Tower of London
About Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded toward the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was initially a resented symbol of oppression. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. The Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under kings Richard I, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries.
On the show · 59 mentions total
The Tower of London keeps a beefeater whose whole family lives there to look after the ravens, because of an enduring myth that if the ravens left the Tower, England would fall.
from 233: No Such Thing As A Sexy Question Mark · read transcript
More facts about Tower of London
The last prisoners held at the Tower of London were the Kray brothers, locked up in 1952 for dodging national service because their regiment was based there, before they became famous gangsters.
233: No Such Thing As A Sexy Question Mark · listen
The Tower of London once kept a polar bear, a white bear, which used to swim in the Thames on a long leash.
53: No Such Thing As A 3000km Tall Statue Of Liberty · listen
From the first one to the present day there have been only about 400 beef eaters, fewer than the number of people who have been in space.
233: No Such Thing As A Sexy Question Mark · listen
Every beef eater at the Tower gets one bottle of gin on their birthday, and the Beefeater gin brand is nothing to do with them.
233: No Such Thing As A Sexy Question Mark · listen
A suit of armour built in 1520 for the Field of the Cloth of Gold is kept at the Tower of London, and in 1962 a NASA space-suit team visited it and the Tower sent them data to help build better suits.
129: No Such Thing As Jack The Stripper · listen
The Tower's constable was historically allowed to keep any livestock that fell off Tower Bridge into the river, and received one penny for every foot of livestock that stumbled into the Tower moat.
233: No Such Thing As A Sexy Question Mark · listen
Beefeaters are officially called yeoman warders, and the toast to a new one is, may you never die a yeoman warder.
233: No Such Thing As A Sexy Question Mark · listen
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Coordinates: 51.5081, -0.0759