London, England - Tower of London Architecture - August 2024

I've got a ton of photos of the Tower of London. It was one of A's most requested things to do when we were in London, and I was excited to get photos particularly of the ravens (if I could get close enough) and in St. John's Chapel. Both of those were pretty well successes, and photos of each will come in the next couple of posts.

This is more of just a post covering the overall architecture and buildings of the Tower. Not for everyone, but still pretty fascinating. It's not encompassing of all of my photos by a long ways, but is a small sampling. Anyway, on with Part 1.

I liked the angle of this photo. I think most people figured out that Tower Bridge was named after the Tower of London, but you don't really often see just how close they are. You could easily throw a rock from that tower to the bridge.

This wall at left is the London Wall, a piece of what's left. I have ancestors who have papers that allow them to come in and out of the wall to work in London as tailors. This is one of the few pieces that is left, with it originally built in AD 200 and restored in the 800s.

A and I walked through some of the walls

This is the aptly-named White Tower. It was completed around 1100. Little-known fact - it's been taking tourists' money to see the Line of Kings since 1652, making it the oldest tourist attraction in the world. The Royal Armouries has a ton of King Henry VIII's armor in progressively larger sizes. Guy Fawkes was most likely interrogated in the basement.

A is walking over to the Traitor's Gate - the people at right are looking at it, but I didn't catch it in frame.

A Beefeater (officially a Yeoman Warder) guarding the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula. This is the parish church for the Tower and, perhaps more notably for history buffs, the burial place of Henry VII's Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. It's nice he had a place to stick them after executing them just outside on Tower Green.

It really is a lovely, utilitarian little church.

While the Beefeaters are ceremonial, there are also active foot Royal Guards standing guard outside of the exhibit for the Crown Jewels.

I think really only little kids and me are fascinated this much by the Royal Guards.

Here's a Beefeater (Yeoman Warder) up close. Each Yeoman Warder is a semi-retired guard who served with distinction. This one appears to be telling a tall fish tale after his presentation outside of the Tower Green. (That means that, just behind him, lies the green where beheadings took place, and guards live in the brick buildings beyond that.)

We got to go inside of the Bloody Tower. There is a rack and some other items in an exhibit about torture, as this is where Sir Walter Raleigh was shackled.

More to come in the next post.