For more than 900 years, the Tower of London has guarded the north bank of the River Thames. At various times a royal palace, menagerie, public record office, mint, arsenal, bank vault and prison, it has played a central role in England’s history. Indeed, it has come to symbolise large parts of it. More than three million people visit the Tower yearly, eager to explore a site that has famously held traitors, heretics, and even royalty. Not to mention the Crown Jewels.
When he took London in late 1066, William the Conqueror commissioned the original building to adjoin the southeast corner of Alfred the Great’s rebuilt Roman walls “as a defence against the inconstancy of the numerous and hostile inhabitants,” wrote William of Poitiers. Within 12 years, the temporary structure had made way for something more permanent, whose iconic shape still casts a foreboding shadow over the local skyline.
Of its creation, legends abound. One tells that the head of the mythical Brân the Blessed was buried below the White Mount to ensure England was never conquered. Brân is Celtic for crow, which may concern the legend that the Tower will fall if the ravens depart. A story from around 1675 tells that the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, complained to Charles II of their interference with his stargazing, prompting the king to relocate the observatory to Greenwich. A minimum of six ravens are still held at the Tower.
THE FIRST TOWER
The Annals of Rochester record that William the Conqueror entrusted the Tower’s construction to Gundulf, later Bishop of Rochester. Dubbed the ‘Wailing Monk’, Gundulf also masterminded Colchester Castle. Later legend tells that JRR Tolkien based Gandalf the Grey and Middle-earth’s Two Towers on his exploits.
Although Gundulf’s Tower lacked dungeons, walls intended to keep enemies out proved equally good at keeping them in. Ironically, the first prisoner was also a bishop. Equally ironic, he was also its first escapee. Ranulf Flambard served as William (Rufus) II’s chaplain and treasurer before being appointed to the See of Durham in 1099, where his reputation was blighted by accusations of corruption. Imprisoned following Henry I’s accession a year later, the disgraced cleric bided his time for six months, frequently hosting banquets for his gaolers. After organising one such supper in early February 1101, he waited for his captors to become inebriated before using a smuggled-in rope to abseil down the walls. Despite injuring himself, he escaped to Normandy.
Future prisoners would face a more complex prison. The first significant extensions began with the Wardrobe Tower, royal
