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00:00The Tower of London, a royal palace and mighty fortress, infamous prison, place
00:22of execution and torture.
00:28With unprecedented access, in our search for the untold story, we'll go deep into the archives
00:37and uncover extraordinary relics and rituals hidden for centuries.
00:42The Ceremony of the Keys is the oldest military ceremony anywhere in the world.
00:47Who comes there?
00:49Queen Elizabeth Kaye!
00:52And we'll unravel the secrets of one of Britain's most iconic landmarks.
01:10More than 1,000 years old, and still standing guard on the banks of London's Great River
01:15Thames.
01:19The Tower of London, England's most formidable royal fortress.
01:29It holds centuries of secrets locked within its 15-foot-thick solid stone walls.
01:37These ancient fortifications, set in grounds the same size as those of the White House, are
01:43far more than just a castle keeping London safe from her enemies.
01:49Over the centuries, the Tower has been, in turn, the private palace home of kings and queens.
01:59A secure strong room for the monarch's most precious possessions, the crown jewels of England.
02:09A near inescapable prison, incarcerating all who angered the sovereign ruler of the day.
02:19A fearful place of execution, infamous for bloody beheadings and the cruel torture of its victims.
02:32And in recent centuries, it has become a popular tourist attraction, fascinating millions of visitors each year.
02:41Every era of its history adds to the store of secrets hidden from public view.
02:50Still to this day, Her Majesty the Queen of England's personal guards perform historic ceremonies that the tourists never see.
02:57With unique access to the life of this extraordinary castle, we go behind the scenes to uncover the secrets of the Tower of London.
03:18The story of the Tower all begins in the 11th century.
03:24In 1066, England suffers the only foreign invasion ever to overcome her island defences.
03:31The new ruler, William the Conqueror, constructs a fortress in the heart of the capital city,
03:38designed to shock and awe any rebellious Londoners and deter foreign invasion.
03:44His colossal status symbol towers 90 foot high above the deepest inland port on the river.
03:52Commanding the key crossing place at this hub of vital trading routes.
03:59By 1100, the White Tower is complete.
04:04A vast monolith to tower over London for centuries.
04:08Bridget Clifford, the Tower's historian, knows the secrets of the White Tower's birth.
04:15William built the Tower here to make a statement. He was a conqueror.
04:21It's sitting on the edge of the city of London, so it's standing over the native population.
04:27Behind us today, you can see how everything's grown up, but that would have been flat marshlands, so you could be seen from a distance from the south of the river.
04:37Even though now, the White Tower is dwarfed rather.
04:42When everybody else is living in one or two storey houses, this was an enormous great stone building, which represented power.
04:52In the 13th century, the White Tower receives reinforcements.
05:00Two new sets of walls spring up, fortified with 21 additional towers, costing millions of dollars.
05:07The moat is extended and flooded with water from the river Thames, creating a formidable stronghold.
05:15A seemingly impregnable defensive layout surviving to this day.
05:25The site spans 18 acres.
05:29And before you've even got through the gates, there are surprises hidden in the most unusual places.
05:35In the 1930s, archaeologists excavating the 100-foot-wide moat come across bones from an extraordinary ancient menagerie.
05:44Buried here are the remains of a leopard, 19 dogs, and these ferocious-looking lion skulls.
05:54Sally Dixon-Smith discovers that these were far from ordinary lions.
06:02They're a type of lion that is extinct in the wild, called a Barbary lion.
06:07And in fact, the lions you see today in Trafalgar Square are also Barbary lions.
06:12They've been able to carbon date them, and we know these are the medieval lions.
06:16These were the ones that were here in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.
06:24It's now known that the lions were part of a royal menagerie.
06:28An assortment of animals that the kings and queens of England never really wanted.
06:33Gifts from well-intentioned foreign monarchs.
06:39In the menagerie's heyday, the tower houses 60 species.
06:43At least 280 animals.
06:45The start of what is to be six centuries of attracting the tourists.
06:50The first creatures arrive in 1235, the lions.
06:57Just 20 years later, an even greater sensation.
07:02An African elephant is a trophy from the Crusades.
07:06Well-meaning keepers make him drink a gallon of red wine a day to keep out the cold.
07:12He has a happy, drunken, but very short life.
