fragile.
The Crown Jewels sit in the basement vault, moving past you on a conveyor belt — the Imperial State Crown with its 2,868 diamonds, the Sovereign's Orb, the Koh-i-Noor. Upstairs in the White Tower, the Line of Kings displays royal armour dating to Henry VIII. But the Tower's real power is in its ghosts: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were beheaded on Tower Green. The Princes in the Tower — Edward V and his brother Richard — vanished within these walls in 1483 and were never seen again. Sir Walter Raleigh spent thirteen years imprisoned here, writing his History of the World.
The Yeoman Warders — Beefeaters — have guarded the Tower since 1485, and their tours are the best free theatre in London: dark humour, impeccable timing, and stories that make you forget you're standing where people were tortured. The ravens still patrol the Green; legend says that if they ever leave, the kingdom will fall. The Ravenmaster clips their flight feathers, just in case. Visit in the late afternoon when the tour groups thin — the Tower at dusk, with the Thames turning gold behind it, is medieval London at its most real.
Videos
Loading videos...
Getting There
Terrain & Accessibility
The grounds are largely accessible but surfaces are cobbled in places. The White Tower has stairs with no lift. Crown Jewels exhibition is fully accessible. Wheelchairs available to borrow. Companion carers free.
Visitor Reviews
Loading reviews...
