A building history


In the early 1080s, William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. Nothing like it had ever been seen before.

Through the centuries that followed, successive monarchs added to the fortifications. This short history charts the different stages of its construction and explains its role as fortress, palace and prison.

A history of the Tower's development...

  1. The Normans
    William I and the Tower's Norman beginnings
    Read more
  2. Medieval Tower
    A refuge and a base for royal power
    Read more
  3. The Tudors
    The Tower of London as royal prison
    Read more
  4. Restoration
    The Tower and the Royal Ordnance
    Read more
  5. 19th-century Tower
    From fortress to ancient monument
    Read more
  6. A modern Tower
    The Tower in the 20th and 21st centuries
    Read more
  7. Further reading
    A Tower bibliography
    Read more