The Tower of London

maddiesdoor · 21/05/13 - 21:39

Just wondering if anyone here has been? I'm a bit of a History geek and went about 15 years ago but am going again in the summer.

Recently been watching some Tudor documentaries and the whole era fascinates me.

Plus it's probably morbid of me but truthful to say I want to see some execution spots

I've ordered tickets online this time, I seem to remember some huge queue years and years ago. Wonder if I'll avoid that this time.

designer84 · 21/05/13 - 21:44

Depends on when you go. I work just down the road from there and in the summer or on a nice sunny day, it's quite busy but the only real queue you are likely to see is to get tickets/get in. Once in you can walk anywhere.

Pandora 9 · 21/05/13 - 21:48

I have visited there once and found it a depressing building. I could feel the misery all around me. I am very interested in history myself but have found The Tudors drama boring to be honest. King Henry VIII was not an attractive man and he had ginger hair unlike the actor who plays him.

paulbrock · 21/05/13 - 21:52

there's been a fair bit of redevelopment lately of the ticket/visitor areas. Obviously inside hasn't changed too much!

pamuela · 21/05/13 - 21:55

I have been there at least 15 times over the years.

I could never tire of the place and each time I go there seem different things to see.

Unless you are loaded or have won the lottery recently, avoid buying any food or drinks at the outlets outside of the tower, when I went there last year as a birthday treat for my 37 year old son, two pints of lager and a small glass of white wine cost me nearly £18 :eek:

There are plenty of benches to sit on and eat a picnic lunch, as we did, including a cheeky couple of bottles of wine

Hope you have a great day Pandora

Chasing Shadows · 21/05/13 - 22:00

Pandora 9 wrote: »

I have visited there once and found it a depressing building.

As it consists of lots of different buildings, which building in particular depressed you? The White Tower, the Waterloo Barracks (where the Crown Jewels are currently stored), St Peter ad Vincula (the chapel which holds the bodies of some of the most celebrated prisoners held in the Tower), or one of the other half dozen or so towers within the complex?

Pandora 9 · 21/05/13 - 22:03

Chasing Shadows wrote: »

As it consists of lots of different buildings, which building in particular depressed you? The White Tower, the Waterloo Barracks (where the Crown Jewels are currently stored), St Peter ad Vincula (the chapel which holds the bodies of some of the most celebrated prisoners held in the Tower), or one of the other half dozen or so towers within the complex?

I was a child when I visited so I think it was one of the towers where famous prisoners were kept.

paulbrock · 21/05/13 - 22:04

pamuela wrote: »

Unless you are loaded or have won the lottery recently, avoid buying any food or drinks at the outlets outside of the tower, when I went there last year as a birthday treat for my 37 year old son, two pints of lager and a small glass of white wine cost me nearly £18 :eek:

The Liberty Bounds pub near the Tower is a Wetherspoons.

maddiesdoor · 21/05/13 - 22:48

Whose bodies are kept there!? This stuff interests me

I'm interested to see Anne Boleyn's execution spot (though I did see it many years ago) and also Catherine Howard's (don't remember seeing that).

uzzybuzzy · 21/05/13 - 22:49

There's always a queue to see the crown jewels so do that 1st!

Miss XYZ · 21/05/13 - 23:19

We went in 2011 and I really enjoyed it. I found it a really interesting place what with all the history it has and I loved seeing the crown jewels. Had to queue for quite a while to see them though. Asked a Beefeater for a photo and got chatting with him and it turned out he'd lived just up the road from us til he'd recently started working at the Tower - small world!

maddiesdoor · 22/05/13 - 01:43

Miss XYZ wrote: »

We went in 2011 and I really enjoyed it. I found it a really interesting place what with all the history it has and I loved seeing the crown jewels. Had to queue for quite a while to see them though. Asked a Beefeater for a photo and got chatting with him and it turned out he'd lived just up the road from us til he'd recently started working at the Tower - small world!

