White Tower (Tower of London)

The castle which later became known as the Tower of London was begun by William the Conqueror in 1066 and was built as a timber fortification enclosed by a palisade. In the next decade work began on the White Tower, the great stone keep that still dominates the castle today. The precise date of the White Tower's foundation is unknown, and it is also uncertain how long the construction took. It is traditionally held that construction began in 1078. This is because the Textus Roffensis records that Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, oversaw the building work under instruction from William the Conqueror. Dendrochronological evidence suggests construction of the White Tower began in 1075–1079. The archaeology of the standing building suggests there was a pause in construction between 1080 and 1090–1093, although it is unknown why. In 1995, historian Geoffrey Parnell found evidence on the interior side of a wall that, rather than there being a pause, building was completed with a structure two-thirds the present size with a pitched roof, not flat. It was only enlarged to its present size by William Rufus after a hurricane in 1090. The White Tower was multi-purpose. It was the castle's strongest point militarily yet provided accommodation fit for the king and his representatives. In Norman architecture the keep was a symbol of a lord's power. The White Tower was probably complete by 1100 at the latest, at which point it was used to imprison Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham. It was probably during Henry II's reign (1154–1189) that a fore-building was added to the south side of the tower to provide extra defences to the entrance, but it has not survived. Henry III's relations with his barons were uneasy, and in the 1220s and 1230s he enhanced the castle's defences and domestic buildings. Though the work he started may not have been finished within his lifetime, he extended the castle to the north and east, building a new stone wall to enclose the castle. A brattice (a timber gallery) was added to the top of the White Tower, projecting beyond its walls to better defend the base of the tower. Henry also undertook maintenance of the White Tower and it was during his reign that the tradition of whitewashing the building began. In March 1240 the Keeper of the Works at the Tower of London was ordered: "to have the Great Tower whitened both inside and out". Later that year the king wrote to the Keeper, commanding that the White Tower's lead guttering should be extended with the effect that "the wall of the tower ... newly whitened, may be in no danger of perishing or falling outwards through the trickling of the rain". (1394–1465), commemorating his imprisonment there. The white forebuilding to the left of the duke was demolished in 1674. Old London Bridge is in the background at top. (British Library). Activity at the castle in the early 14th century declined relative to previous periods. Though the Tower of London was still occasionally used as a residence, by the 1320s the chapel in the White Tower was used to store records. This marked the beginning of the castle's diminishing role as a royal residence. The records were briefly removed from the White Tower in 1360 to accommodate the captive French king, John II. It may have been during the reign of Edward III (1327–1377) that a building abutting the south side of the White Tower was created. Built as storage, it may have been part of Edward's building programme at the Tower of London which saw its role as a military store come to the fore. The structure no longer survives, but is recorded on plans from 1597 and 1717. In the 1490s a new floor was added to the White Tower, creating extra storage. Architecturally virtually no trace remains of the White Tower's forebuilding, although it appears in a manuscript drawing depicting the imprisonment of Charles, Duke of Orléans and was recorded in a plan of 1597. It was demolished in 1674. On 17 June that year, during the course of the demolition, bones belonging to two children were discovered beneath the stairs in the forebuilding. It was assumed that they belonged to the Princes in the Tower. The remains were re-interred in Westminster Abbey. The story of the Princes in the Tower is one of the most infamous stories related to the castle. After the death of Edward IV his 12-year-old son was declared king as Edward V, but never crowned. Richard Duke of Gloucester was named Lord Protector while the prince was too young to rule. Edward was confined to the Tower of London along with his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury. The Duke of Gloucester was then proclaimed King Richard III in July 1483. The princes had last been seen in public in June 1483; The weight of the guns damaged the roof so that it had to be reinforced. The one documented use of these cannons was during Wyatt's rebellion in 1554 and they were ineffective. By the last quarter of the 16th century the castle was a tourist attraction with visitors allowed inside despite its use by the Offices of Ordnance and Armoury. Its role in providing storage directly impacted on the White Tower's structure, and posts were added to support the floors. In 1636 a hole was knocked through the White Tower's north wall to ease the movement of provisions. In 