On the way back to the hotel after visiting the Benjamin Franklin House, I stopped in at a grocers and bought a few items for dinner. We were supposed to meet at 8:15pm at the Starbucks across the road from the Tower of London. At 7:45pm, I took a cab from the taxi stand outside of the Charing Cross Railway Station.
The tour actually began at 8:30pm. We had fourteen people in the group. Our guide held the rank of Yeoman Clerk, which is a notch higher than a Yeoman Warder, but below a Yeoman Gaoler or the Chief Yeoman Warder. Yeoman Warders (nicknamed “Beefeaters”) are required to have at least 22 years of service in the British Armed Services; must have reached the level of Chief Warrant Officer or equivalent; and hold a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. There are female Warders as well as male among the 35 currently serving.
Each Yeoman Warder lives at the Tower along with their family. They act as historians and guides, as well as ceremonial guards and guardians of the Tower and the Crown Jewels. They were founded as part of the Royal Bodyguard in 1485 by Henry VII.
The Tower of London is officially His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London and was founded towards the end of 1066. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was initially a resented symbol of oppression inflicted upon London by the new Norman ruling class. The castle was also a prison from 1100 (Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham) until 1952 (the Kray twins), although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence.
As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. The Tower has also served as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England.
The tour began outside of the Tower. We walked to the river where we listened to the early history of the Tower. We also watched the Tower Bridge raise itself to allow a ship to pass through.
A couple days before VE Day in May of 2025 a special installation of poppies had been completed at the Tower to remain until Armistice Day in November of that year. It was called “The Tower Remembers” and consisted of nearly 30,000 ceramic poppies to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
We went to look at what later became known as Traitors Gate (built by Edward I as his water gate in the 1270s) so we could see what the poppies looked like there before we entered the Tower precincts. The current wharf did not exist then, so Saint Thomas’ Tower (just above the gate) looked out directly onto the Thames. This tower contained a large hall (for dining and entertaining) and a bedchamber.
Then we entered through the Court Gate in the Byward Tower. The Byward Tower was built by Edward I’s father, Henry III, earlier in the 1200s and reinforced in 1381 under Richard II following the Peasants Revolt. This was where Anne Boleyn had entered, first to wed Henry VIII (1533) and later to be executed (1536). The fourteen of us were the only visitors in the Tower at that point.
Once we entered, we walked along Water Lane to the other side of Traitors Gate to look at the poppies there and to hear more about that gate and where the river had originally flowed. There is a large iron ring on the wall of the gate of the Bloody Tower (just opposite of Traitors Gate). This is where boats would tie up many centuries ago. It was the original water gate entrance.
Originally called the Garden Tower, the Bloody Tower had been built in the 1220s. It was the story of the two young Princes in the Tower, in the 1400s, that lead to the change of its name. This was also the part of the Tower complex in which Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for thirteen years during the reign of James I (1600s).
We entered the Inner Ward through the Bloody Tower gate and made our way to the Scaffold Site Memorial. The actual site of the scaffold has been determined to have been behind (north of) the White Tower and not in front of the Chapel of Saint Peter Vincula, where the memorial is located. There our guide talked about the handful of royal beheadings that took place within the Tower walls: Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Pole (Countess of Salisbury), and Robert Devereax (Earl of Essex).
The remaining executions were mostly on Tower Hill, which is outside of the actual Tower. Although there were a few executions in more modern times (WWI and WWII) that took place within the walls of the Tower. These were firing squad executions.
Our guide then talked about a photo which another visitor took of the memorial. This photo supposedly caught the face of Anne Boleyn. He showed us where she had stood when she snapped the shot and showed us the photo. When he began to answer some questions from the group, I moved to the spot from where the photo was taken and took my own photo. It is included here and looks very much like hers did. What do you think?
From there, we walked to what is now thought to be the true location of the scaffold and chatted a while about both the White Tower and the Crown Jewels. On every other visit I have made to the Tower, I have always explored the White Tower. I believe I have only visited the Crown Jewels twice.
From here we could see the Martin Tower over in the northeastern corner of the complex. It was built during the reign of Henry III in the 1230s. It was originally known as the Jewel Tower as it was used to house the Crown Jewels and other royal treasures until the Jewel House (which was part of Westminster Palace) was built.
Over the years, the Martin Tower was used for various purposes, including as a records office, a private residence, a royal mint, and a storehouse for artillery. It was during the 16th century that the tower received its current name after a notorious prisoner named John Martin was held there.
In the centuries that followed, the Martin Tower continued to play an important role in the history of the Tower of London. During the reign of King Charles II in the 17th century, the tower was used as a prison for high-ranking prisoners, including the Duke of Monmouth, who was executed on Tower Hill in 1685.
