A Wander Through History

On Wednesday we spent a day in London visiting the Tower of London. We travelled by river bus up the Thames from Embankment giving us our first glimpse of the tower on a grey London day.

Many of us are familiar with what is to be seen at the tower so I will show you a few memorable snippets of our day. We started with a bit of an overview with an introductory talk from one of the Beefeaters. It was not only informative but also full of tales of blood and gore!

Probably the most impressive sight of our visit was the opportunity to see the Crown Jewels housed in the building in the picture above. The jewels and all the paraphernalia linked to the coronation are truly incredible. They are something not to be missed.

The most poignant part of the whole site is the glass memorial to those members of the Royal family who had the misfortune to be executed here. These include Catherine Howard, Anne Boleyn and the unfortunate '9 days queen' Lady Jane Grey. This memorial consisting of two glass circles and a glass pillow was installed in 2006 with the following poem.

“Gentle visitor pause a while,
Where you stand death cut away the light of many days.
Here, jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life.
May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage,
Under these restless skies.”

A well known view is that of the Traitors Gate through which many prisoners were brought by boat when the the Thames used to be right up to the edge of the tower.

We spent some time in the Chapel of St Peter and Vincula. It has been described as one of the saddest places. Many executed people's bodies were unceremoniously thrown into a mass vault in here during Tudor times. Many have since been buried again. 

There is however a second chapel . The chapel of St John is a simple Norman chapel and is a place of peace and tranquility in the White Tower. Somewhere to reflect on the extraordinary history of this palce where so many atrocities were carried out.