| Tower Hill | |
|---|---|
 10 Trinity Square, Tower Hill | |
  Tower Hill | |
| OS grid reference | TQ333806 |
| • Charing Cross | 2 mi (3.2 km) W |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | EC3N |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°30′31″N0°04′42″W / 51.5085°N 0.0782°W /51.5085; -0.0782 | |
Tower Hill is the area surrounding theTower of London in theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher ground north-west of the Tower of London moat is now occupied by Trinity Square Gardens.
Tower Hill rises from the north bank of theRiver Thames to reach a maximum height of 14.5 metres (48 ft)Ordnance Datum.[1] The land was historically part of theLiberties of the Tower of London, an area the Tower authorities controlled to keep clear of any development which would reduce the defensibility of the Tower. Building has encroached to a degree, but a legacy of this control is that much of the hill is still open. The hill includes land on either side of theLondon Wall, a large remnant of which is visible.[2]
Generally speaking, the nameTower Hill informally applies to those parts of theTower Liberty that are outside theTower of London and its moat.Great Tower Hill is the land lying inside (or west) of the line of theLondon Wall whereasLittle Tower Hill is the land outside (or east) of the wall.[3]
Public executions of high-profile traitors and criminals, oftenattainted peers, as well as innocent Catholics in the 16th century, were carried out on Tower Hill (some others were carried out within the confines of the Tower of London itself). The backgrounds to those carried out at Tower Hill ranged from thePeasants' Revolt of 1381 to theWars of the Roses;Lollardism; claims to the throne byPerkin Warbeck andLambert Simnel; theEnglish Reformation; thePilgrimage of Grace; theMonmouth Rebellion; theJacobite Rising and theGordon Riots of 1780. Lord Lovat's execution for high treason in 1747 was the last judicial beheading in England while the final executions on Tower Hill were hangings in 1780. Some 120 executions are chronicled and they include:-
After the abandonment of Tower Hill as a site for public executions, Trinity Square and Gardens were laid out in 1797 bySamuel Wyatt as the setting forTrinity House, completed a year earlier as headquarters of theCorporation of Trinity House.
In the 1880s, a section of the London UndergroundCircle Line was constructed beneath Trinity Square Gardens. In the first decade of the 20th century small buildings, courts and yards bordering Trinity Square were cleared to make way for the construction of the Port of London Authority headquarters at10 Trinity Square. Begun in 1912 and completed in 1922, the Grade II* building is now a Four Seasons hotel which opened as such on 26 January 2017.[11]
TheMerchant Navy Memorial, First World War section, Grade I-listed, was unveiled by Queen Mary (deputising for her husband, KingGeorge V) on 12 December 1928.[12] To avoid overshadowing this, the Grade II* Second World War section is in the form of a sunken garden and was unveiled by The Queen on 5 December 1955[13] while that commemorating merchant seamen killed in the 1982Falklands War was unveiled on 4 September 2005 by the First Sea Lord, Admiral SirAlan West.
In October 1933,Reverend P B ("Tubby") Clayton ofAll Hallows by the Tower and Dr B R Leftwich published "The Pageant of Tower Hill", which included the outline of a scheme to improve Tower Hill. In December 1933 the inaugural meeting of the Tower Hill Improvement Fund was held.Lord Wakefield was elected president and launched an appeal at theGuildhall in January 1934.[14]
One of the Trust's first actions was to create abeach on the north bank of theThames between St Katherine's Steps and theTower for families from theEast End.[14]
In 1937 the Fund became the Tower Hill Improvement Trust and set about purchasing a number of buildings it consideredeyesores. These were demolished in order to provide gardens and open public spaces. Among the buildings demolished was the giant Myer's tea warehouse, which stood next to All Hallows and blocked the view of the Tower from the west.[14]
During 2001–2003 the Trust part-financed the refurbishment of Trinity Square Gardens.[14]
In June 2006 the Trust's name was shortened to Tower Hill Trust.[14]
The street of Tower Hill, within theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets, adjoins theCity of London atByward Street and runs eastwards toMinories and Tower Bridge Approach. It replaced Postern Row in the 1880s and was widened and extended a decade later.[15][16][17] Tower Hill is in theLondon congestion charge zone from its junction with Minories westwards.
A pedestrian subway linksTower Hill tube station to the boundary of the Tower of London where the remains of the south tower of the medievalpostern gate are visible.
Tower Hill Terrace is the pedestrian way that runs south offTower Hill to Gloucester Court and also the adjoining paved public space, redeveloped in 2019, atop the Tower Vaults shopping complex.[18] A floor plaque in Tower Vaults commemorates its re-opening in 1991 as the surviving part of the 1864 George Myers built Mazawattee Tea Warehouse, extensively bomb-damaged in Second World War air raids and later demolished.
No. 7 of the original 31Tower Liberty boundary markers is sited at the bottom of the steps linking Gloucester Court to Tower Hill Terrace and no. 8 is positioned at the base of the circular concrete air duct adjoining Tower Hill.[19]
Immediately east of the Tower of London Welcome Centre on Great Tower Hill are the buried structural remains of the medieval Bulwark Gate andbastion. The lower half of Tower Hill was enclosed in the late 15th century to protect the western entrance to the Tower of London. The large brick bastion commissioned byEdward IV extended part way up Tower Hill fromTower Dock, but was demolished in 1668.[20]
Tower Subway is a tunnel under theThames running from Tower Hill to Vine Lane inSouthwark. The round brick-built entrance building near the Tower of London's ticket office was constructed in 1926 by theLondon Hydraulic Power Company.[21] The year of 1868 visible on the structure refers to theTower Subway Act 1868 which authorised the construction of the tunnel.[22]
The grade II listed formerpump house (Tower of London shop) was built in 1863 and designed by the architectAnthony Salvin.[23]
London Buses route 15 east toBlackwall and west toTrafalgar Square runs along Tower Hill.Tower Hill tube station is adjacent andTower Gateway DLR station close by as is Tower Pier for London River Services.
Media related toTower Hill at Wikimedia Commons
