St Thomas's Tower
The St Thomas's Tower , colloquially Traitors' Gate , originally St Thomas's Gate or Water Gate , is a former water gate in the fortress of the Tower of London . The tower, built in the 13th century under Edward I , was the main entrance from the Thames to the tower for many centuries. It is named after the London city saint Thomas Beckett . The direct connection to the Thames has now been bricked up. The pool in the gate has been filled with water again since the late 20th century.
Building history
Edward I had the entire Tower of London reinforced during his reign. This also included the construction of a new fortress ring, which was located outside the previous fortress. The previous gateway to the Thames, the Bloody Tower , had become obsolete in this function. Edward had a new tower built, which reached into the Thames and could be reached by boat through a basin.
Construction began in 1275, and Edward began pushing for completion as early as January 1276 and provided additional funds for completion. Construction was finished in 1279. The shape of the low building, protected by turrets and protruding from the wall, has no equivalent in England and is a solitaire of its kind. Its shape is possibly based on the shape of the kennel at the old Louvre in Paris, 50 years older . The upper chamber was accessed either through an entrance from the basin or through a bridge from the Wakefield Tower. The tower side of the pool was protected by a wall with loopholes, and a staircase led into the pool.
Edward I's living quarters were originally located on the upper floor. They were presumably connected to the basin area of the tower by a door in the northeast of St Thomas's Tower and a spiral staircase. The upper floor had 34 movable windows with tinted panes, benches and "four large tables." The shutters and walls were lavishly painted, stone statues faced the river. The floor was covered with stone tiles. It is unknown whether and how often the king actually used them.
The large and generous pool area, which was originally only three meters away from the Bloody Tower, was reduced in size as early as the Middle Ages. He moved two meters south. This was found out through excavations in 1957.
Extensive renovations and repairs were carried out in the time of Henry VIII , who had the Tower of London renovated before his wedding to Anne Boleyn and who placed a strong emphasis on the representative character of the building. Work on St Thomas's Tower took place in 1532 and 1533. The now ailing half-timbering from the Middle Ages was replaced by new ones by James Nedeham for £ 120 . Nedeham redesigned the furnishings on the upper floor. With these renovations, the last traces of the medieval interior also disappeared. In 1532, Henry had the wooden walls removed by James Nedeham to make way for John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys .
Nedeham built a small house on the western land side of the tower, which was built on stilts in the basin. Its function can no longer be traced. The stilts are still preserved in the pool below the water level.
In 1735 the Board of Ordnance replaced the medieval windows with contemporary sash windows , around this time the loss of the medieval fireplace. During the renovations in the spirit of the Gothic Revival by Anthony Salvin , the sliding windows had to give way to stone window frames.
The medieval bridge that connected the upper floor of St Thomas's Tower to the upper floor of Wakefield Tower disappeared in the 18th century.
The east end of the tower collapsed in the 19th century due to the vibrations from cannon production. It was rebuilt by the neo-Gothic builder Anthony Salvin between 1862 and 1869. Almost the entire facade of St Thomas's Tower, the bay windows on the land side and the bricked-up half-timbering also came from Salvin .
architecture
Outdoor area
A covered bridge connects St Thomas's Tower with Wakefield Tower . This is a neo-Gothic building from the 19th century, the shape of which is closely based on a medieval bridge that collapsed in the 19th century.
North side with half-timbering
Archway from the river
View from the west. The last fragment of medieval masonry can be seen on the southern turret (left).
West side and connection to Wakefield Tower
Gate, basin and turret
The stone tower formed the entrance of the tower to the Thames and bridged the moat of the tower. Access was through a narrow canal in the Tower Wharf, which was built later, to the actual tower.
This forms a broad arch with a flat tip on the inside, which takes up the entire width of the tower. It is the widest medieval arch in the UK. Towards the Thames, the arch is pointed and narrower than on the inside. It is surmounted by two turrets in the east and west. The gate is wide enough for boats to pass through. In the basement of St Thomas's Tower there is a basin and dock from which the boats could be unloaded. A staircase leads from the Water Lane in the tower to the bottom of the pool. The gate was secured by a portcullis . In order not to disturb the king in his apartments, they were kept in a separate part of the upper chamber and served by a separate turret or from the roof of the building.
