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The first part of the Tower was built in 1066 by William the Conqueror. Today the Tower serves as a tourist attraction as well as a home to the yeoman warders and their families.
The Tower is most famous for the prisoners who lost their lives there—and who supposedly still haunt the Tower grounds. Take the dark and gloomy Salt Tower, where years ago a yeoman warder claimed he was almost killed by a ghost. “It’s supposed to have quite a few spirits,” James says. “It’s one of the spookiest towers.”
Some people have gruesomely lost their lives at the Tower. At just 16, Lady Jane Grey was dethroned in 1553 after only a nine-day reign, then later beheaded by the new queen. In 1483 two young princes named Edward and Richard mysteriously disappeared. Almost 200 years later bones of two children were found near the White Tower, but no one really knows whose bones they are.
The Tower of London is not just home to ghost stories and bloody legends. There are large birds called ravens lurking there. They eat a special diet of raw meat and blood-soaked biscuits.
Despite looking a bit scary, the ravens are an important part of the Tower’s lore. “If the ravens leave the Tower,” says James, explaining the legend, “then the White Tower—and the monarchy—will crumble.”
But while the ravens are real, James still isn’t convinced ghosts roam the Tower.
Take a short tour of the Tower grounds.
Photographs by Richard T. Nowitz |
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James comes face-to-face with a
raven in front of the White Tower.
James (right) and his father, a yeoman warder, study a map with James’s sister Amelia and his brother Stephen. | |
