When Edward IV died in 1483, his brother Richard of Gloucester quickly took charge of Edward’s sons, 12-year-old King Edward V and his brother Richard. He declared the boys illegitimate and had them sent to the Tower, ostensibly for their own safety. Richard of Gloucester was crowned Richard III and the two princes were forgotten. In the autumn of 1483 there were rumours that they had been found suffocated in the Garden Tower where they were living, and their bodies hurriedly buried. The Garden Tower was known ever after as the BLOODY TOWER. In 1674, during the reign of Charles II, two small skeletons were found under the stair to St John’s Chapel and were reburied in Westminster Abbey.
Although it had always held prisoners, the Tower really got its reputation for cruelty during the Reformation, when Henry VIII sent so many there to be tortured or beheaded for refusing to sign the Oath of Supremacy. SIR THOMAS MORE and BISHOP FISHER were both executed on Tower Hill in 1535, for refusing to sign, and THOMAS CROMWELL in 1540, for making Henry marry ‘the Mare of Flanders’, Anne of Cleves.
While high-profile executions took place in public on Tower Hill, a scaffold was erected inside the walls on Tower Green for unpopular beheadings that might incite a riot, particularly those of women. Among the unfortunates who lost their heads on Tower Green were ANNE BOLEYN in 1536, three years to the day after her coronation, CATHERINE HOWARD in 1542 and LADY JANE GREY in 1554. Those executed on Tower Green are buried in the Chapel Royal of ST PETER AD VINCULA, THE OLDEST ROYAL CHAPEL IN ENGLAND.
The LAST MONARCH TO OCCUPY THE TOWER was JAMES I. THE LAST MAN TO BE EXECUTED ON TOWER HILL was the Jacobite peer, the 11th LORD LOVAT, in 1747.
In 1804 the ROYAL MENAGERIE was opened for the public to come and see, and this is where William Blake saw his ‘Tyger! Tyger! burning bright …’ In 1835 one of the lions in the menagerie attacked a member of the garrison and the animals were moved to the new zoo in Regent’s Park. Only the ravens remain, their wings clipped to prevent them flying away – lest, as legend has it, the kingdom should fall.
THE LAST EVER PRISONERS at the Tower of London were REGGIE AND RONNIE KRAY who were held there in the early 1950s before being sent to Shepton Mallet Military Prison for deserting from their national service.
Tower Bridge
Open Up
TOWER BRIDGE, AS the most recognisable of all London’s bridges, is often mistaken for London Bridge. Opened in 1894, it was the last of the Victorian bridges across the Thames and is LONDON’S ONLY BRIDGE THAT OPENS. It was designed by Horace Jones and built by Sir John Wolfe Barry, the son of Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament. Its total length is 800 ft (244 m) and it has a central span of 200 ft (61 m), with each of the lifting bascules weighing 1,000 tons. The towers are each 213 ft (65 m) high and are linked by twin walkways 142 ft (43 m) above the water. These were closed in 1910, having become a haunt for prostitutes and pickpockets, but have recently reopened.
For the first few years of its life the bridge was opened several times a day. Approaching ships would hoot their horn when they reached Cherry Pier downstream, as a signal that they wished to come through. Today, 24 hours’ notice is required for the bridge to open. In 1952 a crowded double-decker bus was caught on the bridge as it started to open and the driver had no choice but to accelerate and jump the gap.
St Katharine’s Dock
Oldest Charity
ST KATHARINE’S DOCK, westernmost of London’s wet docks, was opened in 1827 on the site of St Katharine’s Hospital, ENGLAND’S OLDEST ROYAL CHARITY, founded by Queen Matilda in 1148. Covering 25 acres (10 ha), it is Thomas Telford’s only major work in London. During the building of the dock, 11,000 people were forcibly removed from their homes, most without compensation, and the excavated soil was removed up river and deposited on to the marshes to provide level foundations for what became Pimlico. The dock was badly bombed during the Blitz and was the first of London’s docks to undergo redevelopment. It now boasts luxury apartments and shops, a hotel and the Dickens Inn.
It was from St Katharine’s Dock, on 17 September 1921, that ERNEST SHACKLETON left England for the last time, on his final expedition to the Antarctic in the Quest. The following January he died of a heart attack off South Georgia and was buried on the island.
