The Tower of London

June 2010:

Following the completion of our trial work in London, several of us extended our stay in the City so that we could enjoy some of the sights. My particular plan was to spend a couple days with Katherine -- who was spending seven weeks in London as part of a summer internship program sponsored by Elon University. But before meeting up with Katherine (who had classes to attend), I spent a Friday morning at the Tower of London.

I had visited the Tower once before but had not taken advantage of the Beefeater tour -- so that was my goal on this day. It was a beautiful, sunny day when I visited, and that meant that hundreds of other tourists (maybe thousands) were also visiting the Tower, so I found myself in a particularly large Beefeater's tour group. But that was okay. The tour guide was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

The Beefeaters are British naval officers who, after a minimum of 17 years of service, are invited to join this special group of ambassadors and keepers of the Tower. They are highly educated in all things related to the history of the Tower, and they are also very personable and quite funny. Our tour started at one of the front gates and took us all over the grounds -- ending up in the Chapel where the bodies of about 50 persons who were

executed at the Tower (including two of the wives of Henry VIII) have their final resting place.

The Tower of London is poorly named. It's name gives the impression that it is a single structure -- a Tower -- when in fact it is an entire complex of buildings. The Tower of London started out, over a 1000 years ago, as a royal palace, and it has served many functions, including that of royal mint. One of the least of its functions, but its most notorious, was as a prison for individuals (often members of the nobility) accused of high crimes (like treason) against the State.

Not all prisoners kept in the Tower were executed, but for those who were, the most common form of execution was by hanging.

These public hangings took place on "Tower hill" located outside the gates of the complex. A more select few were beheaded, and those executions, including that of Anne Boleyn, took place in the central courtyard of the Tower. Today, there is a low pedestal with a glass pillow sitting on it that marks the spot of these executions.

Also while at the Tower, I enjoyed walking through a temporary exhibit of armour and armaments that was on display in the White Tower, which sits in the middle of the complex. The exhibit included a lot of very old armour as well as a lot of interesting, inter-active exhibits for the young and young-at-heart.

The Tower of London should be on every tourist's "must see" list when visiting London. It's a really cool place.