Conceived in conquest and emblematic of violent death, the Tower of London is one of the world's bloodiest historic sites - and also, some say, one of the most ghost ridden. Over the centuries, the Tower has
variously been a fortress, a castle, a storehouse, an armory, even a zoo. But it is woven most tightly into British
history as a prison and a killing ground, the site of innumerable hangings, burnings, drawings and quarterings, and beheadings. There, nobles met their deaths at royal whim, and even crowned heads were claimed by the executioner's ax.
The Tower site is old beyond reckoning. When William the Conquerer overcame the Saxons in the eleventh century, he found, still standing along the Thames, stretches of ancient Roman walls. Their location was attractive strategically, so William chose to build a fortress within their shelter. A rude military camp served well enough for awhile, but in 1078 the king began erecting a vast stone edifice to serve as both fortress and palace. This was the White Tower, which still stands, little changed over the past 900 years, as a monument to Norman architecture. It formed the neucleus of the Tower of London, which is not a single building but an eighteen-acre compound of towers, yards, battlements, houses, and other structures.
Many of William's successors made changes in the tower, improving its fortifications or expanding its functions. In the thirteenth centuy, for instance, both Henry III and Edward I spent huge sums on building programs for the complex, some of which were designed to make the royal quarters more comfortable. but by the end of the sixteenth century, the Tower was no longer used as a royal residence, having become mainly a state prison and home to government offices. Eventually , its penal and bureaucratic defunct, the complex became what it is today: an imposing tourist attraction that houses, among other national treasures, the crown jewels.
The Tower of London bears testament to the grandeur of English history, and also to its periodic cruel perversity. Centuries of monarchial tinkering may have altered its structural details and lineaments, but the finest architectural revisions could not begin to expunge the Towers notorious legacy of death or exorcise its bloody earth. Legend has it that the complex is haunted by the spirits of many of those inmates who suffered or died within its grim confines; some of their stories are presented on the following pages. Evidence that such phantoms actually exsist is nothing more than anecdotal, but the ghost stories persist, clinging tenaciously as london fog to the tower's cold grey stones.
