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The White Tower, as seen from the South West, showing the original - but now externally much altered entrance at the first floor above ground level

The White Tower

The White Tower is a central tower at the Tower of London. The great central keep was started in 1078 by William the Conqueror who ordered the White Tower to be built inside the south-east angle of The City walls, adjacent to the Thames. ^[1] This was as much to protect the Normans from the people of the City of London as to protect London from outside invaders. William ordered the Tower to be built of Caen stone, which he had specially imported from France, and appointed Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester as the architect. The tower was finished around 1087 by his sons and successors, William Rufus and Henry I.

In the 12th century, King Richard the Lionheart enclosed the White Tower with a curtain wall and had a moat dug around it filled with water from the River Thames. The moat was not successful until Henry III, in the 13th century, employed a Dutch moat-building technique. Henry refurnished the Chapel and had the exterior of the building whitewashed in 1240, which is how the tower got its name.

The White Tower is a massive construction, 90 feet (27.4m) high and 118 feet (35.9m) by 107 feet (32.6m) across, the walls varying from 15 feet thickness at the base to almost 11 feet in the upper parts. Above the battlements rise four turrets; three of them are square, but the one on the north-east is circular. This turret once contained the first Royal observatory. The four weather vanes on the turrets of the tower date from 1669.

Its walls are now home to displays from the Royal armouries including original armours worn by Henry VIII and Charles I plus a reconstructed display of the massive collection of weapons once housed in the Grand Storehouse. The 'Spanish Armoury' contains the Tower's historic instruments of torture, including the infamous block and axe.

The 15th century Tower in a manuscript of poems by Charles, Duke of Orléans (1391-1465) commemorating his imprisonment there (British Library).

Randulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the first recorded prisoner at the Tower of London, was imprisoned in the White Tower on the orders of King Henry I in 1100. He escaped in 1101 and fled to Normandy, using a rope smuggled to him in a pot of wine.

A royal council chamber occupied the middle floor. In this chamber in 1399 Richard II was forced to sign away his throne to Henry IV, and in 1483 Richard III summarily sentenced Lord Hastings to death.

There are suspicions that the Princes in the Tower were truly murdered in the White Tower rather than in the legendary Bloody Tower, but like most of the story, the evidence is unclear. It has never been determined whether the two bodies found under the staircase were actually the two princes.

In 1974, there was a bomb explosion in the mortar room in the White Tower leaving one person dead and 41 injured. No one claimed responsibility for the blast, however the police were investigating suspicions that the Irish Republican Army was behind it.[1]

Robert Graves in his book 'The White Goddess' theorised that the oracular head of 'Bran' an Irish Demi-God was buried at the site of the White Tower. Bran's sacred bird was the raven. If the ravens leave, the kingdom will fall.

1. ^ Adrian Tinniswood, "A History of British Architecture: Buildings of the Middle Ages" (p.2), 2001-01-01, bbc.co.uk webpage: BBC-Arch.

• Entry on Images of England

• Historical Royal Palaces

Coordinates: 51.508098° N 0.075977° W