SPECTRALWhat happened here
Most of those put to death at the Tower were executed on Tower Hill, outside the walls, in front of crowds. A privileged few were beheaded privately on Tower Green inside, among them two of Henry VIII's wives, Anne Boleyn in 1536 and Catherine Howard in 1542, and Lady Jane Grey in 1554. They are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
In 1483 the young King Edward V and his brother Richard were lodged in the Tower by their uncle, who took the throne as Richard III. The boys were never seen again. In 1674 workmen found the bones of two children beneath a staircase near the White Tower; they were reburied in Westminster Abbey.
The legends
Anne Boleyn is the Tower's most famous ghost, said to walk near the chapel where she is buried — in some versions carrying her head. Guards have reported a procession of figures in the chapel at night, and the ghost of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, is said to re-enact her botched execution of 1541.
The oldest story dates from the 1240s. When Henry III's new gatehouse collapsed twice, a priest claimed to have seen the ghost of Thomas Becket striking the walls with a cross. Henry, it is said, built a small chapel to Becket inside the new tower to calm him.
Fact or legend?
The executions and the disappearance of the Princes are real history, though who killed the boys is still debated. The ghost stories are kept alive mostly by the Yeoman Warders — the Beefeaters — who live inside the walls and tell them on their tours.
Visiting
The Tower is open daily. Yeoman Warder tours are included with entry, along with the Crown Jewels and the White Tower. Book ahead in summer.
