Beauchamp Tower

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the English inventor and engineer, see Beauchamp Tower (engineer) .

Beauchamp Tower, seen from outside the tower

Beauchamp Tower as seen from the outer fortress ring

Bannister family crest, affixed by a prisoner in Beauchamp Tower

The Beauchamp Tower is a tower in the inner fortress wall of the Tower of London . The tower occupies a prominent place in the western wall. The Beauchamp Tower, dating from the 13th century, stands on the spot where Heinrich III. had a magnificent gate built into central London. After the renovation plans of Edward I , this gate was obsolete and Edward had a tower built in its place.

The tower has the typical D-shape of the towers from Heinrich's reign, with the semicircle pointing outwards and the straight line pointing inwards. In order to take up the entire space of the former gate, however, it is significantly larger than the somewhat older towers of the wall. Unlike the other towers of the inner wall, the tower is wider and has three stories instead of two. There are turrets to the north and south, with the northern one being larger.

Each floor has five brick loopholes built in the 13th century and wooden floors. Since the Beauchamp Tower was often used to house prisoners in the Tower of London , there are numerous remains of these. Of particular note is a carving from 1553 left by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland , near the fireplace on the first floor.

The Beauchamp Tower was equipped with a new facade from 1852-1853 by Anthony Salvin . This was the first renovation work by Salvin, who, together with his successor John Taylor, significantly changed the face of the tower in the 19th century.

During excavation work in 1996, foundations appeared in front of the Beauchamp Tower, reminiscent of those of the Lion Tower . The parts of the building dating from the 1240s probably belonged to the "noble gateway" that Heinrich III. wanted to build towards the tower, but it collapsed during construction.

literature

• Simon Bradley, Nikolaus Pevsner: London 1, The city of London, 1997, London: Penguin. ISBN 0140710922 , p. 368
• William Robertson Dick: Inscriptions and devices in the Beauchamp tower, Tower of London; with a short historical sketch. (PDF; 54.3 MB) , London 1853

Web links

Commons : Beauchamp Tower  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 29.84 "  N , 0 ° 4 ′ 38.36"  W.