London: day eleven

Though I recently broke a severe caffeine addiction, I could not help but relapse to my source this morning - I stayed up way too late for how early I got up. However, when the caffeine hit my bloodstream; another day of adventuring began.


WARNING: as the Tower of London was a place infamous for its practices of torture and execution, please do not read if you don't think you can handle some of these stories, as I have included some of the gruesome stories that the tour guides told us today. I included this disclaimer, so consider yourself warned, and if you do read further, it's your own doing.

Hannah and I took and early Tube over to the Tower of London, and though the tickets were a little on the expensive side (in comparison to everything else we've already done), the many hours we spent there were entirely worth it. We began by following the sidewalk along the outer wall of the Tower that paralleled the Thames, walking toward Tower Bridge and taking photos as we went. Upon discovering that we had gone the wrong way to find the entrance, we backtracked and found the entrance at the Middle Tower. We crossed what used to be a bridge, walkway over the moat and entered into the inner ward of the Tower. Immediately upon entering, we found ourselves in the midst of a tour group which we decided to join. The tour guide was right in the middle of a story about an execution going horribly wrong; a drunken executioner missing his mark and instead of making a clean cut at the neck, taking off the top of the prisoner's head instead, trying again and only making it halfway through the poor man's neck before finally tossing the axe aside and finishing the job with his knife. This marked the beginning of our tour of the Tower of London; fitting in a way, I suppose, as it lived up to its reputation as a place of horrible torture and imprisonment. It was a shocking reminder that the reality of these places and practices were far more gritty than the clean versions that Hollywood proposes - if only life were truly so neat, but often what is shown in the movies is only the ideal, the way things would happen if gone off without a hitch; which was not always the case. Thankfully, not many of the subsequent stories were told in quite so gruesome of a way.


"Scavenger's Daughter"

The tour group then migrated over to what they call the "Traitor's Gate," the place where prisoners were brought into the prison. Supposedly, it is on this gate as well as the others, that, after the beheadings, the guards would soak the heads in lime and salt (so as to give the flesh an unpleasant taste to the birds and discourage them), and then place the heads along the top of the gates as both a warning and a terrible exercise in intimidation; very effectively providing other, potential rebels with the message that treason was would always be dealt with the most extreme of measures. Not to mention breaking incoming prisoners with fear of their, by this time, unavoidable fate. Immediately behind the "Traitor's Gate" was a further, inner wall with a large portcullis (a heavy, drop-down gate, weighing nearly a ton and a half) next to the turret which was called the "Bloody Tower" - a place where some tortures, but also where some of the Tower's most infamous murders were carried out.

The Tower then lead us through this drop-down gate and into the innermost ward of the Tower. We walked up a slightly inclining path and stopped near an area of grass; the place where all of those of royal blood, found guilty of treason, were beheaded. Despite reputation, only 22 executions were performed within the Tower site; seven in the 15th and 16th centuries, three in the 18th, and twelve in the 20th century - the last of which occurring only about a 100 years ago during the first world war. Most of the executions actually took place outside the Tower walls, slightly to the north at a place called Tower Hill - with 112 executions occurring there over a 400 year period - although other deaths within the prison were not uncommon due to poor conditions, mistreatment and murder. The final execution was of a man named Josef Jakobs, a German spy who was captured after he suffered an injury upon landing in England via parachute. He was court martialed and sentenced to death by firing squad, but because of the low height of the rifle range's bullet catcher, as well as Jakobs' injury, it became necessary that he be sitting during his execution. A chair was provided and the sentence was carried out; five riflemen, three of which had loaded rifles, two of which were loaded with blank shells - in this fashion, the shooters would never know who provided the kill shot. Later, inside the White Tower (the tallest tower at the very center of the innermost walled yard), in the collection of relics, we actually got to see the chair in which Jakobs sat - a fairly plain wooden chair, but with part of the back of it blown away by the exiting bullets; slightly to the left, telling of a well-aimed shot directly through the heart.



