It might seem strange that a guy from Northern Ireland would wait until his mid-thirties before touring the Tower of London in England. In fact, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I have walked past the beast and always thought “someday I should go there”.
I ended up taking a tour of the Tower of London on my most recent trip.
The Tower of London can be reached through the Tower Hill station on the London Underground or on the DLR Tower Gateway. Alternatively if you fancy a walk, it’s a short walk from Monument, Bank or Liverpool Street.
With your ticket you get given a map and a brochure which has a quick map and guide to the key sights of the tour. I made my way round the sights myself and have highlighted my top picks below.
The Crown Jewels (first photo above). World famous, sparkling and extravagant.
The Line of Kings — inside the White Tower the lasting impression I had was the “Line of Kings” where several former kings of England have their own glass boxes with their armoured suits in them. Horses, weaponry and information accompany the display and photography is allowed.
The Line of Kings
The Royal Mint exhibition gives an insight into the coinage history of England and the UK. You can see how the coins are made and the progression of British coinage over the years.
Coin Exhibition
A raven at the Tower of London. Massive black ravens reside at the Tower of London and you can get up close to photograph them.
The Royal Beasts display is great as it gives a thorough history of the animals that were brought to England from abroad – elephants, snakes and even kangaroos were all once here!
The central White Tower is a must on your visit – it’s the largest display and museum part and takes a good hour to see it all.
The White Tower inside.
This tower is famous for the wrong reasons, as the title suggests. Horrifically , the sons of King Edward IV were murdered here.
The Bloody Tower
The Bloody Tower
The Lower Wakefield Tower was used to torture those guilty of offences not deemed bad enough for death but for torture sessions. You can see the deadly mechanisms used to torture people back in the day.
The torture tower
The torture tower
If you’re lucky you might get to see a Royal – it’s all about the right place and the right time.
Yeoman Warder presentation to the Queen – photo copyright and credit from Tower of London.
Tower Gardens
Jonny Blair is a self confessed traveling nomad who founded and blogs at Don’t Stop Living. He sees every day as an adventure. Since leaving behind his home town of Bangor in Northern Ireland ten years ago he has traveled to all seven continents, working his way through various jobs and funding it all with hard work and an appetite for travel. Don’t Stop Living, a lifestyle of travel’ contains over 1,000 stories and tips from his journeys round the globe. He wants to show others how easy it is to travel the world, give them some ideas and encourage them to do the same but most of all he aims to constantly live a lifestyle of travel. He is currently based in Hong Kong and on Twitter @jonnyblair.