07:18The Norwegian white bear is muzzled and chained up,
07:22although he's walked on a stout cord to fish for his lunch in the Thames.
07:27By the 18th century, admission cost three half-pence, but there is a discount scheme.
07:33Bringing a cat or dog to feed to the hungry lions
07:36earns you a free peek at the spectacle of the king's exotic animal inmates.
07:40They were kept right here at the western entrance on the city side of the castle.
07:44This has always been the main entrance to the Tower of London.
07:47As you can see, people are flooding into the tower to visit,
07:50as they have done for centuries.
07:52To get in, you had to go past all the lions, the bears, the tigers.
07:58They even had kangaroos.
08:00All sorts of animals from all around the world
08:03were kept here really as royal status symbols and as curiosities to visit.
08:08There was really nothing very scientific at all
08:11about the way these animals were kept.
08:13They were purely for spectacle and bragging rights.
08:16Not all goes well.
08:18Animals escape, attack each other and even visitors.
08:21Finally, the unruly beasts get their marching orders in 1832.
08:26Fixtures and fittings sold at auction.
08:31Today, visitors don't see a zoo.
08:36But they do pass under the historic 13th century Bywood Tower.
08:40None of them knowing that it houses one of the fortress's rarest secret treasures.
08:46A work of art so fragile that few people ever see this room.
08:51It lies hidden for more than 500 years.
08:56Until renovation work uncovers something extraordinary.
09:03Rain Во思想
09:10Removing layers of modern paint from around a Tudor fireplace.
09:12Builders reveal the Tower of London's sole surviving medieval interior.
09:16interior one woman is responsible for the care of this historic artwork Jane Spooner this is a very
09:27rare survival indeed because of our damn climate a lot of these wall paintings or most of them have
09:33gone or they've been covered up the 14th century mural tells of Christ's crucifixion and in its
09:40day must have cost a fortune to paint scientific analysis revealed something exceptional about the
09:48pigments used by the artist there are some organic pigments so there's red luck which is made from the
09:56secretions of an Indian insect so it's very expensive pigment decades of detective work are
10:01revealing the murals hidden code the subject conveys a subliminal crime prevention message of shining
10:07morality and the reason it's here old plans reveal that from as early as 1278 and for six centuries
10:16more this part of the tower houses the royal mint the mural is a warning to God-fearing merchants and
10:23Treasury officials this is the place where merchants would bring bullion in sell it to the crown and it
10:29would be looked at and tested and valued then the crown would buy it and turn it into the king's coin
10:35there's a great deal of potential for fraud for stealing material for valuing things wrongly the message
10:46is clear God sees all thieves and fraudsters will never escape the damnation and fires of hell
10:52ironically by 1526 it is the king himself who steals from everybody else to fund England's wars his wives
11:09and his weapons he begins replacing precious metal in the nation's coins with much cheaper copper pocketing
11:18the valuable gold and silver this is infamously much married King Henry the eighth he rules England as
11:29absolute monarch with absolute power between 1509 and 1547 and it was his desire to divorce his first wife
11:39Catherine of Aragon that signals the start of the tower becoming a dark and macabre backdrop to
11:47a story of cruelty and treachery and religious life in England is split apart when the Pope refuses to
12:00sanction the end of King Henry's marriage Henry breaks from the Catholic faith declaring himself supreme
12:07head of a new church of England amid years of turmoil all who question the divorce are thrown into his deepest
12:15dungeons this country cottage facade lies within the tower walls it hides a dark and dank secret chamber
12:24an illustration of the depths to which Henry sinks in his quest to remarry the only access is via the
12:33Queen's house currently the private residence of the governor of the tower that means that no tourists ever
12:40pass through this door only historians like Sally Dixon Smith have the exclusive access this is the now
12:51deserted room once housing Sir Thomas More one of Henry's chief ministers he refuses to accept the king as head of the
13:00church so he's imprisoned here for more than a year Henry sees more's actions as betrayal and treachery
13:10but he's hoping a humane incarceration might encourage a change of heart prison conditions at
13:20the tower do vary enormously people have this vision of sort of dungeons and rats and certainly for some
13:26people that's true it really does depend on your social status if you had nothing this could be a
13:32really horrible horrible cold nasty place if you can pay for it you can live well here
