The Tower of London
A thousand-year-old castle
that has already been a Royal Palace,
a fortress, and a prison
Hello everyone, I'm in the City of London,
which is a separate city inside London
If you're seeing this video now
it's because the other one was already too long
and I decided creating a separate one just for the Tower of London, which is a main attraction here
[Gordon] Two
Where do we start?
[Gordon] At the beginning
And where's the beginning?
[Gordon] Not at the end
When we say 'Tower of London', everybody imagines this huge fortress, right? That we see from London...
But the original Tower of London is just this building right here
It stays right inside, protected by the fortress, and this is it
This is what was originally built
And as funny as it might sound, it was built to celebrate that the Normans conquered Britain, in 1066
Meaning, the French conquered Britain
Here inside the main building, the White Palace, you see the armory
This is real
This is the armor of Henry, Prince of Wales
from 1607
And it is fully decorated with scenes from the life of Alexander the Great
This armor is from 1540 and belonged to
King Henry VIII
It is gigantic actually, really big... And something interesting down there...
It's kind of funny
This is so impressive
Things we normally see as replicas elsewhere
Arms and armor were made, tested and stored here until the 1800's
There's a chapel inside the White Tower too
This is St John's chapel
And it's kept basically bare and unadorned
How it would have been in the Norman period, in the very early days of the castle
Each sword and their owners
Various Kings... George VI, V,...
Edward 7th, William IV and so on
This will give you a good idea
of what the Tower of London really is
The building we are right now is this one in the middle
It's the White Tower
While the Tower of London itself today, it's all this here
Including all these walls
An original executioner's block of the 18th century
And the axe
possibly dates back to the Tudor times
The Tower of London was a famous prison and many people think thousands of people were executed here
But actually not really. Only 22 in total
It was like an honor to be executed here
It was only for royalty or if you were friends with royalty
The rest of the people, outside
This because during the Middle Ages, an execution was something to be done in public square
for everyone to see
And then they would display your head
The Tower of London has played a significant role in English history
It was besieged several times and controlling it was essential to control the entire country
So, defense here was strong. Do you see the two walls around the castle?
Here we're in between the two rings of defenses
One inside another
During the Medieval Era, this became England's largest and strongest castle built this way
As traditional as the Tower itself are the beefeaters - these guards in uniform
They have been here for centuries
And were originally part of the Monarch's personal bodyguard, traveling with him
Henry VIII decreed that some of them would stay to guard the tower permanently
And here they are
Unlike many people think, they're not just random people, dressed in a nice costume
No! They're retired members of the armed services and live here with their families, inside the tower
Today their role is primarily to guide the visitors
[Yeoman Warder] Its also been called
The Traitors' Gate
This is the Traitors' Gate
Many prisoners, when they were accused of treason,
they entered the castle
through these gates
Including Elizabeth I
She later became a queen, but she came here and she was pardoned
It's also been called the 'Watergate'
Americans...
When you come here, you have to make sure
you go to a tour with one of these Yeomen, it is so fun!
You see the exact times as soon as you get in
It's written right there when is the next one
It's right at the entrance
That's the meeting point and first stop
And it's totally free, it's included with the ticket
Now, this is what everyone comes here to see
One of the buildings here houses the Crown Jewels
and there is where you see the Crowns,
Swords, utensils for coronations in general
Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures inside
So let me tell you what's there
These jewels belong to the monarch
And they should be saved from one to the next
So, for example, Queen Elizabeth II can't get rid of
all of that because they should be saved for her successor
Only once this didn't happen. It was in the 17th century, because of the Civil War
People destroyed the jewels
Then when the monarchy was reestablished they created all of them again
And talking about tradition
I gotta tell you about the ravens
There's a legend here that if the ravens leave the tower,
both the tower and the kingdom will fall
Seven ravens live here and one Yeoman Warder permanently takes care of them
He's a Ravenmaster, seriously!
But actually the ravens don't leave because they can't
They have one flight feather trimmed exactly to stop them from flying away
When you come here
it's important to choose a good day
Because most of it is outdoors
Except when you go inside the buildings for one exhibition or the other you'll depend on the weather
Where to now? Let's go to the dungeon
Look at how they used this!
Oh, my god!
Our guide also mentioned that here they have a ceremony that has been going on
for 738 years, that is crazy!
It's like an end of the day ceremony, closing ceremony for the day. They never missed a day, not even during the wars
It's the longest surviving ceremony on earth
I'd love to see it. It's at 10:00 p.m. But I don't think it's open to the public
Here you can also go visit the Tower Bridge
Everyone can cross the bridge deck, but the twin towers and high-level walkways require an entry fee
There's an exhibition there
It was so cool! The Tower of London
is probably my favorite attraction in London because there's so much history, so much to see here
But I think we should have arrived a little earlier
We got here around 2:30 in the afternoon
And it closes at 5:30
So in the end it was a little rushed
Three hours were not enough for me
I wanted to stay here read things in detail, but it was still very worth it. It was also the most expensive
attraction we went in the entire trip. But it was very worth it
Tomorrow is our last day in England, our last day in the U.K.
And what does that mean? That there's another vlog coming up
So subscribe to the channel not to miss it!
A thousand-year-old castle that once was a Royal Palace...
a fortress, and a prison
I'm glad I checked the audio of this one... Just in time to film it again