The Tower of London

In front of you is England's most famous fortress. After his victory at Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror needed to control London, the richest city in the kingdom, and he did it the Norman way: with a castle. Around the 1070s he began the great stone keep you see in the middle, the White Tower, in the south-east corner of the old Roman wall.

1A tower built to impress

Almost 30 metres tall, the White Tower loomed over a London of timber houses. Some of its stone came all the way across the Channel from Caen, in Normandy. Its name came later, in the 13th century, when Henry III had it whitewashed. Later kings added two rings of walls, more towers and the moat, until it became the concentric fortress you see today.

2Much more than a prison

The Tower is famous as a prison, and it earned that reputation: in 1483 the two sons of Edward IV, known as the Princes in the Tower, vanished here, and in 1536 Anne Boleyn was beheaded inside its walls. But for centuries it was also a royal residence, an arsenal, a record office, the Royal Mint and even a zoo: the royal menagerie stayed here until the 1830s. Today it holds the Crown Jewels and has been a World Heritage Site since 1988.

The belief that the kingdom will fall if the ravens leave the Tower is a tradition; there is no evidence that it is ancient.

3What to look for

• The White Tower and its four turrets, one of them round.
• The moat, drained in the 19th century and now grassed over.
• The Yeoman Warders in their dark blue and red uniforms, if one passes the entrance.