The History Of The Tower of London

If you watch a British entertainer on their home soil make a joke about the Royal Family, you'll probably see them follow it up with a quip like "oh, they’ll take me to the Tower!" They don't need to say which tower. Everyone growing up in the mainstreams of British culture hears about 'The Tower', a building as famous and central to the national myths of England as the White House is to the United States.

Built on the north bank of the River Thames in London and once a home of royalty, a jail for prisoners, a site for executions and a storehouse for an army, the Tower of London now contains the Crown Jewels, guardians called 'Beefeaters' and legend securing ravens. Don't be confused by the name: the 'Tower of London' is actually a huge castle-complex formed by centuries of addition and alteration. Described simply, the nine hundred-year-old White Tower forms a core surrounded, in concentric squares, by two sets of powerful walls. Studded with towers and bastions, these walls enclose two inner areas called 'wards' that are full of smaller buildings.

This is the story of its origins, creation and the near continual development which has kept it at the center of an, albeit changing, national focus for nearly a millenia, a rich and bloody history that easily attracts over two million visitors every year.

Index

1. Origins
2. William's Stronghold
3. The Royal Castle
4. From Royalty to Artillery
5. The National Treasure

Profile: The Ravens
The Beefeaters / Yeoman Warders