We had planned on taking the train into Victoria Station to
visit Buckingham Palace the tube to the Tower of London. First problem, there was a fire and the train
to Victoria wasn’t running so Mike suggested he drop us at an alternative Tube
station and we could make our way that way, this was more complicated as we
would have to change lines a couple of times. Then the second problem occurred
as Buckingham Palace was fully booked until the 19th July. This
actually simplified things in that although we had to change Tube trains it
only entailed walking along the station and up an escalator.
Plan in place off we went and it all worked well. We had
planned on seeing “The Monument”, a memorial to the Fire of London, but we
missed that as we didn’t realise you could walk from Bank Station to Monument
underground, perhaps next time.
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| Giant Thistles outside Tower Station (sorry about the mobile, didn't notice that whipping in front of me) |
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| Tower of London from Tower Station |
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| Part of the Medieval Tower wall |
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| Moat around the Tower walls. |
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| Contrast between the 1066 Tower with the modern London buildings |
Got our tickets, had a cup of tea and stood in the queue for
the Tower, wasn’t that bad, moved steadily and before to long we where inside.
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| Queue not as bad as it looks, it moves steadily |
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| Nearly there, Coat of arms over ald entrance |
Luckily we arrived just as a Yeoman Tour with a Beefeater
was starting so we joined that and received a very entertaining introduction to
the history of the Tower since it was first built by Oliver Cromwell in 1066.
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| Beefeater Yeoman Guide |
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| Traitors Gate |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Guard outside Crown Jewels |
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| Queue for the Crown Jewels, we waited until later (3 photo's joined togetheor so a bit disjointed |
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| A number of Staff get dressed in period costume |
We then listened to the talk on the Ravens, Legend has it
that if the Ravens ever leave the Tower then the Realm and the Monarchy will
fall. The origins of this are unknown but the Beefeaters take very good care of
the Ravens to make sure they stay. One of the current theory’s concerning the
Ravens is that the mortar for the White Tower, the main tower in the castle,
was produced from material source within the castle itself and contained tons
of Raven bones, hence if
all the Ravens
are removed the mortar will crumble, no-one really knows.
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| Raven's have a couple of flight wings clipped so they can't fly to high |
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| Maritta cuddles up to a Beefeater |
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| White tower, has a large display of Armour and weaponry |
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| Raven fancied a bath, the cages are only closed at night to protect the Ravens from Foxes, during the day they are free to wander around. |
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| Beams are all held by wooden pegs. |
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| Horse armour display |
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| Chapel in the White Tower |
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| Very ornate Wheel Lock revolver |
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| Wheel lock muscat |
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| Very ornate inlay on the stock |
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| Gold Plated machine gun |
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| Dragon display in the White Tower |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Tourist boats on the thames |
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| Various Imperial measures |
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| Bronze cannon damaged during an armory fire |
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| Display of muscats |
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| And cannons |
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| Gargoyles on the wall |
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| Raven wanders near the Crown Jewel's queue |
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| Changing of the guard |
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| Very ornate Cannon brought from Malta in 1800, Gun carriage built in 1827 |
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| Between the walls, Beefeater's live in rooms in the wall to the left |
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| Some of the Gulls are very large |
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