Original date of post: September 10, 2013
In my last post, I promised I’d have photos soon. Here you go:
The first photo is the University Center where I will be studying for the duration of my time abroad. The second photo is a shot of a busy London street taken from the top storey of a double-decker bus. The third is the River Thames, which I traveled quit a bit of over the course of the day’s journey.
The day got off to a great start, as I found a Krispy Kreme next to the Holborn Tube station, which is usually how I arrive into London. I get a feeling I’ll be going there a little more often when I have reasons to celebrate…
Today, we were briefed about our classes. All of them seemed quite interesting and exciting in their own ways, but I was especially excited for my history course, London: Biography of a City. I’d like to say that I’m excited because it will offer an in-depth historic look into one of the oldest, most famous, and most multicultural cities in the world, along with contributing to my History major and feeding into my specialty of political history, but I’m going to be completely honest: we’ll be taking field trips to Whitechapel, the Clink, and other places in London that will feed into my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage (yes, I’m capitalizing it now)! This will give me more free time to do other important stuff, like grocery shopping, homework, unpacking (Really? I still haven’t finished that yet?), and other…important things…like hitting up a pub or two…
Anyhoo, today’s main, main event was going to the Tower of London. We left AHA Center via double-decker bus (where I took one of the above pictures), took the time to see a pair of old palaces at Somerset and Savoy, and traversed the River Thames on a boat. As we proceeded east, I managed to spot the London Eye and Big Ben, but was unable to obtain a satisfactory photograph of either. I will remedy this eventually when I visit both landmarks later (hopefully).
Finally, like so many countless convicts and political prisoners in the past, we arrived at the Tower of London, the dreaded gaol, torture chamber, and place of execution (it’s also been a mint, armoury, treasury, military command center, and royal palace, but let’s not get distracted), by boat. Just look how terrified I am!:
…OK, I have a weird way of expressing fear. Actually, I was excited, as I was now finally visiting a destination for my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage (given the Tower’s notoriety for torture, religious persecution, and executions based on trumped-up charges, I use the word “justice” loosely)! There was so much I wanted to see, so I wasted no time going to the keep of the Tower of London, the White Tower!:
(A quick note about the Tower of London, for those who aren’t familiar with it: despite its name, the Tower is actually more of a giant fortified castle with numerous towers and an enormous courtyard.)
The White Tower is one big museum detailing the basic history of the entire Tower of London. In particular, it has a massive display of arms and armour dating back from its garrison days. Along with plenty of medieval European weapons, there were also numerous weapons from various eras and places collected by diplomats and the like. Of all the spears, swords, arrows, etc. in the White Tower, the weapons that drew my eye the most were these bling-tastic guns:
The White Tower is every bit a medieval castle, complete with spiral staircases, imposing stone walls, and an aura of antiquity. The various medieval weapons and suits of armour add to this effect quite nicely. Tourists and guide plaques aside, one could easily imagine that he/she has taken a thousand-year step back in time. I certainly felt this to an extent. Then I turned the corner and saw this:
…I may only be a college student, but I’m fairly certain that this animatronic dragon made of armour that roars and seems to be spitting gold isn’t completely historically accurate. Then again, what do I know?
Given that my next account relates to grisly capital punishment, it’s time to break out the white text! After leaving the White Tower, I almost immediately sought out Tower Green, a space in the courtyard where private beheadings were carried out on certain nobles such as Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey. Since the scaffold was rebuilt every time there was an execution, there was no real singular spot where I could pay my respects. There is, however, a sculpture of a pillow coupled with a circular plaque that lists off those executed at Tower Green with an inscription:
“Gentle visitor pause a while,
Where you stand death cut away the light of many days.
Here, jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life.
May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage,
Under these restless skies.”
Upon reading that, I paused for a moment, suspending my academic fascination of the macabre, and reflected on death, capital punishment, and justice.
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| White text: speaking of beheadings, here's an actual executioner's block and headsman's ax seen in the White Tower |
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| St. Thomas's Tower, coupled with the notorious Tratiors' Gate. Many accused traitors passed through this gate into the Tower via boat. They usually did not live for very long afterward. |
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| A pair of Yeoman Warders (guardians of the Tower of London, colloquially known as "beefeaters"). They were great sports for posing for this picture! |
At this point, I still wanted to see the battlements, the crown jewels, and the Bloody Tower (which was a museum of torture instruments), but a combination of rain, time, and jet lag catching up to me persuaded me to put of explorations until a later date. Still, I walked away satisfied, as I had seen the White Tower, Traitors’ Gate, and Tower Green! I’ve decided that I’ll try to revisit the Tower on a weekend. Thanks to my experience and confidence with the Tube, that should be a snap!
Reflections from 2023 Ben:
Ah, the first stop in my Criminal Justice Pilgrimage! This is also the first time I had photos added to my blog, which livens it up and reminds me that I looked vaguely younger ten years ago. I don't think the last three photos were originally part of this blog post, but I found them looking through my files and they seemed perfect to add. Getting these photo files organized as they originally were may be a little tricky since I don't have the original blog webpage, but I have these files on my phone and Facebook (where I'll also be cribbing some of the photo captions), so I should be able to be mostly accurate.
This was not my only trip to the Tower of London, as I spent a few days exploring the area around it. The Tower of London is also a convenient meeting/transit place due to its proximity to an active Tube station, so I was in proximity to the Tower of London almost any time I got lost during my excursions. For all its reputation of a place of fear, it was a weirdly comforting presence throughout my time in London.
Looking back at this post, it looks like I started using British spellings for common words (namely, "armour" and "storey"). This escalated during the semester, as some of our professors penalized us for using American spellings in papers. British spellings stayed with me for the months following my time abroad, but I've mostly gone back to American spellings in the years since. To this day, I still sometimes accidentally use British spellings in day-to-day writings (and intentionally use British spellings in creative writing when trying to convey that someone has a British accent). I hope no one reading this takes offence at the spellings. ;)
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