The Tower Of London Video Guide - England Best Places - Travel & Discover

The Tower of London is a landmark in central London, just outside the city of London. Today it is one of the world's major tourist attractions and a World Heritage Site, attracting over 2 million visitors a year from all over the world. The imposing walled building of the Tower of London is a typical example of the feudal fortresses so numerous in England in the time of the Normans. The Tower, once the residence of English monarchs, is one of the oldest and most interesting buildings in London. Construction on the Tower began in the Middle Ages, over 900 years ago. On Christmas Day 1066, following his victory at Hastings, William the Conqueror was crowned king at Westminster Abbey. He immediately set about fortifying London, the new royal capital. To command the city on its seaward and most vulnerable side, he quickly had an earth and timber keep built on top of an artificial mound in the southeast corner of the ancient Roman walls. A ditch and a palisade protected the yard on the northwest side. Ten years later, having gained full control of England, William replaced these traditional defences with a grand edifice in stone, a sort of palace fortress which was immediately named the Tower of London. Built during the 1080s and modified over the centuries, the complex of fortifications, courtyards and buildings extends over 7 hectares. Successive monarchs added to the fortifications over the following centuries. As a power base in peacetime and refuge in times of crisis, the Tower's fortifications were updated and expanded by England's medieval kings. Near the Thames stands the Devlin Tower. The purpose of the Devlin Tower changed according to the requirements of the era. In general terms, the towers were built as accommodations, including prisons, and as gateways protecting the Tower of London concentric castle complex. The cradle tower was built between 1348 and 1355, for Edward III has his private water gate into the castle. He used it when he arrived by boat. It is richly decorated with ribbed vaults supported by carvings of crowns and animals. The Traitor's Gate was an infamous water gate entrance to the Tower of London. It was designed by the medieval master architect James of St. George on the orders of King Edward I between 1275 and 1279 as part of St. Thomas's Tower. The water gate under St. Thomas's Tower has been known for over 400 years as the Traitor's Gate because of the number of prisoners accused of treason who passed through it. The journey of these prisoners was made by barge along the River Thames. Often their journey would take them past London Bridge where the heads of recently executed traitors were displayed on the roof of the stone gatehouse. The heads were placed on spikes attached to poles and displayed on the bridge. Royal bedrooms helped tell the story of court bedroom ceremony and politics, as well as of sex and sleeping. The medieval palace at the Tower of London contained fabulous interiors used by medieval kings and queens during their frequent but short visits to their most important fortress. King Edward I's financial accounts record a payment of 11 shillings and a penny for timber, boards and sawn panels for a bed for the Lord King and for transporting it through England. The little shanty off the bedchamber is one of the most peaceful and evocative spaces in the whole of the Tower of London. A small chapel stood at the center of the tower near the medieval palace and its ceremonial apartments. Originally it might have been brightly painted. The most famous killings at the Tower of London were those that took place in the Bloody Tower, site of one of the most infamous unsolved murders in history, which gave the Bloody Tower its nickname. The two young princes Edward V and his brother Richard disappeared from the tower in 1483 and were thought to have been murdered by their uncle Richard III. At the heart of this defensive stronghold, which affords a comprehensive review of medieval and post-medieval construction techniques, the White Tower, so named because of its whitewashed walls, both exemplifies Norman architecture at the time and is unique for the ambitiousness of its design. It is undeniably the most significant element of the ensemble. Construction was begun under William the Conqueror in 1078 and the structure, with its distinctive four turrets, was enclosed with a curtain wall by Richard the Lionheart 100 years later. The White Tower, an impressive block measuring 36 meters by 33 meters on the ground, rises to more than 27 meters above the mound. No expense was spared in constructing this monument, which symbolized the power of the new ruler. The massive walls, which measure 4.6 meters at the base, were made of Kentish limestone and white ashlar of canned stone, laid at the corners and around the doors, windows and arrow slits. In 2010, the Tower of London's iconic White Tower hosted an exhibition of Tudor, Stuart and Hanoverian and Windsor arms and armor to mark the 350th anniversary of King Charles II's restoration. The Armouries is one of the ancient institutions of the Tower of London. Its origins may be traced back to the working armoury of the medieval kings of England. The first recorded paying visitor to the Armouries was in 1545, when a visiting foreign dignitary viewed the personal armoury of Henry VIII in the White Tower. In 2009, the Tower of London, in partnership with the Royal Armouries, hosted a spectacular exhibition of Henry VIII's personal arms, armour, weapons and military equipment to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his ascension to the English throne. The total Royal Armouries collection consists of some 70,000 examples of arms, armour and artillery dating from antiquity to the present day. From around the year 1100, any king living in the White Tower used this room, the Chapel of Saint John the Evangelist, as his private chapel. Every royal palace needs a garden. Any king or queen will want a private outdoor space for walking and relaxation, and occasionally for impressing their guests and showing off their court's inventiveness. Royal gardens have been planted alongside palaces for centuries and tend to be at the forefront of changing fashion. And so too at the medieval Tower of London, Henry III planted gardens, a vineyard and an orchard of Callaloo pears in the 13th century. The Tower of London assumed its form as a concentric castle with excessive lines of fortification only after several rains. Here, in the three-storey rectangular keep, the topmost floor was divided into two. 28 metres in height, it stands in the centre of an inner bailey, surrounded by a wall with 13 towers, which is, in its turn, enclosed by an outer wall, with eight towers and an encircling moat. The Lanthorn Tower, part of the original Norman plan, is the second largest tower. The Lanthorn Tower was named for the lantern which was placed in the small turret on top of the tower at night, as a guide for ships on the Thames. The Jewel House is both a building and an institution. Until 1782, it was called the Department of the Jewel Office, under the Master of the Jewel Office, who was generally a senior politician. The 1967 Jewel House was built in the west wing of the Waterloo Barracks. It contains a combined strongroom display area in the basement, extending out into the broadwalk parade ground in front of the barracks, along with an upper floor displaying plate. The outside fortifications consist of legs and brass mounts. The brass mount is located on the northeast corner of the Tower of London. The mount got its name from the enormous brass cannons that were handled at the tower during the 17th century. The last fortification of the outer ward is a byword tower. It is a principal entrance to the exterior line of fortifications. It consists of a strong tower flanked with bastions, and the gateway was originally defended by gates and portcullis. On each side of the gateway, the roof is groined and the tower receives light through narrow embrasures. Legs mount serves as a protection on the northwest corner of the Tower of London. The mount got its name from George Legg, the 17th century British naval commander who was imprisoned in the tower, where he died in 1691 without having been tried. Legg's mount is a semi-circular structure at the end of the wall. Part of the Jewel House, where the crown jewels of Britain are kept, can be seen in the far right background. The Beauchamp Tower was built as part of the inner defensive wall by Henry III and Edward I around the White Tower. It has been used on and off throughout its history to house prisoners. Its large size and close location to the lieutenant's lodgings, now the Queen's House, made the Beauchamp Tower ideal for housing the most important prisoners. Most of the graffiti was carved between the 16th and 17th centuries, during a period of religious and political upheaval, when the Tower of London became the country's foremost prison of state. Buildings of inconsistent architectural value surround the Tower of London, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. Alongside certain remarkable and historically significant elements, such as the Tower Bridge, outsized buildings have increasingly been built in the dock area. London's Tower Bridge is one of the most recognizable bridges in the world. Its Victorian Gothic style stems from a law that forced the designers to create a structure that would be in harmony with the nearby tower.