On this site stood a scaffold on which were executed:-
Queen Anne Boleyn - 1536
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury - 1541
Queen Katherine Howard - 1542
Jane, Viscountess Rochford - 1542
Lady Jane Grey - 1554
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex - 1601
also near this spot was beheaded Lord Hastings - 1483.
See Anne Boleyn's plaque for when/how this plaque was displayed.
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.