St Katharine’s Royal Foundation still operates from premises on Butcher Row in Limehouse.
Wilton’s Music Hall
Oldest Music Hall
JUST AROUND THE corner is Grace’s Alley, a short, nondescript alleyway that hides a truly remarkable secret. The only hint of what lies behind the terrace of five ordinary houses is an iron gas lamp and a battered wooden door with some worn stone carvings on the adjoining pillars. That door opens on to one of London’s most spectacular secrets, WILTON’S MUSIC HALL, THE OLDEST SURVIVING MUSIC-HALL IN THE WORLD.
It started life as a small saloon theatre in the back room of a pub called the Prince of Denmark, but nicknamed as the Mahogany Bar because it was THE FIRST PUB IN LONDON TO HAVE MAHOGANY FITTINGS. In 1850 JOHN WILTON bought the pub and expanded the saloon, calling it Wilton’s Music Hall. It proved so popular that Wilton was able to buy up the neighbouring properties and expand into their back yards, where he built a grand new hall with space for up to 1,500 people. It opened in 1859 and was called ‘the handsomest room in town’.
GEORGE LEYBOURNE wrote and first performed ‘Champagne Charlie’ here and the CAN-CAN was premièred at Wilton’s. After a fire the hall finally closed in 1880 and was eventually taken over for use as a Methodist hall by the London Wesleyan Mission. Having no money to spend, they did little to alter the hall, which is partly why it has survived in its original form. During that time the hall was used as a shelter for those involved in the Battle of Cable Street, and for people bombed out of their homes during the Blitz.
After the mission moved out in 1956 the hall became a warehouse and was in danger of falling down until Sir John Betjeman and the British Music Hall Society stepped in to save it. Because the hall was listed it was the only building in the area to survive the various periods of demolition all around. It was a finalist in the BBC’s Restoration series in 2003.
Today Wilton’s is run by the Wilton’s Music Hall Trust and puts on plays, operas, exhibitions and readings. The hall has been left virtually untouched in all its faded, Victorian glory, with the paint peeling and the lighting dim – it is an extraordinarily evocative and moving experience, and all the more so for being so unexpected. Understandably enough, Wilton’s is a popular film location. Parts of the 1992 Lord Attenborough film Chaplin starring Robert Downey Jr. were shot here, as were scenes from Tom Cruise’s Interview with a Vampire. Other projects that have been filmed at Wilton’s include The Importance of Being Earnest, Tipping the Velvet and Houdini, with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
London Docks
International News
THE LONDON DOCKS were filled in during the early 1980s and almost immediately captured the news headlines when Rupert Murdoch’s News International, publishers of The Times and the Sun, moved from the old unionised Fleet Street to a purpose-built site here on Pennington Street. Print workers made redundant by the new technology blockaded ‘Fortress Wapping’ with picket lines, and there were violent clashes with the police. Not a single day of printing was lost, however, and today all the major newspapers have left Fleet Street, many moving to docklands.
News International now plans to move its print works out to new premises in Enfield, Liverpool and Glasgow over the next few years, and although the editorial staff will remain in Wapping, the company intends to develop the site for offices.
Located just behind the printing works is TOBACCO DOCK. It was here, where the Ornamental Canal turns sharp right into the dock, that Pierce Brosnan, as James Bond, soaked two traffic wardens during the boat chase in the pre-title sequence of the 1999 film The World Is Not Enough.
Jamrach
A Boy and His Tiger
NOT FAR FROM Tobacco Dock, on Ratcliff Highway, stood one of London’s
more unusual retail outlets, JAMRACH’S Animal Emporium. Charles Jamrach came to England from Hamburg in 1843 and opened a shop supplying zoos, menageries and private collectors with every kind of wild and exotic animal imaginable. Seafarers who came to the Port of London from all over the world knew that Jamrach would purchase any creature they brought with them – tigers, parrots, snakes, bears, monkeys, elephants, reptiles – and his store became THE LARGEST PET SHOP IN THE WORLD. As can be imagined, keeping wild animals in a crowded city resulted in any number of incidents. By the north entrance to Tobacco Dock is a statue of a boy standing in front of a tiger, which commemorates an incident when a tiger escaped from Jamrach’s shop, wandered down the street and carried off a small boy who had approached it with the intention of stroking its nose. Jamrach leapt into action, gave chase and thrust his bare hands in between the tiger’s jaws, forcing the animal to release the boy, who ran away unscathed.
