The Thames curves south past the ancient walls of the Tower of London, and six ravens — legally required to be in residence by Royal Decree — make their morning circuits around Tower Green. The Tower has stood on this site since William the Conqueror raised its central keep around 1078, and in the nearly thousand years since, it has served as royal palace, treasury, armory, mint, and prison. Its walls have absorbed more human suffering than most cities accumulate across their entire existence.
The most documented apparition is Anne Boleyn, executed and buried beneath the floor of the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula. Witnesses over centuries have described a headless female figure, identified by her dress and bearing, leading a procession toward the chapel. Restorations in the 1870s uncovered human remains under the altar identified as hers. The Tower’s other persistent presence is harder to consider: in 1483, twelve-year-old Edward V and his nine-year-old brother Richard, Duke of York, were placed in the Tower by their uncle Richard of Gloucester, ostensibly to await a coronation. They were seen with decreasing frequency, then not at all. In 1674, workers repairing the White Tower unearthed two small skeletons near a staircase. The most widely accepted conclusion — that they were murdered on Richard’s orders after he took the throne as Richard III — has never been conclusively proven.
Today the Tower is a UNESCO World Heritage Site welcoming more than two million visitors a year. Yeoman Warder tours run throughout the day, sharing the history — including the ghost stories — with the authority of people who have drawn their own conclusions. The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, where Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard are buried, can be visited. The Crown Jewels are here. The building rewards a slower pace.
Story Source: www.hrp.org.uk
