Miscellaneous Inner Ward

From Near Bloody Tower

    This is the view from the southern inner wall between a block of houses, including the Queen's House, on the left, and the Bloody Tower on the right.  Although Sir Walter Raleigh was once imprisoned in the Bloody Tower, it is most famous as the possible scene of the imprisonment and murder of the Princes of the Tower by Richard III or his goons.  (Experts say it was probably in the White Tower.)  In the background is the Wellington Barracks on the left and White Tower on the right.  The remains of the wall of the innermost ward can be seen to the left of the Bloody Tower.  The remains of the Coldharbour Gate through that wall are visible jutting out from the White Tower.  The area of the innermost ward once held the Great Hall and a number of other buildings which have since been demolished.

    Let's continue clockwise around the inner ward.

Queen's House

    This is the view looking across Tower Green from the scaffold site.  Here behind the camera, on rare occasions someone was executed instead before a mob on Tower Hill.  This was when either the king would be embarrassed, or the king didn't want to embarrass his victim.  The Tudor style area is the Queen's House, although she rarely stays there.  Guy Fawkes and Rudolph Hess, or someone who looked like him, have spent some time in the house.  The Queen's House and the houses on either end are used by Tower officials.

Off the picture to the right is the area of the Queen's House.  Visible on the right are part of the reconstructed south walls with Tower Bridge behind.  In the center is the White Tower, to the left of which are the mostly obscured Hospital Block, the Fusiliers' Museum, and Wellington Barracks.

Wellington Barracks is the prominent building here, built in the 1800s, which now displays the crown jewels.  The grand Storehouse was here until it burned down.  On the far left are houses which are along the same line as the Queen's House, and the stone building is the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula.

The Fusiliers' Museum on the left was built around the time of the Wellington Barracks, and served as the Officers' Mess.  In the center is the early 18th century Board of Ordnance building called the Hospital Block after its later use.  Next is the late 17th century New Armouries, a storehouse, and on the far right are the remains of the inner ward walls which encircled the area south of the White Tower, off the picture to the right.
 

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