Well, I never knew this
ABOUT
TOWER
Half-way up TOWER HILL is a small round brick building that marks the entrance to THE WORLD’S FIRST UNDERGROUND TUBE RAILWAY, the TOWER SUBWAY. It was built beneath the Thames in 1869, using the new tunnelling shield designed by James Henry Greathead, and was THE FIRST TUNNEL EVER TO BE LINED WITH CAST IRON INSTEAD OF BRICK. At first, cable-hauled trams carried 12 passengers at a time through the tunnel, but this proved financially unviable and it was converted into a foot tunnel with steam lifts at either end. The tunnel closed in 1896 after Tower Bridge opened and people could cross the river for free.
The only staircase in the White Tower is in the north-east corner and established the custom of building staircases that spiralled upwards in a clockwise direction, allowing the defender to wield his sword in his right hand.
In 1415, after the Battle of Agincourt, the DUKE OF ORLEANS, nephew of the French king, was brought to the Tower as a hostage. While a prisoner there he wrote THE FIRST VALENTINE CARD, a love poem to his wife.
Henry VII was responsible for forming the YEOMAN WARDERS, better known as BEEFEATERS. The name derived either from the French ‘buffetier’, meaning food taster, or from the French belief that all Englishmen eat roast beef, a French description for the English being ‘les rosbifs’.
To the north of St Katharine’s Dock, where Cable Street meets Dock Street, there is a red plaque commemorating THE BATTLE OF CABLE STREET, fought on 4 October 1936 between East Enders, protesting against a march by Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts, and police attempting to clear the way for the marchers. A bus was turned over to use as a barricade, Mosley’s motor car was pelted with bricks, and there was some of the most bitter hand-to-hand fighting ever seen in London. There were many arrests, but the East Enders stood firm and the march had to be abandoned.
EAST END RIVERSIDE
WAPPING – SHADWELL – LIMEHOUSE
18th-century Wapping – St John’s Church and School
Wapping
The World’s Port
THE WALK FROM St Katharine’s Dock to Limehouse along WAPPING HIGH STREET is one of the most thrilling in London. In the 18th and 19th centuries London was the busiest port in the world, and this area was its bustling maritime quarter. Sailors and stevedores came here from all over the world looking for work in the docks or entertainment in one of the hundreds of pubs. The dreaded pressgangs roamed the streets, ready to pounce on anyone careless enough to get too drunk to run or hide, who were then themselves forced to join the navy. There is still a faint tang of danger hereabouts, but of a Disneyesque quality, for the whole waterfront strip has been gentrified and made safe. Nonetheless the dark alleyways and narrow cobbled streets with towering warehouse walls on either side still reek of history and intrigue.
The first point of interest along the way is the unexpected glory that is WAPPING PIER HEAD. Here two terraces of handsome Georgian houses face each other across a delightful patch of garden, covering a former entrance to the old London Docks. These beautiful buildings, standing right beside the river, with fine views of Tower Bridge, were built in 1811 for officials of the London Dock Company and are among the most desirable residences in London.
Close by, a narrow passageway alongside the Town of Ramsgate pub leads to WAPPING OLD STAIRS where, in 1671, COLONEL THOMAS BLOOD (1618–80) was apprehended while trying to escape with Charles II’s crown jewels. Blood and his companions, having spent some weeks gaining the trust of Talbot Edwards, the Keeper of the Crown Jewels, eventually hit the poor man over the head, stuffed the jewels into a sack, and made off with them. They ran straight into the Keeper’s son, who chose that moment to pay his father an unexpected visit, and they were caught red-handed, although Blood managed to make it as far as Wapping Old Stairs before being captured. After spending some time in the Tower, Blood was given a full pardon and a pension by Charles II, leading many to think that the cash-strapped King had actually arranged for Blood to steal the jewels and sell them off for ready money.
Town of Ramsgate
Judge’s End
THE TOWN OF Ramsgate is one of several pubs in the area with claims to be the oldest riverside pub in London, and there is thought to have been a tavern on the site since around 1460. Originally the Red Cow, the pub takes its present name from the fishermen of Ramsgate who used to tie up here while waiting to land their catch at Billingsgate. Convicts were chained up in the pub cellars before being taken down the Old Stairs to be put on to transport ships bound for Australia. CAPTAIN BLIGH and FLETCHER CHRISTIAN are said to have met here for a drink in 1787 before setting off for the Pacific and mutiny on the Bounty. Bligh lived nearby in Rearden Street.
