At the Tower of London
The Tower's most famous residents — the ravens said to guard the kingdom itself, cared for by their own Ravenmaster.
Of all the Tower of London's inhabitants, the ravens are the ones visitors remember. Glossy, intelligent and surprisingly large, they patrol the lawns near the White Tower and carry one of the Tower's best-loved legends on their black wings.
The story goes that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, both the fortress and the kingdom will fall. It is traditionally linked to King Charles II, who is said to have insisted the birds be protected. Whether the legend is genuinely ancient or a later flourish is debated, but it has been taken seriously enough that ravens have been kept at the Tower deliberately ever since, as a kind of living insurance policy for the realm.
The ravens are looked after by a Yeoman Warder given the title of Ravenmaster, one of the most sought-after roles at the Tower. At least six ravens are kept at any time, and usually there are a few more so there is always a spare. They are well fed — a diet of raw meat and the occasional treat — and one wing is gently and painlessly trimmed so they cannot fly far, keeping them safely at home. Each bird has a name and a distinct personality, and staff will happily tell you which is which.
Ravens are among the most intelligent of all birds, able to solve puzzles, mimic sounds and recognise individual people. Those at the Tower can live for many years — far longer than ravens in the wild — and several have become characters in their own right, remembered by name long after they are gone. They are large, too: wingspans of around four feet are common, which is part of why they make such an impression up close.
The legend has been taken seriously enough that the ravens' fate has, at moments, felt bound up with the nation's. During the bombing of London in the Second World War the Tower's raven population fell to a single bird, and rebuilding the group afterwards was treated as a matter of some importance. Ever since, keeping a healthy number of ravens has been a deliberate duty rather than a matter of chance.
The Tower's ravens are properly looked after. Their daily diet includes raw meat and bird biscuit soaked in blood, with the occasional egg or treat, and they have a roomy enclosure near the Wakefield Tower where they roost at night, safe from foxes. By day they are free to range across the grounds. Each has a leg ring for identification, and the Ravenmaster comes to know their moods closely — which birds are bold, which are shy, and which will happily strut up to a visitor's feet.
Whether or not you believe the legend, the ravens have become one of the defining images of the Tower of London, as much a part of it as the White Tower or the Crown Jewels. For many visitors, spotting them stalking across the grass is the moment the Tower's strangeness and age really lands — a working fortress that still keeps a guard of black birds against the fall of a kingdom.
You will usually find the ravens on the grass around the White Tower and the Wakefield Tower, especially in the mornings. They are wild birds with sharp beaks, so the rule is simple: enjoy them, photograph them, but do not try to touch or feed them. A Yeoman Warder's tour is the best way to hear their stories first-hand. For the other sights within the walls, see the layout of the Tower, and for the fortress's long history, the history of the Tower.