Tower of London

This post is going to be a little light on the photography.  The reason for that is that the absolute best things we saw were in an area where ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOGRAPHY was allowed.

And where there were 3 to 5 staff members in each small room enforcing the ban.

Further, some of these photos were actually taken late afternoon on Friday.  Due to user error (a Galleries Lafayette map level user error) we arrived at the Tower too late to consider paying the tariff and going inside.  We did get some nice photos though.  And when we returned this morning to see what was inside we did not have to pause to get the set up photos.

This is the Tower Bridge, adjacent to the Tower of London.

Pretty famous bridge, everyone in the world has already seen that scene.

When you get up close to the wall you come across this, the Traitor's Gate.  This was the boat entrance from the Thames.

Some prisoners were carried to the prison by barge along the river.  Both Elizabeth, who was a prisoner here before she became Queen, and Anne Boleyn entered the prison through this gate.

This is the middle drawbridge entrance to the Tower from the river side.

The White Tower in the background.

Here's the White Tower from inside the first ring.  The White Tower was constructed by William the Conqueror.  It features 15 foot thick walls to help protect the new ruler from his potentially hostile new subjects.

The White Tower was a castle, a keep designed for defense.  Eventually a wall was built around the keep, then a moat was added, then another wall and another moat.

Here is a remnant of the City Wall outside the Tower.  It was once an important military structure.  Now it serves mostly to separate that playground on the right from the Underground station that is just frame left of this photo.

So what was it that we saw that I couldn't photgraph?

The Crown Jewels.

It is worth noting that most of the original crown jewels from medieval time were lost during Oliver Cromwell's 1648 revolution.

Doesn't matter, they got some new stuff which may not be as old but the old stuff could not possibly have been much better.

You pass through a couple of rooms full of stuff made of gold, ceremonial swords and maces and the like.  Then, boom.

The Sovereign's Scepter.  You know, a long stick held at one end with some decoration at the other end..  In this case the decoration is the world's largest cut diamond, the 530 carat Star of Africa.  This massive bauble is about twice the size of a golf ball.  It is one of nine stones cut from the original 3,106 carat (1.37 pound) Cullinan Diamond.  I think it is safe to say that they took the best part for the Star of Africa but had plenty enough left from the rubble to produce eight more gemstones.  It is breathtakingly large.  For comparison, the very, very large Hope Diamond is 45.52 carats and was last reported to be insured for $250 million.  This sorta renders the value of the Star of Africa as incalculable.

The Sovereign's Ring. In the center of the gold ring is an octagonal sapphire, 1.5 centimeters in diameter, overlaid with a square ruby and four long, narrow rubies to form a cross. Around the sapphire is a circle of 14 brilliant diamonds. The general design is intended to represent the red Cross of Saint George on the blue background of Saint Andrew's Cross

A small copy of the ring was made for Victoria, who wrote in a letter, "The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain". In fact, the ring had been sized to fit the queen's little finger instead of her ring finger due to a misunderstanding by the jewellers.

The Crown of the Queen Mother.  This crown has the 106 carat Koh-I-Noor diamond.  This diamond seems huge until you circle around and take another look at the Star of South Africa.  The diamond is considered unlucky for male rulers and only adorns the crown of the King's wife.  Many Brits await the day when the stone reappears on a crown made for Queen Kate.

There are some other pretty astonishing odds and ends, the most extraordinary of which to me was an elaborately decorated coffee table sized gold punch bowl.  The bowl requires 144 bottles of wine to be filled.  That's about 36 gallons.  A giant piece of gold.

Later on in the day we intended to enter the National Museum of Natural History.

It is a great building but this is a very tourist rich environment.  A half block long line to a free admission which was when we were there only being granted to people wishing to enter as others came out and our first instance of rain dissuaded us.

Perhaps we will go on Monday.