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A Norman fortress that has been a palace, a prison, a mint, a zoo and the strongroom for the Crown Jewels, and is still the last of these.
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Also in Royal London and Power & Politics and Secrets & Espionage.
The Tower is the castle William the Conqueror began in the years after 1066 to hold the city he had just taken. Its heart, the White Tower, went up from 1078 and is still among the most complete eleventh-century palaces in Europe; two rings of walls and a moat grew around it under Richard I, Henry III and Edward I, and the plan has barely changed since 1285. Over nine centuries it has been an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the Royal Mint, the public record office and the home of the Crown Jewels, which is what most of the queue is for. In the eighteenth century the lions could be seen for three halfpence, or for a cat or dog to feed them.
Its reputation is bloodier than its record. Before the twentieth century only seven people were executed inside the walls, on Tower Green, among them Anne Boleyn in 1536 and Lady Jane Grey in 1554; the other 112 died in public on Tower Hill outside. Elizabeth I was a prisoner here before she was queen, Guy Fawkes confessed here, and twelve spies were shot here in the two world wars. Kings once spent the nights before their coronation at the Tower and rode from it to Westminster Abbey, a custom that ended with Charles II.
The Yeoman Warders, the Beefeaters, have guarded it since at least 1509, and their tours are included in the ticket and are the best way in. Six ravens are kept at all times, on the belief that the kingdom falls if they leave, with a Ravenmaster to look after them. The Crown Jewels pass on a moving walkway, so the day is decided by the queue, and the White Tower holds the Royal Armouries' arms and armour, Henry VIII's among it.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.