Site of Ancient Scaffold
On this spot Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded on the 19 May 1536.
This image comes from the 1946 short documentary film 'Prisoners of the Tower'. It is shown laid into the ground at the centre of a cobbled enclosure formed of 4 bollards chained together, with another more informative plaque on a stand alongside. The bollards are identical to those shown in the c.1910 photo, showing an earlier arrangement. This Boleyn plaque looks as if it might date back to that arrangement, and maybe earlier.
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. We're being very nerdish, publishing them as 'lost' memorials, even though the current location of one of them is actually known.
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.