13:39Moore's imprisonment is at first a relatively comfortable affair
13:45exact details of how this now bare chamber might once have looked no longer exist but it's believed that
13:56such a high-class prisoner as Moore can enjoy rugs on the cold floor tapestries on the walls furniture
14:02candles books and even his own domestic servant within these walls he gets visits from his family bringing food and
14:13fine wines over the course of his imprisonment which was over a year things get more and more stressful if you like
14:23between him and the king it's clear Thomas isn't changing his mind and so they really start to clamp down on him they
14:29take away his books they take away his writing materials they take away access to his family they're really putting the
14:36pressure on more stuck to his principles kept his integrity but finally lost his life in july 1535
14:48his severed head displayed on traitor's gate
14:51with sir thomas moore's head on a spike king henry now has total power over england's political and
15:06religious establishment and his new supremacy deserves the most opulent of palaces the unbounded extravagance of his
15:18spending spree consumes millions of dollars much of it going on new royal luxury lodgings for his
15:26second wife and Berlin the domes that you can see on the top of the white tower today these beautiful onion
15:32cupolas were actually put on by henry the eighth as one of the sort of statements about the white tower
15:39making it even more visible for anne's coronation 600 years ago anne arrives at the tower palace for a
15:50fitting ceremony to crown her queen of england it's the culmination of so many hopes so much
15:57expectation in fact she's six months pregnant with what they hope will be the heir to the throne the
16:03long-awaited son this is the heyday for the tower as a royal residence but all was about to change
16:16for anne boleyn the tower is the place of her greatest triumph but also her moments of greatest despair
16:26anne fails to produce a male heir for henry so she becomes one of the tower's most tragic victims
16:33death of unall olika
17:02tower her death comes here on tower green away from public gaze it's an
17:10incredibly moving story and something that really grips you and I think it's
17:14this mixture of something incredibly personal being so political and having
17:19such a massive impact on the country but it's a story that you can relate to and
17:24you can you can still feel that fear May 19th 1536 the bell rings as is done
17:33before and after each execution the portcullis lowers
17:43execution is then a notoriously bloody and often botched business but in an act
17:51of humanity Henry arranges for an expert swordsman to be brought from France for
17:55the job his kindliness is rewarded in one clean sweep Anne's head parts company
18:02with her neck
18:11but that is not the end of Anne's story 300 years later and just a stone's throw
18:16from her place of execution builders installing underground heating unearth
18:23a shocking sight
18:291500 skeletal remains found here at the Chapel Royal of St. Peter and Vincula
18:36most of the bodies are unidentifiable
18:39and so they're reinterred in a crypt sealed behind this door
18:47but one of them is believed to be the ill-fated Queen
18:51this shield on the altar marks the spot where her bones were discovered and then
18:57re-buried the final resting place of Anne Boleyn
19:05Anne's head is chopped off within the tower walls a privilege reserved for royalty
19:10most executions take place 150 yards away at this public site 125 heads roll here
19:19we're standing on Tower Hill absolutely in the middle of the 21st century you can
19:24hear all of the traffic going past the biggest public executions draw thousands
19:30of people there would have been quite a holiday atmosphere not for the person
19:36being executed obviously the sentence most closely associated with the tower is
19:42beheading by axe carried out by a masked execution quite often money with
19:47exchange hands in the hope that a clean execution would be granted the block
19:53with its two curved cutouts is designed to hold the victims head and upper chest and expose their neck
20:00the prisoner would indicate when they were ready and the executioner would fulfill his task sometimes
20:10more efficiently than others there are not so many executions that somebody is expert in it
20:16tales are that quite often the executioner was very drunk
20:20it wasn't exactly a high status job to hold there are tales where it was several strikes to actually
20:30take the head from the body after the head is displayed to the crowd it is carried through the
20:40streets of London and displayed as a warning to other traitors in its 900 year long history thousands
20:50of prisoners passed through the tower's gates the tower is notorious as a place of imprisonment of
