London Guide
The City
The Tower of London
Opening time: March– Oct Mon & Sun 10am–5.30pm, Tues– Sat 9am–5.30pm; Nov– Feb closes 4.30pm
Price: £16.50
Telephone: 0844/482 7777
Website: hrp.org.uk
The Tower of London overlooks the Thames at the eastern boundary of the old city walls. Despite all the hype and heritage claptrap, it 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. Chiefly famous as a place of imprisonment and death, it has variously been used as a royal residence, armoury, mint, menagerie, observatory and – a function it still serves – a safe-deposit box for the Crown Jewels.
It's a good idea to take one of the free guided tours, given every thirty minutes or so by one of the Tower's Beefeaters (aka Yeoman Warders). Visitors today enter the Tower along Water Lane, but in times gone by most prisoners were delivered through Traitors' Gate, on the waterfront. The nearby Bloody Tower, which forms the main entrance to the Inner Ward, is where the 12-year-old Edward V and his 10-year-old brother were accommodated "for their own safety" in 1483 by their uncle, the future Richard III, and later murdered. It's also where Walter Ralegh was imprisoned on three separate occasions, including a thirteen-year stretch
The White Tower, at the centre of the Inner Ward, is the original "Tower", begun in 1076, and now home to displays from the Royal Armouries. Even if you've no interest in military paraphernalia, you should at least pay a visit to the Chapel of St John, a beautiful Norman structure on the second floor that was completed in 1080 – making it the oldest intact church building in London. West of the White Tower is the execution spot on Tower Green where seven highly placed but unlucky individuals were beheaded, among them Anne Boleyn and her cousin Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's second and fifth wives).
The Waterloo Barracks hold the Crown Jewels, perhaps the major reason so many people flock to the Tower. The oldest piece of regalia is the twelfth-century Anointing Spoon. Among the jewels are the three largest cut diamonds in the world, including the legendary Koh-i-Noor, set into the Queen Mother's Crown in 1937.