We then entered a tiny chapel, just behind Tower Hill in which all those of royal blood who were executed here were buried under the altar. Many of the other prisoners were also buried under the floor of this chapel; tiles in the floor were lifted up, the bodies were dumped in, followed by salt, lime and dirt (in the case of beheadings, the bodies were dumped here but the heads were taken to the gates to be put on display), and then the tiles were replaced. Eventually, in later years, many of the skeletons were moved into a crypt, and some of the identified bones were placed into stone sarcophaguses. Of the nearly 1500 bodies dumped here, only about 32 have been identified. Three queens are buried there (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard - the 2nd and 5th wives of Henry the VIII, and Lady Jane Grey who is known as the "Nine Day Queen").

From the Chapel, our tour disassembled and we were free to roam as we pleased. Hannah and I entered the building in which the crown jewels were kept (the Tower still fulfills one of its other functions as a treasury for the highest gems). While we were unable to take pictures, believe me when I say that the crown jewels are mesmerizing. The various crowns, pillowed in purple and set with some of the largest and most brilliantly cut gems ever seen. An enormous diamond, the Culllinan Diamond, uncut weighing 3,106 carats was cut into two separate diamonds, Cullinan I and Cullinan II (weighing 530.2 and 317.4 carats respectively), both of which are present in the crown jewels in the Sovereign's Scepter with Cross and the Imperial State Crown. But not only that, also included within the collection is the Koh-i-Noor diamond (105.3 carats) which is set in the crown of  Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. This particular diamond is said to be unlucky for Kings to wear and is thus reserved for Queens due to its bloody history. Apart from the jewels, also within the building were included the various dishes and plates for the feast following the coronation, as well as the coronation communion platter, and the bowls used in the baptisms of the royal infants - all silver-gilt. The largest piece of this collection was the Grand Punch Bowl - over a meter wide and weighing nearly 546 pounds, it was originally intended to be a wine cooler, designed to hold 144 bottles of wine. So, basically, everything in there sparkled...

White Tower

Leaving the crown jewels, we then entered the tallest tower on the grounds, the White Tower, located in the center of the innermost ward. This was primarily used as an armory, yet also held some state suites and a small chapel. Through this building, we encountered a wide array of weaponry displayed (some of which were quite unusual, others of which were solely for decoration, and still others which were practical and most commonly used) and torture devices (including the "Scavenger's Daughter" which was a device used to compress victims until blood came out of their ears and nose, as well as the block and axe which were used in the beheadings). All the way back down to the ground floor, the building was packed with all sorts of weaponry; verily, an arsenal. Continuing this theme, we crossed over the grounds into another building which was home to the Royal Fusiliers Museum; a place celebrating Britain's long military history up until the present day.

The Latin reads: "Jesus have mercy on me, Mary pray for me R. Ithell"

Pretty much all that was left after that was to walk along the tops of the walls, exploring the small rooms within in which most of the prisoners were kept. In these small, cold places, one can still see the scribbling on the walls, places where prisoners (especially Catholics being imprisoned by the Protestant monarch Henry VIII who waged a fierce persecution) spent hours upon hours carving messages and symbols into the stone walls. One could tell whether a prisoner was incarcerated for a brief or considerable amount of time by how detailed and deep their carvings were, or even if their carvings were left incomplete...Some were merely faint scratches, others, several centimeters (and in one case, at least an inch) deep into the stone. Most were of a religious nature, pleas for mercy, and statements of Christ's prevalence over all earthly sufferings - all in Latin, some symbols to represent their faith, and many prisoners signing their own names - carving out for themselves the only gravestone they would ever get. This was probably the most significant part of the experience for me, as it struck a chord deep in my heart to touch the stone where men, so paralyzed by fear, in one of the most horrible hells on the surface of this earth, brought there for no more reason than practicing their faith - to hear the axe in the distance, carving hurriedly into the stone messages of Christ's prevalence over all - probably a personal reminder to keep their heart steady - and just waiting in the cold and dim light, wondering when the guards would come for them...


unfinished carving...



a very detailed prisoner carving

After walking the entire wall, all the way around, and exploring each room, we then returned to the center ward, and tried to get some pictures of the ravens (the size of small dogs) which hopped all around and wouldn't hold still for their photo-opts.  When we determined that we had sufficiently and thoroughly explored the entirety of the Tower of London (took quite a few hours), we took the Tube back to NIDO and made up some dinner before retiring for the night.