FIVE GORY TALES FORM THE TOWER

Onboard your Thames Rib Experience you’ll hear stories from London’s 2,000 history, but no site has more ghoulish tales than the Tower of London.

The Tower of London was built between 1078 and 1220, and is the oldest inhabited castle in England. It was originally called ‘Castle of the White Tower’ until Henry III renamed it after his wife Eleanor of Provence.

Today, the Tower of London is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is open to visitors every day. There are over 300 rooms within the walls of the Tower, and each room tells its own story. Some of them include torture chambers, murder holes, and even a dungeon.

Said to be one of the most haunted sites in all of the city, the nearly 1,000 year old Tower of London has plenty of infamous stories. Come on board our Thames RIB Experience guided trips for the full story, but here are the five of the most ghoulish tales: ⁠
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1. Guy Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London after his part in a plot to assassinate James I at parliament in 1605. Imprisoned in the Queen’s House, Guy Fawkes was subjected to intense torture, likely on the rack in the White Tower dungeons. Some say you can still hear his screams.⁠
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2. For hundreds of years the Tower doubled up as a royal zoo, with all sorts of animals held there. It’s said that bears were a particularly exotic delight for Londoners to come and poke in their cages. To this day the ghost of a bear is said to appear from behind the door of The Jewel Room⁠
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3. In 1957, Welsh Guardsman Johns was on sentry duty at the Salt Tower when he encountered a shapeless form with the face of a young woman, perhaps one of the many women who suffered a terrible fate at the Tower of London.⁠
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4. The Tower of London is protected by the Yeoman Warders, nicknamed Beefeaters. In 1864, Captain J.D Dundas observed a Yeoman attempting to charge a ‘whitish, female figure’ with his bayonet. Chillingly, this apparition appeared in the courtyard where Anne Boleyn was beheaded.⁠
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5. Last must not least, one of the saddest tales has to be that of Anne Boleyn. The second wife of Henry VIII, and the first wife he executed, Anne is the most famous and persistent of all Tower ghosts. She is seen on the Tower Green where she was executed, in St. Peter where she was buried, and wandering corridors as a headless body.⁠

So hop on board your Thames RIB experience and uncover London’s haunted past.