The White Tower at the Tower of London
The Norman keep the whole fortress is named after, and the oldest thing standing on the site. Four floors, no lift, and the national arms and armour collection inside it.
The keep, and the date the timber gives us
Work began within a decade of the Conquest. Tradition says 1078; dendrochronology puts the start between 1075 and 1079. The archaeology of the standing building suggests construction paused between 1080 and the early 1090s, and the reason is not known. It is a rectangular keep with four corner turrets, three of them square and the north-east one round.
Gundulf, and what the Textus Roffensis says
The traditional date comes from the Textus Roffensis, which records Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, overseeing the work under instruction from William the Conqueror. Gundulf is the name attached to the building; whether he designed it or simply ran the site is a question the source does not answer.
The departures that spend longest in this building are set out on tower of london private tour.
1240: why it is white
Henry III had the keep whitewashed in 1240, and the name has stuck for nearly eight centuries. The stone underneath is Kentish ragstone with Caen limestone dressings brought from Normandy. The whitewash was a statement as much as a finish: a white tower visible from the river is a different message from a grey one.
The Chapel of St John the Evangelist
Built into the keep itself, and the oldest church building in London still standing whole. Round columns, plain capitals, a barrel-vaulted ceiling and almost no ornament. It was the private chapel of the royal apartments. Most visitors pass through it on the way to the armour and do not stop, which is a mistake worth ten minutes.
The Royal Armouries inside it
The keep holds the Royal Armouries, the United Kingdom’s national collection of arms and armour and the oldest museum in the country. The Office of the Armoury grew out of the King’s Privy Wardrobe here in the mid-15th century, overseen from 1423 by the Master of the King’s Armour, manufacturing armour and edged weapons for the monarch and his armies. The collection is now split between this building, Leeds and Fort Nelson.
The Line of Kings
The display of royal armours on carved wooden horses is one of the oldest visitor attractions in the world in its own right, shown here since the 17th century. It is the reason people came to the Tower long before anyone thought of it as a heritage site.
The stairs, floor by floor
| Floor | What is on it | Allow |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance level | Introduction, and the way up | 5 minutes |
| First floor | Armour, including the royal armours | 20 minutes |
| Chapel level | The Chapel of St John the Evangelist | 10 minutes |
| Upper floors | Weapons, the Line of Kings, temporary displays | 20 minutes |
There is no lift in the keep, and several of the stairs are spiral. Strollers are not permitted inside.
What was here before the museum
The keep held royal apartments, a chapel, storage and a garrison, and for centuries it was a working building rather than an exhibit. The sub-crypt of the chapel was used as a treasury from the earliest days. When the Office of the Armoury moved in during the 15th century it was because the building was already where the king’s equipment lived, not because anyone was curating anything.
If the stairs are not possible
The keep is the one building here with no step-free route, and that is a constraint of an eleventh-century structure rather than a policy. The Jewel House, the grounds, the Medieval Palace and most of the inner ward are all reachable without it. The accessibility page sets out what is level, what is cobbled and which of these tours describe themselves as accessible.
The departures that give you longest inside this building are the small-group and VIP tours, and every option is compared on Tower of London Tours. What is in the vault next door is on the Crown Jewels page.