The Tower Evolves into a Landmark
In the twenty-first century, buildings with a specific historic interest are often turned into museums in order to survive, the flow of visitors paying for the upkeep and preservation of a structure which might otherwise be allowed to collapse or be wholly changed. The Tower of London began to open parts of itself up to the public during the seventeenth century when its artillery role was declining, and a whole floor of the Great Storehouse was altered in the eighteenth century to display the 'Small Armoury'. Small is something of a misnomer: the collection included many, many thousands of weapons and numerous specially commissioned displays.A specialist armouries museum was built against the White Tower in 1825 and a display house for the Crown Jewels in 1840-41. Between these additions a simpler, but more effective, method of attracting visitors was effected: admission was cut by two-thirds, from 3 shillings to 1, in 1838; the number through the gates went up from 10,500 to 80,000 a year. The moat was drained – fans of morbid facts will want to know human bones were found - and partly filled between 1843-45, while the military past of the increasingly tourist orientated Tower was underlined in 1845 when a huge barracks block was built in the space left by the recently incinerated Grand Storehouse. Named the Waterloo Barracks, the foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Wellington to commemorate 'his' famous victory over Napoleon.
'Restoration'
Anthony Salvin, a Victorian architect, was appointed in 1851 to 'restore' the Beauchamp Tower to a pseudo-medieval form so it could be opened to the public. He repaired doors and windows, removed modern additions, recreated the battlements and smartened up the outside façade. He evidently impressed his employers and remained at the Tower until 1870, steadily repeating his ideas on ever more buildings freed up by the decline of military stores. He also built a pump house, used today as the Tower shop.Following Salvin's departure John Taylor took over the restoration. He was energetic, determined and now considered a disaster, for he 'restored' buildings by re-creating them as he thought they should look. Historically significant areas were destroyed or radically and pointlessly altered simply to make the Tower look 'medieval', erasing the layers of growth and development found across the site. Fortunately for later generations, the questions of preservation and restoration were soon being debated and recent changes have, with some exceptions, been far more sympathetic to the building. The last construction of the nineteenth century was the 'Main Guard', a new four storey Guardroom.
World War 2
In the twentieth century two elements of the Tower's past returned: prisoners and bombardment. During both World Wars captives were kept at the Tower – the most famous being Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess – while spies were also executed there; the last execution so far in the Tower's history was Joseph Jakobs on Auguest 14th 1941. Aerial bombing damaged the castle during the Second World War, destroying the 'new' Main Guard.Before, between and after the wars restoration work continued, as did the rise of tourist numbers, who now total over two million every year. As well as the fabric of the castle – walls, towers, windows – and the bloody highlights of its history – the place of execution, traitor's gate – the tower is now famed for three things: The Beefeaters, the Ravens and the Crown Jewels.
