New feature at the Tower of London expected for summer

A new Imprisonment at the Tower exhibition is due to open in the summer of 2018 at the Tower of London and will explore the history of the prison.

Historic Royal Palaces will be re-presenting the Bloody and Beauchamp Towers, the largest and most significant of the Tower’s prison spaces, ready for summer.

The new interpretation will enable visitors to explore the reality of ‘high status’ imprisonment at the Tower and will transport visitors’ imaginations back in time through the dressing of the historic spaces with period furniture and props and a multi-sensory re-creation of Sir Walter Raleigh’s garden, complete with the plants he grew for his infamous herbal elixir.

Visit the towers 

The Bloody Tower is described as ‘the most infamous prisoner location at the Tower’ and has strong associations with the imprisonment and possible murder of the Princes in the Tower (the nephews of Richard III, rumoured to have been locked in the tower). This involvement is why its original name of Garden Tower was changed.

It is also where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned with his family, deprived of freedom but otherwise living in relative comfort with a garden where he was allowed to grow tobacco. 

The Lower Beauchamp Tower will present a new introductory exhibition, enabling visitors to understand the many differing reasons why people ended up as a prisoner at the Tower. 

The graffiti in the Upper Beauchamp Tower is a physical reminder of number and variety of prisoners held at the tower. 

The exhibition will also allow visitors to explore not only who was imprisoned there and why, but also the variety of emotional responses to imprisonment through clear expressions of identity.

Group visits

Group organisers looking to book can email groupsandtraveltrade@hrp.org.uk or call 020 3166 6311 for details on taking a group.

For more information, visit www.hrp.org.uk.