Tower of London

I had to go to London again today. Those of you who know me well, will know it is not something I enjoy doing. However, I realise whenever I go that there is so much there for tourists to see. The meeting I went to today was in a building right opposite the Tower of London. Its amazing how life carries on as normal around these places with such a history. When I came out of the meeting I took the picture above.

There were grockels everywhere of every nationality, all looking at the same thing as me. I went round the Tower as a child but have never been since.

I must take my own children one day...

I found out a bit of the history from a few places and its even older than I thought:

The first structure on the site was a motte-and-bailey castle, which was started not long after William the Conqueror became king in 1066, the castle was built on the old Roman walls, which once formed the corner of Londinium. The first stone building on the site was the White Tower, which was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1078 and completed in 1097. Gundulf, who was made bishop of Rochester in 1077, oversaw the building of the tower to its completion. It was a bastion of Norman power, towering 90 feet over the capital city. The White Tower has changed surprisingly little from that time, but other buildings and towers have grown around it, so that there are now around 20 towers, and a mix of different buildings dating from different periods of history.