Plaque

Tower Hill Martyrs - Kilmarnock & Balmerino

Inscription

Site of ancient scaffold. Here the Earl of Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino suffered, 18th August 1746.

Brenda Cook helpfully suggested we refer to the Newgate Calendar’s account of these executions and we found them there under the heading Traitors, Rebels and Assassins.

Site: Tower Hill Martyrs (2 memorials)

EC3, Trinity Square

This is an odd square arrangement of plaques surrounded with bedding plants and miniature pylons chained together to form trip hazards. The Kilmarnock & Balmerino plaque is flat on the ground at the centre. Arranged around three edges of the square are 5 slightly raised plaques, in total listing 27 names, each with their year of death, in date sequence. We show here just one of the plaques.

A London Inheritance has a great post which shows this site in 1947.

A permanent scaffold was sited here for public decapitation. Important people, mainly royals, were executed nearby, within the grounds of the Tower

Matt Brown of Londonist points out that "More people were executed in the Tower of London in the 20th century than all preceding centuries put together."  That's because, until the modern era, executions at "the Tower" actually took place on Tower Hill, not in the Tower itself.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Tower Hill Martyrs - Kilmarnock & Balmerino

Subjects commemorated i

Lord Balmerino

Jacobite.  Taken prisoner at the Battle of Culloden.  Tried and beheaded on t...

Read More

Earl of Kilmarnock

Jacobite.  Taken prisoner at the Battle of Culloden.  Tried and beheaded on...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Tower Hill Martyrs - Kilmarnock & Balmerino

Also at this site i

Tower Hill Martyrs - list

Tower Hill Martyrs - list

{5 plaques, in total listing 27 names, each with their year of death, the fir...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Bowler plaque - Scissors and Buttons - Brick Lane south

Bowler plaque - Scissors and Buttons - Brick Lane south

E1, Brick Lane

There is meant to be another identical plaque further north in Brick Lane but we cannot find it. This cast-iron roundel, showing buttons ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Paul Verlaine - lost plaque

Paul Verlaine - lost plaque

W1, Howland Street, 31

We are told by our Brussels correspondent, Jean-Michel Pochet, that in 1922 a plaque was erected at Howland Street: "Le poète français Pa...

1 subject commemorated
Basil Hume, Lamb's Passage

Basil Hume, Lamb's Passage

EC1, Lamb's Passage

This space, previously the car park of St. Joseph’s Church, was created by father Bruno Healy, together with landscape gardener Simon P...

1 subject commemorated
Robert Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell

SW7, Hyde Park Gate, 9

Greater London Council Robert Baden-Powell, 1857-1941, chief scout of the world lived here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Camp Griffiss, Block D, SE corner

Camp Griffiss, Block D, SE corner

TW11, Bushy Park

There were 16 of these open-book style ground plaques, marking the corners of blocks A - D, the 4 main large blocks of buildings in WW2 C...

3 subjects commemorated