Wednesday October 29 2014
Where to begin ? – To be honest we were overwhelmed, though
both of us have been here before, so decided to divide writing the account into
internal and external aspects of our visit. This meant we were both juggling
cameras, books, pens and of course by the end an umbrella. Additionally we had chosen one of the
half-term weeks in order to include the wonderful display of poppies –
otherwise known as Blood Swept Lands and
Seas of Red which by now (last one to go in on 11/11/2014) fill the moat.
The Tower, as we Londoners tend to call it, is undoubtedly a
fortification built on an earlier Roman citadel and later chosen as the site
upon which William the Conqueror chose to broadcast his conquest – The White
Tower is almost square and bold and solid. It dominates the whole complex and
for many years must have been visible for miles. The stone almost certainly came from Normandy, though the masons would have been more home grown. Before the later towers were built this keep
too was used as a prison; with walls 3-4 metres thick it was quite secure. The
queue to visit it was significant so we left it for another day….and Jo will be
telling you about what there is to see inside – the Armouries as it happens. But
by criss-crossing the site we were able to admire it from all sides.
Early Kings needed both a place to live and somewhere which
could be guarded and fortified hence the moat, which stayed filled until 1843,
by which time it must have been quite smelly. Of course there are and were
several (draw) bridges which gave access to the Tower, but some two hundred
years after William’s initial building the curtain wall and the intervening
little towers (now used as separate exhibition spaces) were added allowing the
guarding soldiers to patrol the circumference.
Jo and I are particularly fond of wall walks (‘I’m the King
of the Castle’ springs to mind) and while this one was less engaging than many
because of the crowds, what it lacks in intimacy it more than makes up for in
the scenery. With the exception of the ghastly Gouoman (sp?) Hotel you have iconic London on all sides – today
both the Gherkin and Shard were cloud shrouded but Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast
and the Thames were clearly visible – you can see river and air traffic and
today hordes of people peering into the moat. We had assumed the Tower must be
one of London’s most visited tourist sites but no – it ranks at Number 8
according to this.
Because the Tower has been added to over the years, because
it was home (or palace) to many of the early monarchs but also some of them and
their leading courtiers being imprisoned or even beheaded here it also offers a
potted history of England. My knowledge
of monarchs before Richard III is pretty sketchy and based on a mixture of
Shakespeare, Marlowe and ‘1066 and All That’ so not entirely reliable, For
anyone who likes things in order here is the classic school child’s way of
remembering the Kings and Queens:
Willie, Willie,
Harry, Steve,
Harry, Dick,
John, Harry three;
One, two, three
Neds, Richard two
Harrys four,
five, six... then who?
Edwards four,
five, Dick the bad,
Harrys twain and
Ned the Lad;
Mary, Bessie,
James the Vain,
Charlie, Charlie,
James again...
William and Mary,
Anna Gloria,
Four Georges,
William and Victoria;
Edward seven next,
and then
George the fifth
in 1910;
Ned the eighth
soon abdicated
Then George the
sixth was coronated;
After which
Elizabeth
And that's the
end until her death.
After Henry VIII the links with the Tower became more
symbolic than actually taking up residence and the buildings remained as
garrison symbol and strangely a menagerie. Close to Traitors Gate there is a
reminder that they used to let the polar bear into the Thames to fish – on a
lead apparently!
Different early kings added different bits so gradually the
original White Tower was surrounded on four sides by thick wall dotted with
intervening towers or turrets of different sizes, not all of which are open to
the public. My 1981 Guide lists twenty,
but think of them more as bus shelters on a round walking trip… Some of course
are bigger and were lived in, some were store-rooms and some prisons. Most
of the main fortifications were complete by the time of Richard III and the
buildings after that were more for comfort and convenience so some quite large
houses and eventually in the 17th -19th centuries some barracks,
hospital block and a Museum
for the Royal Fusiliers, recently renovated.
In spite of all this building within the walls there is
still room for some green spaces and of course the capacity to absorb the
visiting crowds. The greens are close to the chapel, several times rebuilt, and
would originally have been burial grounds, but are now more famous as the site
of executions held in ‘private’. The
list of ‘famous’ prisoners is long though only a few were actually executed
here – let’s just say being a 2nd/5th
wife to Henry VIII or close relation is a clue..
Always a place for dealing with traitors those shot (up against the wall at the foot of the
Martin Tower) during World WAR II are also remembered , with modern guns in
among the steel sculptures of patrolling guards. 
More cossetted than the prisoners the Ravens (wings clipped
to stop them from flying off, when, according to legend the Tower will fall)
strut their stuff seemingly unphased by the crowds.
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