20:57punishment of torture and of execution and I think this is because this was used for such high status
21:05prisoners famous inmates include princess Elizabeth the future Queen Elizabeth the first as well as the
21:14legendary Guy Fawkes who attempts to blow up the British government with two tons of gunpowder and receives a
21:21fate possibly worse than death torture reputedly he is stretched on the most infamous of all medieval
21:29torture devices the rack and tortured further by being manacled and suspended by his wrists
21:37you cannot sustain being stretched and extended to breaking point as on the rack or with manacles for more than
21:45about five to ten minutes without passing out it's extraordinarily painful and it's something that was used
21:51repeatedly on people to gain confessions despite its very important prisoners the tower is far from a maximum security prison
22:06in fact its first-ever inmate Bishop Ranul Flambard escaped he climbs down a rope dropped out of a window in the white
22:17tower after getting guards drunk on a gallon of wine 700 years later Lord Nithsdale makes his escape disguised as a woman
22:24700 years later Lord Nithsdale makes his escape disguised as a woman
22:30but in the intervening years the tower gets more effective as a jail and the Beecham Tower is where many of the inmates are held
22:37this by now is the main state prison all around the tower vestiges of its macabre and sinister past like this extraordinary graffiti carved between the 16th and 17th centuries during a period of religious and political upheaval this falcon engraving the royal symbol of Anne Boleyn is thought to be etched by one of the men arrested alongside her
22:52poignantly the royal bird has no crown or sceptre it stands bareheaded as does Anne in her last moments on Tower Green but not all prisoners lose their heads at the tower
23:17Bridget Clifford keeper of the towers history is still trying to piece together the story of an American prisoner from the 18th century
23:24Henry Lawrence was a prisoner here in the 1780s he was accused of treason as a leader in the American Revolution he is a prize catch for the British
23:32here we have the York Corinth Tuesday October 10th 1780 and it tells the story of his capture at sea Lawrence was then brought over to the Tower of London
23:53as the story goes Lawrence is greeted at the Tower gates by the tune Yankee Doodle Dandy
24:02this is where he's thought to have lived with a yeoman warder and his wife
24:07to begin with all he wants to do is escape
24:11for some time past I have been frequently and strongly tempted to make my escape from the tower
24:16I might have 18 hours start before I was missed
24:21but Lawrence is never treated like a common prisoner
24:25it's thought the English feared they could lose the war
24:29so went easy on this important and influential figure
24:33that allows visits from merchants bringing champagne and fine wines
24:38hoping to strike deals with what was soon to become the brand new United States of America
24:49such useful networking opportunities persuade Lawrence swiftly to abandon his breakout plans
24:55I put a stop to further applications by saying I will not attempt an escape
24:59the gates were open for me to enter
25:02they shall be open for me to go out of the tower
25:04and they duly were
25:07in 1781 the Americans agree to a mid-atlantic transfer
25:11Lawrence is traded for a captured British Lord
25:14like many of the time Lawrence has a morbid fear of being buried alive
25:19so back home in South Carolina there is a bizarre twist to the tale
25:23he leaves instructions for his corpse to be decapitated
25:27just in case
25:29he is somebody who escaped from the tower with his head
25:31but lost his head when he returned home
25:35which is an unusual variant on the theme
25:46over centuries past people face incarceration within the tower
25:50now instead of fighting to get out crowds line up to get in
25:53the tourist rush began in the 19th century
25:59by then leisure time in England was increasing
26:03and sightseeing was becoming a popular pastime
26:06the Victorians create a new house of horror fantasy guides for the tower
26:12to draw in day trippers
26:13and all is not as it seems
26:17one little known secret is that in 1885
26:20the Lanthorn Tower is rebuilt to make it appear more medieval
26:24making the tower akin to a Victorian version of Disneyland
26:28and when London needs a new river crossing Queen Victoria insists that it must blend in with its next door neighbour the tower of London
26:43together they become joint attractions in this medieval theme park
26:47in 1880 construction begins on the new gigantic structure
26:55which will become tower bridge
26:58the 11,000 ton steel work is clad in stone
27:02in a faux gothic style so as to maintain the fantasy illusion
27:06in all the bridge costs more than 150 million dollars in today's money
27:11the facade may be imitation but the engineering is both real and remarkable
27:21huge arms raise and lower the bridge span
