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The White Tower

The White Tower was not only the first building of what is known to be the Tower of London but also it is the first stone keep in England. Started in 1078 it replaced an earlier wooden fort built on the site after the Norman Conquest in 1066. Its excellent strategic position dominated the city and river, but the specific siting was influenced by the Roman city wall to the east and the river to the south, together with the solid bedrock of the Tower Hill, falling away to marshy ground in the east.

Said to have been completed in 1097, ten years after William the Conqueror's death, the tower was the tallest building in London, some ninety feet high to the battlements, and it must have not only impressed but frightened the citizens with the seeming power of its occupants. Built of rough-hewn Kentish ragstone edged with finely cut Caen stone at the corners and around the windows, the design was based on the castle palaces of the Norman dukes of the tenth century, and the work overseen by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, This was not as curious a choice as it may seem because in this period priests were perhaps the most experienced in building in stone, learnt through the construction of monasteries, cathedrals and churches.

The Normans called the tower 'La Tour Blanche' and its white appearance was first maintained by white washing in the reign of Henry III (1216-72). Originally, the caps at the top of the four turrets were conical, but were replaced by the present onion-shaped ones in the sixteenth century.

The castle keep had a dual function: as military fortress and residence for the ruler. Today the official title of the Tower is still 'Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London' although, strangely enough there isn't actually a Tower of London. It is not quite known when the name was first used but through the ages Tower of London has become the accepted term of description for the entire complex.

The layout of the White Tower has two functions. The original entrance was at first floor level, as it is today with a removable wooden staircase, to make the entry out of reach to pending invaders, trespassers and such like. A further precautionary measure was placing the internal staircase, in the north-east turret, the furthest from the entrance. Accommodation for the king was provided on the second floor, which rose through two stages, the upper with a mural gallery, one of the earliest in English architecture and possibly in the early seventeenth century, an extra floor was placed at this gallery level, remaining there to this day. A door from the Great Chamber gave onto the north aisle of the Chapel of St John the Evangelist, situated in the south-east corner of the tower.

On both the first and second floors the apartments were divided by a wall running north / south which had a doorway at either end. The three recesses between have since been cut through. Apart from the two pairs of windows on the top floor above the entrance, the windows date from the eighteenth century, and give the building more light than it would have done during medieval times. The larger room was more than likely used as a hall and the smaller was perhaps subdivided into separate chambers. The Constable of the Tower, the king's representative who commanded the fortress, probably had accommodation on the first floor and the basement was used as a storeroom with the well.

In the nine hundred years since it was build the White Tower has been used as prison, storehouse and museum. Up until 1996 it housed part of the national collection of arms and armour belonging to the Royal Armouries. Now, most of the armour and weapons have been moved to Leads castle and at this time the White Tower is undergoing an extensive restoration program to return the interior to its former glory and look of royal palace and home to England's monarchy.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Bell Tower was used as a prison to Sir Thomas More, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Princess Elizabeth, Arabella Stuart and the Duke of Monmouth to name but a few. Maximum security could be maintained because the only access was through the Queen's House. Thomas More and John Fisher were here concurrently with Fisher in the upper chamber and More in the lower.

The Chapel of St John the Evangelist

A fine example of early Norman architecture is the Chapel of St John the Evangelist. The chapel remains today much as it was when Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester built it. Constructed of Caen limestone as part of the White Tower, it is two floors high with a triforium at the upper level. An intriguing and unusual feature is that it has a tunnel vaulted nave plus, an apsidal projection which runs down through the crypt and sub-crypt to the base of the keep.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the chapel was used by the king and his court while they were in residence at the Tower. The chapel was also used by knights of the Order of the Bath to hold all-night vigils prior to their investiture. By Charles II's reign, the Tower was barely used as a royal residence and the chapel became a store for state records. In 1857, with their removal to the new Public Records Office the chapel was restored to its original splendour. Services are held here at Christmas, Easter and Whitsun and Prince Charles received communion here on his twenty-first birthday.



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