If you want to see some pictures from Tower of London/Bridge - click here!

Tower of London

    In the summertime there are crowd in Tower, so come as early you can. The interesting thing about the Tower is the long and bloody history; many famous heads have been devorsed from the body inside those walls. Prisoners have been brought to and from the castle by boat through Traitor’s Gate, which from the bank looks like a hole in the outsidewall. Many a brutal deed has found place in those dignifieded surroundings, so it can not surprice someone, that Tower is the place in London, which is ravaged by the most of the apparitions. Tower was naturally not only a torture chamber and executionplace; it was also a royal palace. The foundation stones was laid in 1078 of Vilhelm the conqueror, who built the headtower, or the Withe Tower as it has been called, since it got limed white under Henry III (1216-72). Withe Tower is to day a museum for weapons and armaments. A funny batch armaments produced to Henry VII discloses his development from a slim young man to a barrelformed middle-aged. Even though bad things had taken place earlier in Tower, it was especially under Henry VII, there were executions. The decapitation-block stood on Tower Green in front of Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula. When the chapelfloor was removed, came a heap of decapitated skeletons came appraised. The English crown jewels are kept in The jewel House next to the chapel. Most of the jewels are younger than 1660, because the old crown jewels got remelted after Charles I’s decapitation in 1649. Queen Victorias Imperial State Crown is full of famous precious stones, but none of them is so known as the Koh-in-Noor-diamond (the mountain of light) in queen mothers crown. Since the corps foundation under Henry VII in 1485, has Tower 42 Yeoman (freemen) looked after the crown jewels and Tower. Their nickname ´Beefeaters`, is either a misrepresentation of the French buffetiers-people who did serve with the kings ´buffet`- or it allude to their abundant supply of beef from the kings kitchen. In theirs dresses from the Tudor-time and with an inexhaustibled supply of historical anecdotes do they show the tourists around in Tower.

    Tower Bridge is built in new-Gothic to fit into the neighbour Tower of London. The only big change since the opening in 1894 has been the installation of electronic machines in 1974 to relief for the old steam engines to raise the leaf of the bridge, when the ships should under the bridge. The two towers have elevators up to the footbridge high up. The footbridge had a bad reputation of a large numbers of suicides, but now it is framed by glass, so you safely can enjoy the view over London. The entrance to Tower Bridge Museum is in the Southtower (also entrance from the northtower), where you can see the original hydraulic steam engines from the victo-riatime and models and videos, which shows, how the laef of the bridge worked.

All-Hallows-by-the-Tower

The church in Byward Street a little distance from Tower is one of London’s oldest and most interesting. In crypton is there is a little museum about history of the church from its foundation in the 7^th century besides an old Roman floor. The diaryauthor Samuel Pepys watched The Big Fire in 1666 from the churchtower. In the choir bearns a very peaceful ‘eternal’ flame. It has traditional been the clergymens from this church, who comforted the sentenced in Tower.