The Fortified Walls
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Previous page: Officers and GarrisonTHE FORTIFIED WALLS
Flaying obtained the requisite ticket (or tickets) at the office by the wooden gate that now serves as the entrance from Tower Hill, the visitor passes through the Middle Tower, which is so called because there was an outer gatehouse tower known as the Lion Gate, where the royal menagerie (transferred to the Zoological Gardens) was kept.
The moat bridge is then crossed and the Outer Ward is entered through the Byward Tower, wherein are the quarters of the Chief Warder. The visitor is now between the double line of walls.
On the left, as one proceeds, are the Bell Tower (surmounted by the belfry in which the alarm bell hangs), wherein Bishop Fisher, Sir Thomas More, and other victims of royal disfavour were imprisoned; and the Lieutenant's Lodging, or the King's House, in the council chamber of which Guy Fawkes and some of his accomplices were examined.
On the right is St. Thomas's Tower, which was built by Henry III, and contains an oratory dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury; beneath it is the water gateway called Traitors Gate.
Passing the Bloody Tower - which was the original entrance to the Inner Ward and has still a portcullis in working order - and the adjoining Wakefield Tower or Jewel House, one turns off into the Inner Ward through an opening in the ballium wall.
In front is the White Tower, to the right the Lanthorn Tower, in the turret of which a light used to be burnt at night. The space between the ballium wall and the White Tower was the site of the royal palace and the Great Hall, which were demolished during Cromwell's regime.
The way lies past a fragment of the old Wardrobe Tower, and along by the Stores, the Hospital, and the quarters of the officers of the garrison, a range of buildings that back on to the eastern section of the ballium wall.
To the right of the Stores, in the angle of the wall, is the Salt Tower; to the left the Broad Arrow Tower. Both of these towers contain inscriptions left by prisoners.
Behind the Officers' Quarters is the Constable Tower, once the official residence of the Constable ; and in the north-east angle of the ballium wall the Martin Tower, where the Crown Jewels were kept when Colonel Blood attempted to raid them in 1673.
The castellated building extending along the north section of the ballium wall is the Waterloo Barracks, which date from 1845. The Visitor now enters
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