Plaque

(lost) Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Inscription

Site of the scaffold on which were executed Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey & others.

This image came from Twitter via Londonist, and from the children's clothes must be about 1910.

2020: Terje Hartberg contacted us via Twitter directing us to this Flickr stream which has a photo of this plaque in 1939, from a different angle. The frame of the plaque has changed since the earlier photo but that's all. Thanks Terje.

Site: Tower of London execution site (5 memorials)

EC3, Tower Green, Tower of London

Members of royalty sentenced to death were spared the ordeal of public execution on Tower Hill. This spot, inside the very secure Tower of London, was reserved just for them, and apparently the executions took place under cover. Excavations have confirmed the existence of a building here.

But one also hears that Lady Jane Grey's prison windows looked out over Tower Green and that she must have seen her scaffold being erected, which would not have been the case had it been enclosed.

2017: Within a few weeks we came across not just one but two predecessors to the glass cushion which has been here since 2006.

2023: We watched the 1946 short documentary film 'Prisoners of the Tower' from which we captured images of 2 other plaques at the site.

2023: Using Museum of London data Londonist have analysed the who, why, where, when and how of London executions. To see the more than 100 executees on London Remembers click here.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Subjects commemorated i

Anne Boleyn

Second wife of Henry VIII and so Queen of England, 1533 to 1536.  Though marr...

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Lady Jane Grey

Married to Lord Guilford Dudley.  Her husband’s father persuaded the dying Ed...

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Catherine Howard

As lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves Catherine attracted Henry's ever-roving ...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Also at this site i

Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

This image comes from the 1946 short documentary film 'Prisoners of the Tower...

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Tower of London execution site

Tower of London execution site

Catling wrote the poem as well as creating the sculpture. Doesn't that cushio...

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Tower of London execution site - 1972

Tower of London execution site - 1972

In the first 2 minutes of the 1972 CCF film "The Boy Who Turned Yellow" some ...

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Tower scaffold - 1946

Tower scaffold - 1946

See Anne Boleyn's plaque for when/how this plaque was displayed.

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Nearby Memorials

Sylvia Pankhurst - SW10

Sylvia Pankhurst - SW10

SW10, Cheyne Walk, 120

In 1906 having just finished at the Royal College of Art Pankhurst moved here into two unfurnished rooms.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Winston Churchill - SW7

Winston Churchill - SW7

SW7, Hyde Park Gate, 28

Greater London Council Sir Winston Churchill K.G., 1874-1965, prime minister, lived and died here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Darcus Howe - SE24

Darcus Howe - SE24

SE24, Railton Road, 165-7, Brixton Advice Centre

Both plaques are actually around the corner in Shakespeare Road.

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
James Maxwell - WC2

James Maxwell - WC2

WC2, Strand

James Clerk Maxwell FRS King's College London Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1860 - 65 The Institute of Physics

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Thomas Cromwell - SW15

Thomas Cromwell - SW15

SW15, Brewhouse Lane, 3

The plaque fails to explain why it is on this particular spot.  Cromwell's family was based in Putney and he was brought up here but we c...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators

Previously viewed

Carol Paula Chapman

Carol Paula Chapman

Trustee, fundraiser and volunteer of the Charles Dickens Museum. The 2004 book 'Shakespeare's Non-Standard English: A Dictionary of His Informal Language' by Norman Francis Blake was dedicated "In...

Person, Community / Clubs

1 memorial
A. Gilbert
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Serjeant Henry John Burns

Serjeant Henry John Burns

Henry John Burns was born on 3 July 1896 in Paddington, London, the son of Henry Thomas Burns (1860-1913) and Ada Alice Burns née Carey (1872-1920). The birth of Henry Burns was registered in the 3...

Person, Armed Forces, France

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
W. Hunt

W. Hunt

Member of the Commissioners of the 1890 Bermondsey Library.

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Ford Madox Ford - W8

Ford Madox Ford - W8

W8, Campden Hill Road, 80

Ford lived here for a few years with his mistress Violet Hunt and at the time the address was according to RBKC (who have a 1966 photo of...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator