London On

Queens were beheaded here, princes murdered and traitors tortured. Once a place to be avoided, the tower of London is now one of London’s top visitor attractions. Encircled by a moat (now dry), with 22 towers, the Tower of London on begun by William the Conqueror in 1078, is Britain’s most celebrated military monument and a stolid reminder of how power was once exercised in Britain.

William Penn, the future founder of Pennsylvania was imprisoned here in 1669, and the diarist Samuel Pepeys in 1679. As recently as 1941, Rudolph Hess, Germany’s deputy fuhrer was locked in the tower. Given that towers 18 acres (7.3 hectares) contain enough important buildings and collections to occupy three hours, you may prefer to skip the one-hour beefeater-led tour and strike out on your own, relying on your imagination and the comprehensive official guidebook or free map.

An audio guide can be hired, though what the Tower desperately needs is some well-designed computer technology, with touch screens providing a real educational resource for those who would appreciate it. In summer, its best to arrive early, giving priority to the Crown Jewels and the Bloody Tower, which can attract long queues later in the day. Note that the spiral staircases in some of the towers require a degree of agility.

The medieval palace is a treat to watch. Just before Traitor’s gate is the entrance to the residential part of the Tower, used my Monarchs when they lived here. St Thomas’s Tower built in 1275-79 but much altered displays archaeological evidence of its many uses. Parts of the Wakefield tower (1220-40) have been furnished in the 13th century style, complete with a throne copied from the Coronation chair in a Westminster Abbey. A spiral staircase leads to a walkway on top of the south wall, which provides a good view of the riverside defenses. The wall runs to the Lanthorn tower (1883), containing 13th century artifacts.

The white tower is the oldest part of the fortress and was probably designed in 1078 by a Norman monk, Gandulf, a prolific builder of castles and churches. It has walls 15 ft (5 meters) thick. Its original form remains, but nearly every part has been refurbished or rebuilt: the door surrounds and most windows were replaced in the 17th and 18th centuries and much of the Normandy stone was replaced with more durable Portland stone from Dorset. The first floor gives access to the austere Chapel of St John the Evangelist, a fine example of early Norman architecture. Much of the remaining space is devoted to displays of armor, swords and muskets, taken from the royal armouries.

Formerly there was a menagerie within the Tower of London. In 1235 the holy Roman Emperor presented Henry III with three leopards, as an allusion to the leopards which figured on the Plantagenet coat of arms and it was this gift that began the royal menagerie. Next, 1n 1252 a polar beer arrived as a gift from the King of Norway; it was kept on a long chain which allowed it sufficient freedom to catch fish in the river Thames. Louis IX of France gave Henry an Elephant; over the years a number of other animals were added, and the menagerie became a popular attraction. But by 1822 the royal collection had dwindled to just a grizzly bear, a single elephant and a few assorted birds. So a new royal keeper, Alfred Copps, was appointed and he enlarged it to include 59 species. In 1835, when a lion attacked some soldiers in the Tower, the animals were all transferred to the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s park.

Tower Bridge has long symbolized the city of London on to people from all over the world. It was the gateway to the capital for ships coming upriver to dock in the port, and it is the first bridge over the Thames coming upriver from the east. Its design and its brilliant engineering encapsulate the heart and soul of Victorian London on. Today the bridge continues its threefold function, permitting the efficient movement of road vehicles, river vessels and pedestrians.

The density of traffic that was traveling over the river in the 1880s, particularly over London on Bridge necessitated the construction of a new bridge across the Thames. As its site roughly correspond with the city limits, the city’s own architect, Sir Horace Jones, was commissioned to build it. The lift bridges inspired his design over the canals in Holland. His daring plan was to have a relatively low through bridge, only 30 feet above the water, with a double lift giving ships access to Upper Pool, the basin between Tower Bridge and London bridge. Two other men of vision must also share the credit for this immense project: engineer John Wolfe Barry and architect GD Stevenson, who modified the plans after Jones died in 1887 London on.

Parliament and the city both specified a neo-Gothic design for the bridge (at the request of Queen Victoria and the war office), with towers that would conceal the hydraulic lifting machinery as well as blend in well with the nearby Tower of London on. An additional factor was that the neo-Gothic style was at its height at this time. The influence of Scottish castle architecture is due to Stevenson, who was a Scot, himself and this is apparent in the decoration of towers as well as in the use of steel for the superstructure of the bridge. The stone cladding over a metal framework offered the best resistance to the stresses that were imposed by the two lifting bascules. The Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone of the rivers “Gateway to the City” in 1886. Its length is approximately 800 feet between the two towers and though today London on think of Tower Bridge with considerable affection, it was the subject of some harsh criticism at its opening in 1894.

Related Articles

» At the same time, in this most commercially minded city
» Queen Victoria had been born in Kensington Palace.
» In order to be eligible to work in the UK you must have a valid passport