The archway and the west, south and north walls of the upper hall of the Edward I gate are still preserved, even if this is now provided with neo-Gothic windows and interior fittings from the late 20th century. The chamber above the gate originally protruded one meter over the archway on the north (land) side. Since Henry VIII and Anthony Salvin, however, it has formed a continuous line with the archway.
Only on the west side of the western tower on the water side is there still natural stone from the 13th century.
Upper rooms
The upper floor is made of natural stone facing the Thames and the east and west sides. On the inside of the upper floor is a half-timbered construction with brick. The entire facade dates from the late 19th century.
The upper hall was also divided by wooden walls during construction. The king's private rooms ( camera ) were on the west side of the tower, while the large reception hall ( aula ) was on the east. Remnants of the royal dressing room still exist in the west. Archaeologists found the remains of two campfire sites on the south (river) side of St Thomas's Tower. These have been torn down over the centuries. Since the 1990s, the rooms have again been separated by wood in a replica of the medieval state, although it is unknown where the original walls were.
use
Most of the king's visits to the fortress took place in the years before 1280 to oversee the construction of the outer fortress wall along with St Thomas's Tower. After St Thomas's Tower was completed in 1280, Edward I was only present in the tower for a total of 27 days and otherwise lived in other places. After Heinrich accommodated visitors there, the upper floor later served as living space for officers in the tower, later as barracks and as a hospital. In the eastern section of the tower, newly built by Salvin, was the home of the keeper of the crown jewels.
From 1554 there are documents related to the Wyatt conspiracy that speak of guns mounted on the Traitors' Gate. The tower's construction is strong enough to hold such guns. Construction documents from 1564 mention the replacement of a cannon platform.
Since prisoners in the Tower have been transported from Westminster across the river to the fortress for security reasons, the gate has received a reputation over the centuries as a terrifying entrance to a dark prison. Because mostly only prisoners in state affairs sat in the tower, this was the gate through which the traitors entered the tower. It gained over the centuries of its existence the name Traitors' Gate ( Gate of traitors ).
The basin under St Thomas's Tower has long been used to supply water to the entire Tower of London. Drained since the 19th century, it has been filled with water again since 1970. At times, the English kings used the tidal force in the basin to set up a factory for drilling out cannons. The tremors that sparked this work led to the collapse of eastern St Thomas's Tower.
The upper part of the tower has been open to the public since 1993. While the large chamber was largely left in its original state in which it was in 1993, the anteroom together with the Wakefield Tower was lavishly restored in a medieval ambience. Together with the Wakefield Tower it forms part of the installation "Medieval Tower", in which actors try to give an impression of medieval life in the Tower.
Remarks
- ^ A b c Simon Thurley: The Royal Lodgings at the Tower of London 1240-1320. In: Architectural History. Vol. 38, 1995, p. 47
- ↑ a b Parnell p. 38
- ↑ a b c d Pevsner p. 361
- ↑ a b c d e f g Simon Thurley: The Royal Lodgings at the Tower of London 1240-1320. In: Architectural History. Vol. 38, 1995, p. 48
- ↑ a b c d e Parnell p. 39
- ^ A b c David Carpenter: The reign of Henry III Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996 ISBN 1852851376 , p. 214
- ↑ a b Parnell p. 55
- ↑ Parnell, p. 56
- ↑ Parnell p. 40
- ↑ a b c Pevsner p. 362
literature
- Simon Bradley, Nikolas Pevsner: London 1, The city of London , 1997, London: Penguin. ISBN 0140710922 , pp. 361-362
- Geoffrey Parnell: English Heritage Book of the Tower of London. Batsford, London 1993, ISBN 0-7134-6864-5 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 26.6 " N , 0 ° 4 ′ 37" W.