In 1688, after the fall of James II, the King’s brutal Lord Chancellor, the ‘hanging’ JUDGE JEFFREYS, was caught here while trying to flee from retribution for sentencing over 300 men to death after the Monmouth Rebellion. Disguised as a common sailor from Newcastle, his clothes torn and covered in coal dust, he went into the Red Cow for a drink while waiting for his boat to leave, confident that no one would recognise him. It was the Judge’s bad luck, however, that a clerk he had once bullied in court saw him sitting in the window and, recognising the cruel face he would never forget, raised the alarm. The pub was surrounded by an angry crowd, and Jeffreys was only just rescued from being torn to pieces by the vengeful mob through the intervention of a band of militia men. They carted him off to the Tower, ironically where the Judge himself had sent so many men to die, and where he was later executed.
Execution Dock
Oldest Police Force
FURTHER ON, AND conspicuous in white among the grey warehouses, is the striking modern headquarters of the Thames River Police, THE OLDEST ORGANISED POLICE FORCE IN THE WORLD, founded as the Marine Police in 1798 to deal with thieving from ships moored in the river. A plaque marks the site of their original headquarters a little way downstream.
The police HQ is located close to the site of EXECUTION DOCK, where pirates and mutinous seamen were brought to hang with great spectacle and ceremony. The scaffold stood on the river bed, and victims were left dangling while the tide washed over them three times. By the time the river had finished with them the bodies were filled with water and grotesquely bloated, and there are those who like to say that this was the origin of the word ‘whopper’ (Wappinger).
The unfortunate CAPTAIN KIDD was dispatched here in 1701 – having been sent by the Government to discourage pirates in the Indian Ocean, he became one himself. He was eventually arrested in Boston, Massachusetts, having hidden the cargo of his latest conquest, the Qeudah Merchant, on an unnamed Caribbean island. Treasure hunters are still searching for it today.
Shadwell
River Views
THE PROSPECT OF Whitby on Wapping Wall is another to claim the title of London’s oldest riverside pub – there has been a tavern here since at least 1520, so it is certainly a contender. Frequented by every kind of smuggler and villain, the place became known as ‘Devil’s Tavern’ until it burned down in the 18th century. It wa
s rebuilt and took the name Prospect of Whitby from a collier which used to moor outside the inn and became something of a local landmark. Among the many notables known to have enjoyed a drink and the wonderful river views from its balconies are Judge Jeffreys, Samuel Pepys, J.M.W. Turner and Charles Dickens. Another was James McNeill Whistler, who lived nearby and painted many views of the Thames from Wapping.
The huge red-brick building with a tall square tower, opposite the Prospect of Whitby, was built as a pumping station for the LONDON HYDRAULIC POWER COMPANY. Hydraulic power was introduced to the docks in 1852 by the industrialist and inventor Sir William Armstrong and was used to operate the cranes and lock gates and bridges, such as the nearby Shadwell Bridge (see below). The tower, known as an accumulator tower, was pumped full of water during off-peak hours by steam pumps. The water raised a weighted plunger filled with stones, ready to provide power during busy periods. This particular building was the last of the hydraulic pumping stations to shut down, finally closing in 1977. It is now a café and exhibition centre laid out around the old turbines, and there is an unusual viewing platform on the roof.
The extraordinarily cumbersome looking SHADWELL BRIDGE, which takes Glamis Road across the entrance to Shadwell Basin, is raised by filling the huge red tank at one end with water pumped from the accumulator tank of the London Hydraulic Power Company. The weight then lowers the tank and raises the roadway. Simple but effective.
St Paul’s Shadwell
Birthplace of a President
SOARING HIGH ABOVE the rooftops on the north side of Shadwell Basin is the slender spire of ST PAUL’S CHURCH, designed by John Walters and the only surviving example of his work. It was built in 1821 to replace an earlier, 17th-century church known as the Church of Sea Captains, since most of the congregation were seafaring folk. It is said that 75 sea captains are buried in the churchyard.
I Never Knew That About London Page 16