Tower of London

The Tower of London began as a statement of conquest. William the Conqueror founded it at the end of 1066, and the pale keep that gives the whole fortress its name, the White Tower, went up from 1078 as a deliberately overbearing presence above Saxon London and the river traffic of the Thames. It is one of the largest keeps built anywhere in Christian Europe: roughly 36 by 32 metres at the base, of Kentish ragstone once dressed with Caen stone shipped from Normandy, most of it later replaced with Portland stone. Inside, the Chapel of St John keeps a bare, unadorned look close to its Norman original, and is the best place to sense how the building felt nine centuries ago.

Around the keep, later kings wrapped two concentric rings of walls and a moat. Richard I doubled the enclosure, Henry III added the north and east walls with their towers, and Edward I completed the outer ward in 1285, fixing the plan that survives today. Thirteen towers stud the inner curtain wall, each with a character of its own: Beauchamp Tower, an early example of large-scale brickwork in post-Roman Britain; the Bell Tower with its alarm belfry; the Bloody Tower, named in the sixteenth century after the presumed murder of the Princes in the Tower. The small Tudor chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, rebuilt in 1519, stands inside the inner ward.

The Tower has been a royal palace, armoury, treasury, menagerie, mint, record office and prison, and it still guards the Crown Jewels. Its grim reputation owes much to Tudor propaganda and Victorian novelists: before the twentieth century only seven people were executed inside the walls, while most executions took place on Tower Hill outside. The Yeomen Warders still live and work here, a detachment of the King's Guard joins them for the nightly Ceremony of the Keys, and at least six ravens are kept on the grounds, honouring the old belief that the kingdom will fall if they leave. The fortress is cared for by the charity Historic Royal Palaces and is a World Heritage Site.

Getting there

The Tower stands on the north bank of the Thames at Tower Hill, on the eastern edge of the City of London; Shadwell is about 1.4 km to the east. Tower Hill Underground station (District and Circle lines) is about five minutes' walk away, and Monument, Aldgate and Fenchurch Street are within 10–15 minutes. River boats call at Tower Pier beside the entrance. There is no parking at the Tower itself; the Tower Hill coach and car park is a short walk away. The nearest airport is London City (LCY), about 9 km east.