At one point, torture devices were displayed in the Martin Tower. I remember seeing a replica of the rack there on one of my earlier visits. The current display of torture devices is now housed in the lower part of the Wakefield Tower.
Our guide pointed out where his own lodgings were located. They were in the building that used to be the Old Hospital Block. Originally built in 1718 as two houses to accommodate Ordinance Clerks, the houses were combined to create a hospital for the Tower garrison. During World War II a bomb destroyed the house on the left in the photo included here. It was rebuilt after the war. More recently both houses were reconfigured into flats for some of the more senior Yeoman Warders.
Heading back towards Traitors Gate, we passed the Lanthorn Tower. This tower was built as part of Henry III’s queen’s lodgings, but was gutted by fire in 1774. The present building is 19th century. Inside, a selection of real 13th-century objects illustrate the lifestyle of Henry III’s and Edward I’s courts. Edward I’s son Edward II (1307-27) stayed in this east side part of the castle when in residence at the Tower. The Lanthorn Tower was eventually adapted into the king’s chambers.
We passed by the area that had once been the Innermost Ward. But the Great Hall, which had formed a large portion of the Innermost Ward, and the rest of that part of the complex is long gone. The entrance to the White Tower is on the south side of that tower. That would have been within the Innermost Ward. We walked along what would have still been part of the Inner Ward to go through the Henry III water gate and back out to Water Lane in the Outer Ward.
To get back to Traitors Gate, where we were going to hang out to watch the Ceremony of the Keys, we headed along Water Lane towards the appropriately spooky looking Wakefield Tower. Oddly enough, it was the only photo I took with my mobile phone that was a bit fuzzy.
The Wakefield Tower was built by Henry III as royal lodgings between 1220 and 1240 and originally sat at the river’s edge. Henry was able to arrive by boat and enter his rooms from his private stairs.
The principal room was likely a private audience chamber. It now contains a replica throne and canopy, based on 13th-century examples. This features the Plantagenet lion – the symbol of the royal family.
The small chapel is associated with Henry VI who died in 1471 while a prisoner in the Tower during the Wars of the Roses. One side said he died of melancholy upon hearing his son had been killed in battle. His supporters said he was stabbed to death while praying there. Either way, with his death upstairs and the current display of torture devices downstairs, I would say the place has a right to its ghostly atmosphere.
We apparently had a little more time before about 40 other visitors and several other Yeoman Warders and a detail of guards would be joining us to witness or participate in the Ceremony of the Keys. So we were taken a bit further down the Water Lane to see where the Royal Mint was once housed. It was back near the Byward Tower on the appropriately named Mint Street. Then we walked back to Traitor’s Gate to take up the choice spots, just across from the gate of the Bloody Tower, before the others arrived.
Every night, for about 700 years or so, the Yeoman Warders have performed a gate-closing ritual known as the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. The ceremony begins at 9:52pm, when the Chief Yeoman Warder, dressed in red, appears from the Byward Tower, down by the river, and makes his way along Water Lane carrying a candle lantern in one hand and the King’s Keys in the other.
At Traitors Gate, he is joined by an armed guard of four men (which included our guide) and, together, they take a tour of the precincts, locking each of the gates that lead from the Tower. All guards and sentries on duty salute the King’s Keys as they pass.
The Escort to the Keys locks the Outer Gate and they walk back to lock the oak gates of the Middle and Byward Towers. They then return along Water Lane towards the Wakefield Tower where, in the deep shadows of the Bloody Tower archway, a sentry waits and watches.
As they pass through the Bloody Tower, they are challenged by the sentry there on duty who shouts “Halt. Who comes there?” “The keys”, comes the reply. “Whose keys?” “King Charles’ keys.” “Pass, King Charles’ keys. All’s well.”.
The Escort to the Keys proceeds through the Bloody Tower archway and up towards the broadwalk steps where the main Guard is drawn up. The Chief Yeoman Warder and escort halt at the foot of the steps and the officer in charge gives the command to the Guard and escort to present arms.
The Chief Yeoman Warder moves two paces forward, raises his Tudor bonnet high in the air and calls “God preserve King Charles.” The guard answers, “Amen”, exactly as the clock chimes 10pm and The Duty Drummer sounds The Last Post on his bugle.
The Chief Yeoman Warder takes the keys back to the King’s House and the Guard is dismissed.
The rest of the onlookers were escorted to another side gate in the complex and we were taken back to the Court Gate in the Byward Tower and left that way. Our Yeoman Clerk guide now had the lantern and keys with him so our little group could see them close up and even have our pictures taken with him and them. I enjoy the photo I have included here because he seems to be looking a bit askance at me like he might be concerned that I can’t be trusted and could possibly try to take the keys from him and run amok in the Tower.
Next time – A full day at Westminster Abbey
