Tower of London Day!

This morning, I took my time getting ready for the day. It was nice to get up late and be a little lazy. At 1 Mallory, Ben and I headed out to conquer the Tower of London. We hopped on the tube (we're starting to become pros) and rode a ways to Tower Hill station. We knew it was the right stop but weren't sure where we would exit the station exactly in relation to the Tower. Luckily, as we headed up the stairs and out of the station, we were presented with an absolutely breathtaking view.

As we headed to go in, we saw the London Wall. It was built in 200 AD and used to be London's city wall. I am going to bet that it is the oldest wall I have ever seen. It's odd to think that something as simple as a wall could be so iconic and important. But, I took a picture of it so that must say something.

I feel like it would be beneficial to throw in a little history lesson just so you all know what I'm talking about. The Tower of London isn't just one tower. It's a cluster of individual towers that are surrounded by a giant wall (that used to be surrounded by a moat). It is now one of the Historic Royal Palaces. If my understanding is correct, it was originally meant to be a royal residence but was used as a prison as well as several other things. We learned about many different expansions and changes to the Tower so keeping it all straight has gotten a little difficult for me.

Me outside of the Tower of London.

We walked around the outside of the Tower for a bit, then bought our tickets and headed in. The next tour wasn't going to start for a while and we debated jumping in with a tour that had already started but, after the first stop decided to wander by ourselves instead. The first place we went in was the "Torture at the Tower" exhibit. There were replicas of methods of torture and it was interesting but also disturbing. I was surprised to find out that torture was fairly rare at the Tower. It still happened but considering it's long history it was not common. 

Another picture of me in front of Tower Bridge. (From the other side of the Thames)

Our next stop was the White Tower. On our way in we stopped to talk with one of the guards (Yeoman Warders, or Beefeaters) about the Ravens. There are 8 ravens that live at the Tower. We saw a few walking around and a few in cages as we walked toward the White Tower. He told us that there is a legend that if the there are not 6 ravens at the Tower, the kingdom will fall. So there are always at least 6 ravens at the Tower and a few on reserve if they are needed. All of the ravens have their wings clipped so they are not able to fly away. I kept my distance, because of my relationship with birds so far on this trip.

The White Tower was built in 1078. It was used as a royal residency, a prison, the royal mint and treasury, and a fortress. Now it houses exhibits from the Royal Armoury. We were able to see many different kinds of weapons and armour worn by famous kings. What was really interesting was in each of the rooms there was an explanation of what that room was used for in history. Rooms were used as a residence (if it had a fireplace) and then 100 years later it could be used as storage or a prison.

Me standing on the side of White Tower.

I came across a fireplace in one of the last rooms we went in. It was just a simple hole in the wall and I didn't really think anything of it. Then, I noticed it had a plaque. From reading the plaque, I learned that it was one of the first wall fireplaces in England. I just thought that was an odd thing to commemorate but, it was pretty cool.

Next, we headed to see the Crown Jewels. They were amazing. We walked through the entrance  and Mallory and I were giddy with excitement. We skipped a lot of the introductory information and headed straight for what we came for. We stopped to see a couple displays, such as the gown worn by the Queen on her coronation in 1953. We then stepped on to a moving sidewalk that just carried us past the display of crowns. We were not allowed to take pictures so I have included a picture borrowed from the Historic Royal Palaces website. And let me say, the picture doesn't do it justice. This was the last crown we saw. It is the Imperial State Crown and is worn by the Queen at each State Opening of Parliament. It's hard to put in to words how insane it was to see everything. It seems surreal.

We were just about ready to leave when we changed our minds and went to look for the Graffiti at the Tower that we had heard a lot about. We were told that in the tower where many prisoners were kept, you could still see where they had carved their names into the walls. On our search we came across the spot where Anne Boleyn was executed (She is buried at the building at the very top of the picture below). Only a few people were actually executed at the Tower. Those who were, were executed on Tower Green. There is a very nice memorial for them on the green in the place where they would have died.

We then entered Beauchamp Tower to see the graffiti. I wasn't expecting to be as moved by it as I was. It's hard to explain what I felt exactly but the whole tower was overwhelming. I think that made me connect with the actual people who lived that long ago. It was so powerful to be able to touch one of the carvings that wasn't fully covered by glass. I took a ton of pictures of the graffiti, so narrowing it down is going to be a bit difficult.

In the middle is written "Lawrens" but it reminded me of the font used for Lawrence.

This was on a slanted ceiling.

Thomas Baldwin
"As virtue maketh life,
so sin cawseth death."

The last place we stopped was Bloody Tower. It's called Bloody Tower because that is where the "Princes in the Tower" were murdered in 1483. The two boys were Edward V and Richard, the sons of King Edward IV. They were 12 and 9 when their father died. They were left in the care of their uncle, Richard III, in order to prepare Edward for becoming king. However, the boys disappeared and Richard took the throne for himself. Although it is assumed that they princes were murdered, there is no real proof and several suspects. In 1674, a wooden box with two skeletons was dug up from under the staircase that leads to the chapel in the White Tower. It was believed that these are the missing princes but there are also many other possibilities. These skeletons are now at Westminster Abbey. It is believed that the princes lived in Bloody Tower after their father died and were killed there. 

It's hard to explain that the towers were prisons because it's not really what I picture a prison to be like. The towers seem to be just living space, not a cell with bars. This is because a lot of prisoners could have visitors and had a rather large amount of freedom. There was one exhibit in the Bloody Tower that showed a writing desk where Sir Walter Raleigh wrote the first volume of The Historie of the World while he was imprisoned. 

After Bloody Tower, we headed back to the tube. Our train showed up right away so we hopped on. We sat there in the station for several minutes when we started to get a little antsy. We decided to jump off when the next train got there and take a different train home (same route, just a different train). When we got back to Gloucester we stopped to get some food and went back to Metrogate. Mallory and I started writing our blogs and watching Netflix. I am taking entirely too long writing posts each night. I do research about the stories and facts I want to tell you all so it takes much longer than it should. But, I also want to know more about the things I learn everyday so I benefit from it also. What I guess I'm trying to say is, you should all be very grateful for these long posts because I put a lot of effort in them and all of my facts are straight. ;)

JessLynn