Armour for man and horse of King Henry VIII
English, Greenwich, about 1515
This armour was originally silvered and gilt, traces of the silver remaining. It is engraved and stippled with scents in the lives of St George and St Barbara, the patron saints of England and Aragon, and with roses and pomegranates, the badges of their royal houses. The steel skirt imitates the cloth 'bse' sometimes worn with armour at this time. It is ornamented along the lower border with gilt brass initials H and K, for Henry and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, entwined with true lover's knots. The decoration was carried out by the kind's harness gilder, Paul van Vrelant, soon after his arrival in England in1 514. The armour for both man and horse is struck with armourers' marks; the horse armour was made by Martin van Royn, who was Master Armourer at Greenwich by 1514. This parade armour was probably made for the Greenwich tournament in 1516.
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This armour is on display as part of the collection of Royal Armouries. Royal Armouries derives from the great arsenal at the Tower that supplied armour and weapons to the medieval English kings and their armies The present collection took shape in the Reign of Henry VIII (1509-47) who re-stocked the Tower arsenal and also set up a workshop at Greenwich to make fine armour for himself and his court.
While a collection of guns can be found on the entrance floor, the majority or armour is on the first floor of the White Tower at the Tower of London, which also houses the Chapel of St John the Evangelist. It was thought that this floor was used by the King himself. The larger room may have functioned as a "great hall", used for public gaherings, ceremonial and formal meals, the smaller one as a private chamber. By the mid-12th century, however, these apartments had been duplicated by new buildings put up in the area to the south of the White Tower, which gradually replaced it as royal accomodation.
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The Tower Subway is a tunnel beneath the River Thames. Its alignment runs between Tower Hill on the north side of the river and Vine Lane (off Tooley Street) to the south. It was the world's first underground tube railway, though not the first underground railway.
In the 2nd half of the 19th century, increased commercial development in the East End necessitated a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge couldn't be without cuting off access to the port facilities in the Pool of London. So instead the Tower Subway, designed and built by James Henry Greathead, was opened in 1870. It was originally intended to provide a railway service, but the small cable car carrying 12 passengers and taking 70 seconds, was cramped, low-capacity, uneconomical and quickly phased out as the tunnel was converted to pedestrian use only. Once the Tower Bridge opened in 1894, the Tunnel was effectively replaced and closed a few years later.
In the 1920s, the tunnel gained a new purpose as a route for hydraulic tubes operated by the London Hydraulic Power Company, and water mains. It was ater badly damaged by bombing during World War II. While it is no longer used for hydraulic tubes, it still carries water mains.
This small round entrance building survives at Tower Hill. It is not the original entrance, but was built in the 1920s by the London Hydraulic Power Company. It can be seen just to the south of the Tower of London's new ticket office, a short distance to the west of the main entrance to the Tower.
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Tower Bridge, the iconic bascule bridge over the River Thames, gets its name from the nearby Tower of London. Today it is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the Corporation of London.
In the second half of the 19th century, increased commercial development in the East End necessitated a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge couldn't be without cuting off access to the port facilities in the Pool of London. A tunnel beneath the Thames, the Tower Subway, was opened in 1870, but only accommodated pedestrian traffic. In 1876, A Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed to oversee public design competition that attracted over 50 submissions, including one from civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. It was not until 1884 that a design submitted by Horace Jones, the City Architect, was approved.
Jones' design was for a bascule bridge, 800 feet (244 m) in length, with two towers each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on piers. The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. Although each bascule weighs over 1,000 tons, they are counterbalanced to allow raising in one minute. The original hydraulic raising mechanism was powered by pressurized water stored in six accumulators. Water was pumped into the accumulators by steam engines. Today the original hydraulic machinery still opens the bridge, but it has been converted to oil and electric motors have replaced the steam engines.
Construction of the bridge started in 1886 and took 8 years, employing 5 major contractors and 432 construction workers. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk into the river bed to support construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance. Jones died in 1887, and his chief engineer, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, took over the project. Wolfe-Berry replaced Jones' original mediaeval style facade with the distinctive landmark, ornate Victorian gothic style.
The bridge was opened on June 30, 1894 by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, effectively replacing the Tower Subway, 400 m to the west, the world's first underground tube railway. It closed a few years later.
The high-level walkways between the towers became a haunt for prostitutes and pick-pockets, and were closed in 1910. They were reopened as part of the Tower Bridge Experience, an exhibition mostly housed in the bridge's twin towers. The Experience also affords access to the original steam engines, housed in a building close on the south end.
Although river traffic is now a fraction of what it used to be, it still takes priority over road traffic. This nearly caused a diplomatic incident in 1996, when the motorcade of United States President Bill Clinton got stuck on Tower Bridge while the bascules were unexpectedly opened.
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At the southwest corner of the White Tower in the Tower of London, the last traces of something called the Coldharbour Gate can be seen (here with a raven perched atop the sign). In Richard III's time, it served as the entry to the main Inmost Ward area, south of the Tower. In the 1330s, Edward III had his own royal apartments in this Coldharbour Gate. In 1341, these were taken over by the queen and their son, the future Black Prince. Edward had apparently moved his quarters to the south side of the Inmost Ward, to the Lanthorn Tower.
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A view of the Tower Bridge from St. Thomas's Tower in the Tower of London.
Tower Bridge, the iconic bascule bridge over the River Thames, gets its name from the Tower of London. Today it is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the Corporation of London.
In the second half of the 19th century, increased commercial development in the East End necessitated a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge couldn't be without cuting off access to the port facilities in the Pool of London. A tunnel beneath the Thames, the Tower Subway, was opened in 1870, but only accommodated pedestrian traffic. In 1876, A Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed to oversee public design competition that attracted over 50 submissions, including one from civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. It was not until 1884 that a design submitted by Horace Jones, the City Architect, was approved.
Jones' design was for a bascule bridge, 800 feet (244 m) in length, with two towers each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on piers. The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. Although each bascule weighs over 1,000 tons, they are counterbalanced to allow raising in one minute. The original hydraulic raising mechanism was powered by pressurized water stored in six accumulators. Water was pumped into the accumulators by steam engines. Today the original hydraulic machinery still opens the bridge, but it has been converted to oil and electric motors have replaced the steam engines.
Construction of the bridge started in 1886 and took 8 years, employing 5 major contractors and 432 construction workers. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk into the river bed to support construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance. Jones died in 1887, and his chief engineer, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, took over the project. Wolfe-Berry replaced Jones' original mediaeval style facade with the distinctive landmark, ornate Victorian gothic style.
The bridge was opened on June 30, 1894 by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, effectively replacing the Tower Subway, 400 m to the west, the world's first underground tube railway. It closed a few years later.
The high-level walkways between the towers became a haunt for prostitutes and pick-pockets, and were closed in 1910. They were reopened as part of the Tower Bridge Experience, an exhibition mostly housed in the bridge's twin towers. The Experience also affords access to the original steam engines, housed in a building close on the south end.
Although river traffic is now a fraction of what it used to be, it still takes priority over road traffic. This nearly caused a diplomatic incident in 1996, when the motorcade of United States President Bill Clinton got stuck on Tower Bridge while the bascules were unexpectedly opened.
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