1639–1640 the White Tower's external appearance was changed, with much of its facing material replaced. By 1657 the entire building apart from the chapel was being used to store gunpowder. While the Tower of London had been open to visitors for centuries, it was not until the early 19th century that alterations were made explicitly for visitors. In 1825 a building, the New Horse Armoury, to contain effigies of England's kings was constructed against the south of the White Tower. The Gothic revival design of the structure – one of the first purpose-built museums in England – was widely reviled. By the end of the century, the effigies and Queen Elizabeth's Armoury were distributed in displays in the White Tower. In the mid-19th century, under the encouragement of Prince Albert, Anthony Salvin undertook a programme of restoration at the castle. In 1858 the White Tower's roof was reinforced with iron girders. On 26 January 1885 a bomb in the White Tower damaged some of the displays. In 1974, there was a bomb explosion in the Mortar Room in the White Tower, leaving one person dead and 35 injured. No one claimed responsibility for the blast, but the police investigated suspicions that the IRA was behind it. In 1988, the Tower of London as a whole was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, in recognition of its global importance and to help conserve and protect the site. The Tower of London is in the care of Historic Royal Palaces, a charity, and between 2008 and 2011 a £2 million conservation programme was undertaken at the White Tower. Repairs were carried out and the keep was cleaned, removing pollution that was causing damage to the structure. The White Tower is a Grade I listed building, and recognised as an internationally important structure. The Royal Armouries still have displays at the White Tower. ==Architecture==

The White Tower is a keep (also known as a donjon), which was often the strongest structure in a medieval castle and contained lodgings suitable for the lord—in this case, the king or his representative. According to military historian Allen Brown, "The great tower [White Tower] was also, by virtue of its strength, majesty and lordly accommodation, the donjon par excellence". One of the largest keeps in the Christian world, the White Tower has been described as "the most complete eleventh-century palace in Europe". The influences on the White Tower's design are unclear. Magnates in northern France had been building stone keeps since the mid-9th century so the general design was well-established. More specifically the keep of Château d'Ivry-la-Bataille, built around 1000, may have been a particularly prominent influence as it included a semi-circular projection in one corner. Allen Brown and P. Curnow suggested that the design may have been based on the now vanished 10th-century keep of Château de Rouen, which belonged to the Dukes of Normandy. At the western corners are square towers, while to the north-east a round tower houses a spiral staircase. At the south-east corner is a larger semi-circular projection which accommodates the apse of the chapel. The White Tower was terraced into the side of a mound, so the northern side of the basement is partially below ground level. Interior The purpose of each room is interpreted based primarily on its design. As a result, there can be some ambiguity in what individual chambers were used for. the bottom floor was an undercroft used for storage. One of the rooms contained a well. Although the layout has remained the same since the tower's construction, the interior of the basement dates mostly from the 18th century when the floor was lowered and the pre-existing timber vaults were replaced with brick counterparts. The White Tower has contained at least two armouries, historically. The Horse Armoury, located on the tower's north side and long and wide, was built in 1825. From its northeast corner, a wooden staircase ornamented with two carvings titled "Gin" and "Beer" ascended to Queen Elizabeth's Armoury. Gin and Beer represent the two most important alcoholic beverages of their time. They are believed to have originally been placed in the great hall at Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. Whalesbourne Whalesbourne was a notorious Tudor dungeon in the White Tower, a central keep in the Tower of London. It was described by Robert Hutchinson as "where sunlight never penetrated, perhaps part of the Coldharbour gate that once stood at the south-eastern corner of the White Tower, where rats supposedly tore flesh...from the arms and legs of prisoners during sleep." St John's Chapel , inside the White Tower The semi-circular projection in the south-east corner to accommodate St John's Chapel is almost unparalleled in castle architecture. The only other keep in England with a similar projection is that of Colchester Castle in Essex, the largest in England. St John's Chapel was not part of the White Tower's original design, as the apsidal projection was built after the basement walls. The chapel's current bare and unadorned appearance is reminiscent of how it would have been in the Norman period. In the 13th century, during Henry III's reign, the chapel was decorated with such ornamentation as a gold-painted cross, and stained glass windows that depicted the Virgin Mary and Holy Trinity. ==Footnotes==