Plaque

(lost) Tower scaffold - 1946

Tower scaffold - 1946
Inscription

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.

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.

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 scaffold - 1946

Subjects commemorated i

Anne Boleyn

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

Read More

Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford

Born Jane Parker, a distant relative of Henry VIII, she became a lady-in-wait...

Read More

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Born Herefordshire.  Related via the Boleyn family to Queen Elizabeth I.  Mar...

Read More

Lady Jane Grey

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

Read More

William, Lord Hastings

An important man in the court of Edward IV, rising to the position of Lord Ch...

Read More

Show all 7

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Tower scaffold - 1946

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...

Read More

Tower of London execution site

Tower of London execution site

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

Read More

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 ...

Read More

Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Tower of London execution site - c.1910

This image came from Twitter via Londonist, and from the children's clothes m...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Miss Rose

Miss Rose

SW3, Old Church Street, 133

Miss Rose 1966 Quae in hac æde regnabat et nunc et æternum regnat in cordibus nostrum. {Latin: She ruled in this house and rules now an...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Alfred Lord Milner

Alfred Lord Milner

W1, Manchester Square, 14, Milner House

Greater London Council Alfred Lord Milner, 1854 - 1925, statesman, lived here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Isaac Rosenberg - Whitechapel

Isaac Rosenberg - Whitechapel

E1, Whitechapel High Street, 77-82

Originally the 1892 Passmore Edwards Library this building is now part of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, based in the building next door wi...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Black Prince Road ceramics - plaque 09

Black Prince Road ceramics - plaque 09

SE11, Black Prince Road, Tunnel underneath railway bridge

These lovely ceramics plaques were installed some time in or before 2008. There are 12 oval ceramics of which 7 nos 1-7) are mosaic and r...

4 subjects commemorated
Sutton Heritage mosaic plaque

Sutton Heritage mosaic plaque

SM1, Trinity Square

The Sutton Heritage mosaic was unveiled by the Worshipful the Mayor of the London Borough of Sutton Councillor Frank Sharp CENG FIEE 23rd...

2 creators