The Tower of London is one of the oldest and most well preserved buildings in the world. Over time, the Tower of London has been used to protect England from its enemies, as well as palace for the royal family. Visiting the Tower of London is a must for any first time London visitor, as well as those who have traveled to London a few times.
The Tower of London has been watched over by yeoman warders since the very beginning of its existence in 1078. The warders take care of the buildings within the Tower of London making sure that all of the buildings are kept safe from intruders as well as watch to ensure that none of the prisoners of the Tower of London were able to escape. Since their inception yeoman warders have been required to take an oath to the Tower of London, and their servitude of the structure and the monarchy. In early years the yeoman warders would have preformed their duties in plain clothes, today the warders have much more stately attire.
Over time the Tower of London has become known for the great number of people that have been executed at the Tower of London. Some of the more famous executions include Anne Boleyn in 1530, which was Henry VIII second wife. She was beheaded and burned because Henry suspected her of committing adultery, and Sir Walter Raleigh an explorer to the Americas who fell out of favor with Elizabeth I. He spent twelve years in the tower to be released for only two short years before finding himself back there again being beheaded in 1618.
The Tower of London has been the setting for a great number of important historical moments in the history of London, and the history of England as a whole. The Tower of London is also where the crown jewels are kept. It is unknown what the actual value of all of the gold, silver, and gemstones in the royal collection. Kings and queens throughout the ages have worn items from the collection. Having just been worn so long ago, and during such key moments in history make the crown jewels priceless.
One of the oldest ceremonies at the Tower of London that still survives today is the ceremony of the keys. The ceremony of the keys is the ceremonial locking up of the tower on London each night. The ceremony has been completed in the exact same way, every single night for almost seven hundred years. Each night just before 10pm the chief warder comes from byward tower carrying the traditional lantern lit with a candle and precedes to a place a bloody tower. An exchange commences; as the doors are locked the chief warder and sentry perform the famous exchange:
"Halt" "Who comes there?" "The Keys" "Who's Keys?" "Queen Elizabeth's Keys" "Pass Queen Elizabeth's Keys - All's well". The Tower of London is a structure filled with history. A visit to the tower can be a great learning experience for young children as well as adults. Each time you visit the tower you can learn something new about the tower, its content, and walk away with a new piece of knowledge about English history.
The Tower of London is open for guests almost every day of the year, with the exception of Christmas day, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and New Years Day. Admission is charged and varies on the age of the guests, and number of people in a group. The hours the towers are open for visits vary depending on the time of the year, so if you aren't familiar with London check before you plan your trip for the hours that the tower is open each day to ensure that you are able to see all that you would like of the towers before they close. They towers are easily assessable through the Tower hill Tube Station, as well as several bus stations.
Copyright 2006 S Wander
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The Tower of London
By Rod Booth
William, Duke of Normandy invaded and defeated the English under King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Realising he must next secure England's most powerful city - London - he did not attack directly but first laid waste to the surrounding countryside. An advance guard went to London to construct a fortress and prepare for his triumphal entry into the city.
After his coronation in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066, the new king withdrew to Barking in Essex, while several strongholds were made ready in the City to safeguard against the fierce population. Historical evidence makes us think that one of William's strongholds was in the south-east corner of the Londinium Roman city walls, on the site where the Tower of London was constructed. These early defences were replaced with a great stone tower (the White Tower) proclaiming the physical power and prowess of the new Norman monarch.
Henry VIII (1509-47) continued the work begun on the royal residential buildings by his predecessors, but on a grander scale. He commissioned a large range of timber-framed lodgings, primarily for the comfort and enjoyment of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, ready for her coronation in 1533, but they were rarely used and from this point on, the Tower ceased to be an established royal residence.
Henry VIII's decision to break with Rome swelled the Tower's population of religious and political prisoners from the 1530s onwards, while the country had to adjust itself to their monarch's new role as the Supreme Head of the new, Protestant, Church of England. Prisoners included Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher of Rochester and two of Henry's wives. All four were executed.
Henry's daughter, Mary, (1553-8) returned the country to Catholicism and her short reign saw many rivals and key Protestant figures imprisoned at the Tower.
As the centuries went by, the tower fell into disrepair. Action was taken under the invigorating leadership of the Duke of Wellington, Constable of the Tower from 1826 to 1852, to restore the tower. The place was cleaned up and the moat, increasingly smelly and sluggish, was drained and converted into a dry ditch by 1845. Work began on a huge new barracks, constructed to accommodate a thousand men - on the site of the Grand Storehouse destroyed by a fire in 1841 - commenced. On 14 June 1845 the Duke laid the foundation stone on the barracks named after his greatest victory - Waterloo.
The Tower's defensive role lessened as time went by, and the last time the Tower exerted its traditional role of asserting the power of the state over the people of London was in response to rallies and disturbances in London in the 1840s supporting Chartist demands for electoral reform. More defences were constructed, including a huge brick and stone bastion that finally succumbed to a Second World War bomb, but the Chartist attack never materialised.
It was also at the beginning of this century that many of the Tower's historic institutions departed. The Royal Mint was the first to move out of the castle in 1812, followed by the Menagerie in the 1830s, which formed the nucleus of today's London Zoo. The Office of Ordnance was next to leave in 1855 and finally, the Record Office relocated in 1858.
The way the Tower looks today is largely thanks to a 19th-century fascination with England's turbulent and sometimes gruesome history. In the 1850s, the architect Anthony Salvin, a leading figure in the Gothic Revival, was commissioned to restore the fortress to a more appropriately 'medieval' style, making it more pleasing to the Victorian eye - and imagination. Salvin first transformed the Beauchamp Tower to make it suitable for the public display of prisoners' graffiti, refacing the exterior walls and replacing windows, doorways and battlements.
Further and later commissions also included restoring the historic Salt Tower (the work was completed 1858) and making many alterations to the Chapel of St John in the ancient White Tower in 1864. Salvin was charged with restoring the Wakefield Tower, in order that it was able to house the Crown Jewels; these remained in the Wakefield Tower until 1967; in addition he built the bridge between the Wakefield Tower and St Thomas's Tower. This he also restored so that the Jewel House Keeper could live there. In the drive to complete the perfect 'medieval' castle, his successor, John Taylor, controversially destroyed important original buildings to create uninterrupted views of the White Tower and to build a new southern inner curtain wall on the site of the old medieval palace.
So today's tower is very much a Victorian version of the Tower, but it still holds a lot of interest - as hsown ny the fact that it attracts over a million visitors each year.
The London Visitor Guide covers London hotels and guets houses, bed and breakfats, boutique hotels and restaurants, as well as places to go and things to do. For a great holiday in London, see The London Visitor Guide
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