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The London Dungeon. --
28 - 34 Tooley Street, London, SE1 2SZ
Transport yourself back to the darkest moments in the capital's history within the deep depths of the London Dungeon. Live actors, shows, rides and interactive special effects ensure that you face your fears head on in this unique experience. Everything that you see is based on real historical events from Jack the Ripper, to the Great Fire of London, torture and the plague. With two scary rides the London Dungeon provides a thrilling and fun experience that will leave your family screaming for more! Ninety minutes of thrills and chill . . are you brave enough?
New Feature for 2009
Guests to the London Dungeon's newest experience should hold onto their stomachs and prepare to witness history's most horrific blood soaked surgery in graphic, gangrenous detail as Surgery: Blood and Guts opens Easter 2009.
Tower of London -- In the early 1080s, William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Tower of London -- In the early 1080s, William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. Nothing like it had ever been seen before.
Through the centuries that followed, successive monarchs added to the fortifications. This short history charts the different stages of its construction and explains its role as fortress, palace and prison.
It is not clear exactly when work started on the Conqueror's White Tower or precisely when it was finished but the first phase of building work was certainly underway in the 1070s.
Gundulf, the new Bishop of Rochester, was in charge. Norman masons were employed and some of the building stone was specially imported from William's native Normandy. Labour, however, was provided by Englishmen. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle comments in 1097 that "many shires whose labour was due to London were hard pressed because of the wall that they built around the Tower". By 1100 the White Tower was complete.
The mighty Tower
Nothing quite like it had ever been seen in England before. The building was immense, at 36m x 32.5m (118 x 106ft) across, and on the south side where the ground is lowest, 27.5m (90ft) tall. The Tower dominated the skyline for miles around.
The Crown Jewels are displayed at the Jewel House in the Tower of London and can be viewed there by the public.
The coronation of a new sovereign is one of the monarchy's most glittering pageants, staged in the gothic splendour of ancient Westminster Abbey, where every King and Queen of England, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII, has been crowned since King Harold II in 1066. This time honoured ritual emphasizes the continuity and majesty of the British monarchy.
The oldest items in the present coronation regalia date from the Restoration, when they were made for the coronation of King Charles II. The original Crown Jewels were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I in 1649, as they were then considered to be redundant. In an appalling act of historical vandalism, Cromwell had the entire collection sold or melted down and made into coin.
The coronation of a new sovereign is one of the monarchy's most glittering pageants, staged in the gothic splendour of ancient Westminster Abbey, where every King and Queen of England, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII, has been crowned since King Harold II in 1066. This time honoured ritual emphasizes the continuity and majesty of the British monarchy.
The oldest items in the present coronation regalia date from the Restoration, when they were made for the coronation of King Charles II. The original Crown Jewels were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I in 1649, as they were then considered to be redundant. In an appalling act of historical vandalism, Cromwell had the entire collection sold or melted down and made into coin.
Many of these irreplaceable and historic pieces, collected over the centuries, were Saxon or Medieval and included Alfred the Great's State Crown and the eleventh century crown of Queen Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor. There is no certain depiction of the most precious item of the collection, the Crown of St.Edward the Confessor, ( re-named King Alfred's crown after the Reformation). We know the appearance of the State Crown of Henry VII, which shared their fate, as it is depicted in some of the portraits Charles I, by Daniel Mytens and Van Dyck. There were also various sceptres, swords, coronets, rings and an Anglo-Saxon comb, Some of the pieces were probably reclaimed burial regalia, including those stripped from the rich shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey by Henry VIII. Various medieval garments used in past coronation ceremonies were also sold off at the time, an irreparable loss.
