Tower of London
William the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
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One riverside site holds the Norman White Tower (begun 1078), the working Crown Jewels (on display since 1669), and 950 years of imprisonment and execution — now run by a charity, not the Crown.
What to look for
- The six-plus resident ravens, tended by a Ravenmaster — legend says the kingdom falls if they leave
- Beauchamp Tower's brickwork, the first large-scale use of brick in Britain since the Romans left
- Tower Green, where only seven prisoners died privately — those whose public execution was thought too dangerous, like Lady Jane Grey (1554) — versus 112 on Tower Hill just outside
The Yeomen Warders lead the guided tours; the Crown Jewels are housed in the Waterloo Block.
Tower of London is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.
- Palace of WestminsterA working parliament whose rules, by tradition, still assume MPs might draw swords on each other.