Tower of London
I rarely win anything so I was surprised to receive an email telling me that I had, indeed, won something.
What had I won? Free tickets to the Tower of London. Well, I shrugged to myself, if free tickets don’t stop me from avoiding one of the worlds best loved tourist traps, then nothing will. So 21 years after my last visit, I went.
And it was great! Cold January days must be the best time to go to the Tower. There was a nice bite to the air (all the better for truly understanding what it would be like to live in a draughty stone tower), the White Tower looked fabulous against the crisp blue sky and even better, there were virtually no queues.
First things first, we went to see the crown jewels. My other half, happy being a loyal subject, marvelled over the tacky diamond encrusted gilt, but they just bought out the reckless republican in me. Oliver Cromwell had the right idea – sell ‘em off and buy something useful with the profits.
We then wandered around the various towers trying to imagine what it must have been like pre-tourism. This was a pointless pursuit. For one thing, I discovered that boggle-eyed tourists have been visiting the place for hundreds of years to see the crown jewels and that despite the very real graffiti by the prisoners who’d been locked up inside, there is little sense of place about the Tower. The Bloody Tower does not feel like a place where people were imprisoned, persecuted and tortured for their beliefs; it feels like a tired building which has 2 million tourists traipsing through it every year.
And I never realised that there were so many new buildings in the complex (that’s ‘new’ meaning 19th century ‘new’) and that so many people still live there. You can’t go to the uppermost floors of Beauchamp Tower, where the Tudors locked up their celebrity prisoners, because it’s a Yeoman’s flat and one of the most interesting buildings, a wooden Tudor building built pre-Great Fire of London, is someone’s house. Excellent.
Because of this, there was a fascinating feel to the Tower that I really wasn’t anticipating – a sense of continuing history. You can’t hope to imagine what it was really like in the past, because there never was a fixed past. The place is constantly changing and is less a story of state power than a history of royal whims, architectural trends and the impact of mass tourism.
Squeezing in time for an ‘authentic’ Georgian onion soup, we spent a good four hours there – enough time to get well and truly sick of displays of armour. But I’d go back. Definitely.
Tags: go see this, London
January 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
If you do go back, try and jump on one of the Beefeater guided tours (free)- we did last time and it brings the place to life, well worth doing..
January 21st, 2009 at 9:36 am
Well, despite me saying that it wasn’t too busy, the tours were actually really busy. We started off on one, but the group was just too big so we decided to go it alone with the trusty guidebook. I think that the tours would be good though – hopefully full of interesting anecdotes and stories – so yes, I’ll try again next time.
I’m impressed that you’ve been though, PM. Hardly anyone I know from England has been since they were 10!
January 21st, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Hmmmm – the last time I went I was actually ten, and we only went back to take the kids ( guess how old, the eldest was at the time – yes, 10)
January 21st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Congrats! That’s cool. It’s always neat to win something. I went to the Tower of London some years ago when I went on a trip to the UK.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I went with a couple of friends about three years ago – I hadn’t been since I was a kid – and like you I was amazed by the historical scope of the place. It’s fascinating. I also had a good anti-monarchist rant in front of the crown jewels!
Ever been to Bodiam Castle? The Boleyn family’s old home, and the seat of much Tudor plotting and shenanigans. A fab little bonsai castle, with wonderful walled gardens. One for spring.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:22 pm
PS. Oops. Put ‘Bodiam’ – meant ‘Hever’. Silly me.
January 21st, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Also check out Knowle Park in Sevenoaks – the largest collection of Stuart furniture you’ve ever seen some with unfaded fabrics spyholes, and the most incredible room for if the King ever dropped in – Middle Ages blingery
Also The Beatles filmed Strawberry Fields there..
January 21st, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Come on, what was the competition you entered? I’m guessing that this wasn’t the first prize, even if you did enjoy yourself?!
January 21st, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Keith, were you 10 when you visited the Tower of London?!
Thanks for your tips ISBW and PM. I’ve googled both options and when I manage to get up early enough to trek to the other side of London (ie. when Winter is dead and buried) I might well go. They look like good fine proper castles and a good opportunity to make more of my NT membership.
Ah, Dylan, it was the prize actually! I just hit return on an email promoting winter activities in the City of London and didn’t possibly expect to win. In fact I shouldn’t have because 1. I work in the sector and 2. it’s used up all my luck so I’ll NEVER win the free trips to NYC, Tokyo and Sydney that I really want to win.
And for the handful of people reading this who I suspect work or live down the road from where I am, you might like to subscribe to City of London’s eshot for your own opportunity to win free tickets in London… http://fs3.emv2.com/uk/cityoflondon/email/join/join.htm