South Downs Way 2017: MORE of LONDON, GOING DEEP

After an unsettled night when dead people invaded my dreams, we're off to a sunny day exploring more of London. We like to not plan much but head out and see what we find, though I had a destination in mind, a walk along the river to the Tower of London. You can walk the entire length of the river, the Thames Path is 180 miles long starting in the Cotswolds at the source in Kemble. We only went a little over 2 miles.

I was so tempted to join the beachcombers - "Mudlarks" who I could see below me. "Mudlarks" were originally Victorian children who scavenged on the Thames for coal, bones or wood to sell. Now they're amateur archaeologists who search the shore for artifacts turned up by the river.
At low tide you can explore the river beach and pick, but if you want to scrape or dig you will need a licence from the Port of London Authority.

Combers are mostly looking for medieval pins. In medieval England, pins were the biggest import and export, they actually looked like thick sewing needles. Everybody was covered in them, like wearing all purpose tools, and convenient flea bite scratchers.

Some finds: chain mail, pottery, Roman coins, Victorian dishes, glass, clay pipes, belt buckles, and medieval tokens.

This is a token c.1600. It would have taken the place of coins when they ran out. I bought this one for £3 from a Covent Garden vendor who was a Mudlark. He had some cool stuff.

At the Blackfriars Bridge these pillars formed part of the original railway bridge, built at this point across the Thames in 1864.

The Iconic Tower Bridge

The Tower of London, Royal Residence, Barracks, Armory, Prison and Museum

The White Tower built by William the Conqueror in 1078

Thomas More was believed to have been imprisoned in this tower in 1534, part of it built in 1189. The tower was once beside the river, which has receded over the centuries.

Not on display and with no signage is a cute place where the head Warder lives. I saw this on a PBS show .

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Not open to the public is the small Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula . The original building which dated to around 1100, was destroyed by fire in 1512, the present building was rebuilt for Henry VIII in 1519, St Peter ad Vincula is a Royal Peculiar, meaning that it is under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch rather than the bishop of the diocese. It is the burial place of many of the most famous prisoners executed at the Tower of London. Anne Boleyn's body and head were placed in an elm chest and buried in a communal grave beneath the chancel pavement .

Buried here are Anne, her brother George, Lady Jane Grey, Catherine Howard, Lady Rochford,Edmund Dudley and Sir Richard Empson, tax collectors for Henry VII. Thomas More and John Fisher, who incurred the wrath of Henry VIII and were subsequently executed, and later canonized as martyrs by the Roman Catholic Church. Also Henry VIII's minister, Thomas Cromwell, who was executed on Henry's orders in 1540. James,Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II, led a rebellion against his uncle James II and was executed on 15 July 1685, on Tower Hill.

In 1876, Queen Victoria gave permission for the chapel to be restored on the condition that if any remains were found that they were to be treated with respect and that careful records were kept of any evidence that could identify the remains. During the excavation, a skeleton thought to be Anne Boleyn was found in the place where she is said to have been buried.

Some other souls to reflect on are Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston, and Margaret Pole.

Traitors Gate

Sir Walter Raleigh's Rooms

Raleigh first came to the attention of Elizabeth I in 1580,and he soon became a favorite.

In 1592, the queen discovered Raleigh's secret marriage to one of her maids of honor, Elizabeth Throckmorton. This discovery threw Elizabeth into a jealous rage and Raleigh and his wife were imprisoned in the Tower. Elizabeth's successor, James I of England and VI of Scotland, disliked Raleigh, and in 1603 he was accused of plotting against the king and sentenced to death. This was reduced to life imprisonment and Raleigh spent the next 12 years in the Tower of London, where he wrote the first volume of his 'History of the World' (1614). In 1616, Raleigh was released to lead an expedition to search for El Dorado. The expedition was a failure, and Raleigh also defied the king's instructions by attacking the Spanish. On his return to England, the death sentence was reinstated and Raleigh's execution took place on 29 October 1618. The End.

There was a long unmoving line to go into the Bloody Tower so we bypassed it. Quickly, it's where Richard III imprisoned the two young boys, one of which was Edward, 12 year old heir to the throne. He and his brother, Richard, were the sons of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Edward and his brother disappeared and were never seen alive again. It is widely assumed the Plantagenet King Richard III killed his nephews in the summer of 1483 after their father, Edward IV, died.

This is a True Medieval Scene

In 1674 childrens bones were found by workmen 10ft under the staircase leading to the chapel of the White Tower. The bones were said to belong to the princes and were interred in Westminster Abbey by Charles II .
The Church of England, supported by the Queen, has repeatedly refused requests to exhume the remains so that forensic tests can be carried out.

St Paul's

Walking back via Fleet Street and the Strand, by the Royal Court buildings. Do people actually buy all this? It seems every other shop is one of these souvenir places with key rings, mugs, red phone box banks, bobble head queens, Union Jack phone covers and bandanas....