The Tower of London: The Most Notorious Castle in England

The Tower of London is one of the great sights of the capital, a place that is as steeped in history as it has sometimes been, through the numerous executions it has witnessed, drenched in blood.  In this week’s episode of Your Places or Mine, Dr John Goodall, Britain’s foremost historian of castle architecture, discusses this extraordinary fortification-cum-palace with Professor Clive Aslet, describing both its architectural features and the uses that it has served through the centuries.  

First built by William the Conqueror within an angle of London’s Roman wall, the Tower of London dominated (in all senses) the City of London, being last fortified against the Chartist demonstrations in the 19th century.  The White Tower, so-called from the whitewash that once covered it, gave its name to the Tower of London as a whole – a unique example of the usage, since all other great fortifications identified with a town or city are known as Castle (as in Windsor Castle or Warwick Castle).  This is not the only quirk of history at the Tower: from the 13th century it housed a menagerie of exotic animals.