Tower of London

Tower of London, historic fortress in the city of London, on the north bank of the River Thames. The entire building covers 7.5 hectares (18 acres).

The original tower, known as the White Tower, was built around 1078 by William I, out of Caen limestone and Kentish ragstone. Its name derives from the fact that in 1240 Henry III had the building whitewashed. Christopher Wren enlarged the Norman windows in the 17th century, but the interior has retained much of its original Norman character. The White Tower is surrounded by two lines of fortifications, the inner of which is called the Ballium Wall and has twelve towers. These include the Bloody Tower, which derives from the tradition that the boy king Edward V and his brother Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, were murdered here in 1483. (Curiously enough, the skeletons of two children were discovered under the stairs leading to St John's Chapel in 1674.) The Wakefield Tower in the south wall is where Henry VI was found murdered in 1471. The Devereux Tower is named after its most famous prisoner Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who was held there before his execution for treason in 1601. It is also where George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was supposedly drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine in 1478. The outer curtain wall has six towers and two gateways, and was surrounded by a moat fed by the Thames, but this has been dry since 1843.

The tower was used as a royal residence from the 13th century until Elizabethan times, when it became a prison for enemies of the Crown. Many of them were executed here, such as Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and the 17-year-old Lady Jane Grey. The Tower is now predominately a museum, housing the Crown Jewels, and a magnificent collection of arms and armour. The Yeomen of the Guard, also known as Beafeaters, are another popular feature and still wear colourful uniforms of the Tudor period. Formerly there was a menagerie here too, but when a lion attacked some soldiers here in 1835, the animals were moved to the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. The Tower complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.