The Tower of London

Its the time of year when I usually meet up with my dear friend John and go on a tour of somewhere historical or different, somewhere around the country. Our previous trips have included Buckingham Palace, The Secret Nuclear Bunker, Victoria & Albert Museum, Kensignton Palace and Bletchley House where they cracked the Enigma Code. When John came for dinner a month back we listed a few places I would like to see and one of these was the Tower of London. Tickets were bought for today and as always on these dates, I meet John at an agreed place and time, where he will be waiting (His always punctual) and I will be treated to a personal historic tour of the venue with him as my own personal tour guide. Over the years his interest of history has left him with a wealth of knowledge and me the lucky benefactor of that knowledge on the many private tours his given me over the years. We met at Tower Hill and as always started outside with some local history about the surrounding buildings then made our way down to the Tower's Moat and learned about how it was once filled with both Thames water and Tower Sewage...eww. The Menagerie was next. The thought that they had wild Tigers, Bears and all sorts of exotic animals roaming at the Palace, many of them for visitors to see, seems strange to say the least. Did you know that eventually the order was given to close the Menagerie and many of the animals moved to London Zoo which opened to the public in 1847! Once inside we heard the history of the White Tower, The Bloody Tower, Traitors Gate and the like. It was such an early start that many of the queues had yet to form and so before lunch we made our way to the Crown Jewels and I was amazed at John's knowledge of not only which piece was which but the history therein within each piece and how in the days of old we used to rent the gems for certain crowns. It's so amazing standing at the side of a great building that dates back to the Times of King Henry VIII and construction commenced in 1066. We saw the Ravens and the Beefeaters and went inside Saint John's Chappell which you can only do if you are on one of the Beefeaters tours (Gather around when they are nearing the chappel and go on in for the history of the Chappel. Learning of the Towers many prisoners including of course, Elizabeth I. Hearing of the Torture that once took place and the Princes in the Tower. Were the Twins murdered? I didn't know beforehand that the Tower was also used to store the Governments Gun Powder stock, something that seems preposterous considering it was also the home to the Crown Jewels, but then they didn't have Health & Safety and Due Diligence back then. We wrapped up the afternoon with a lovely spot of lunch and looking forward to my next installment with John which should be Windsor Castle! Keep posted for pictures, I will upload them as soon as I find the cord between the Cannon Camera and Laptop!