Wow- small world indeed

vosne · 22/05/13 - 01:47

uzzybuzzy wrote: »

There's always a queue to see the crown jewels so do that 1st!

I just came out the shower and there were 23 people in my hall

[Deleted User] · 22/05/13 - 01:50

I went a couple of years ago in summer, although it was the middle of the day on a weekday. There was no queue to get in. The only queue inside was for one part that has a capacity limit, I can't remember what it was called. You had to keep moving in line once you were inside, I felt like a sheep being herded

Julie68 · 22/05/13 - 01:51

vosne wrote: »

I just came out the shower and there were 23 people in my hall

Lol...:D I very rarely use a smiley but this deserves one... Brilliant...

vosne · 22/05/13 - 01:53

Julie68 wrote: »

Lol...:D I very rarely use a smiley but this deserves one... Brilliant...

*curtsey*

BastardBeaver · 22/05/13 - 01:53

How mich are tickets?

edit: i could just google...

Miss XYZ · 22/05/13 - 01:56

JumpTheShark wrote: »

I went a couple of years ago in summer, although it was the middle of the day on a weekday. There was no queue to get in. The only queue inside was for one part that has a capacity limit, I can't remember what it was called. You had to keep moving in line once you were inside, I felt like a sheep being herded

That's in the crown jewels bit. It was the same when we were there. I was really disappointed that we weren't allowed to take photos in there although it's understandable I guess. We were there on a weekday a couple of summers ago too, wonder if it was the same day as you.

TheBilly · 22/05/13 - 01:58

I was there as a lad. Are the jewels still in musty old glass casings?

dreadnought · 22/05/13 - 02:03

maddiesdoor wrote: »

Plus it's probably morbid of me but truthful to say I want to see some execution spots

They used to have a small sign which simply said "site of scaffold". When I was last there they were replacing it with some sort of sculpture which the Yeoman Warder who was doing the tour was particularly unimpressed with.

Chasing Shadows · 22/05/13 - 14:37

maddiesdoor wrote: »

Whose bodies are kept there!? This stuff interests me

I'm interested to see Anne Boleyn's execution spot (though I did see it many years ago) and also Catherine Howard's (don't remember seeing that).

Same spot. Also where Jane Rochford (George Boleyn's wife and Catherine Howard's conspirator), Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (last of the Plantagenets who Henry saw as a threat to his reign, and mother of Henry's cousin Reginald Pole who the Pope made a cardinal and who condemned Henry for breaking with the Vatican and froming the Church of England), Lady Jane Grey, Baron Hastings (killed by Richard III even though they were supposed to be friends), and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (Queen Elizabeth's favourite who then rose againt her) were beheaded.

About thirty yards to south of the chapel, twenty yards north of The Green, twenty yards east of Beauchamp Tower, prison to Guildford Dudley (Jane Grey's husband), John Dudley (her father in law), Jane Rochford, and many more Tudor age prisoners arrested for treason and heretical religious beliefs.

Looks really pretty now - big circular plinth dedicated to the prisoners who were executed here rather than taken to Tower Hill to be beheaded in front of the crowds.

maddiesdoor · 22/05/13 - 15:00

Thanks!

I must have a gruesome fascination then but then so many others must do too or they wouldn't visit

maddiesdoor · 25/05/13 - 17:05

My tickets arrived! Pretty quick too.

Dwight Wright · 25/05/13 - 17:07

£21.45 to get in?

hahahahahaha

maddiesdoor · 25/05/13 - 17:13

Dwight Wright wrote: »

£21.45 to get in?

hahahahahaha

CitizenofPhobos · 25/05/13 - 17:16

I think I have been a good 20-25 times since I was born in 1982, first time I think my father took me in 1986, last time was probably early 2012.

Never gets old, been to the London Dungeon continuously also since 1988.

It's great escapism for a while, gets you away from the cesspool that is modern London.

Hey there!

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