27:25each using massive counterbalances known as bascules
27:28and each operating much like a seesaw
27:37Dave Duffy is responsible for raising and lowering the bridge
27:41his job takes him 30 feet below into the bascule chambers
27:50we're in the south bascule chamber
27:53the white part right going across carries approximately 400 tons of lead
27:58there's a counterbalance
28:00so when the bridge outside goes up
28:03everything you see white comes down
28:07everything you see in here is original
28:09nothing's been replaced
28:12but then anything the Victorians built they built to last
28:15at the time of Victorian engineering it was probably
28:19far in advance of anything else that anyone had ever done
28:22purely just on its size let alone the structure and the way they did it
28:26the bridge is still manned 24 hours a day
28:40and lifted for vessels over 30 feet high
28:44oh let me know I should be
28:48should be started a long time ago
28:50right just started the hydraulic pumps up
28:54in each of the corners there's two main pumps
28:57what we'll do is start one pump at a time
28:59because they have 50 kilowatt motors
29:02if we start the whole lot together
29:04we'll probably black out half a city
29:05there's no set times for lifts
29:09you might get a whole week without a single lift
29:12and during the summer you can get anything up to
29:15twenty odd lifts in one day
29:19the pumps are all started
29:21I will now stop the incoming traffic both north and south
29:24lady Daphne Tower Bridge your lift is underway
29:30everything is now in a set position so I'm now raising the bridge
29:39I shall raise the bridge to approximately 45 degrees
29:42which will give the vessel ample room to manoeuvre
29:47in the bascule chamber the thousand tons of counterweight
29:51help the roadway to rise
29:52and the staggering feat of Victorian engineering is revealed in all its glory
30:13with priority given to ships
30:15even smaller vessels such as the Lady Daphne
30:19road traffic must stop
30:20and wait
30:27the vessel's cleared the bridge
30:30so I'll now start to lower the bridge
30:40stop the hydraulics
30:42and that is the bridge lift completely
30:45Tower Bridge is a major London landmark
30:47and just as it always has done
30:51matches perfectly with its neighbour the Tower of London
30:54the 20th century gives rise to a new challenge
31:03war
31:06during World War 2 life at the Tower changes beyond recognition
31:09the gates close to sightseers
31:12the gates close to sightseers
31:14and the priceless crown jewels move to a secret more secure location
31:18the dry moat, previously drained for fear of disease
31:22becomes part of the war effort
31:24an important source of food for Londoners
31:27fifteen bombs, three missiles and numerous incendiaries strike the tower
31:31twenty-three people are killed
31:32twenty-three people are killed
31:34but damage to the tower's structures is surprisingly slight
31:41but there is one chilling incident that would go down in history
31:48this ordinary looking dining chair betrays an extraordinary secret
31:54a few decades ago it is discovered in the tower's stores
31:59damage to parts of its wooden frame reveal its true significance in tower history
32:04this is the chair used for the very last execution ever conducted in the Tower of London
32:10August 15th 1941
32:12German spy Joseph Jacobs is captured shortly after parachuting into Britain
32:22under the treachery act of 1940
32:25he is convicted of espionage
32:27as a military officer Jacobs is spared the usual hanging
32:32he is to be shot by a military firing squad
32:38Jacobs is taken to this firing range
32:40within the walls of the tower
32:43he is blindfolded and tied to the chair
32:47a white dot pinned to his chest as an unmissable target
32:53eight rifle shots seal his fate
33:01this will prove to be the last execution here
33:04a bloody finale to the many equally bloody tales of the tower
33:08today this slice of British history is among the country's foremost tourist attractions
33:18and its most celebrated inhabitants are yeoman warders
33:26defenders of the gates and ceremonial guardians of the tower
33:29Phil Wilson is one of those yeoman warders
33:34popularly known as the beef eaters
33:37yeoman warders
33:39beef eaters indeed
33:41no one really knows why they're called beef eaters
33:44one suggestion is that their original role as the king's personal bodyguard entitled them to eat as much beef as they desired from the king's table
33:50their full state uniforms including a weave of gold thread run to $10,000
34:00what we're wearing today is semi-state dress
34:04we wear this on special occasions that involve the tower
34:08fire fire fire
34:10the tower still has important royal connections
34:13today it's the queen's birthday
34:15a popular opportunity to wheel out the big guns
34:17it will fire a 62 gun salute
34:20which is 21 for her majesty
34:2221 for the city of london
34:24and 20 for the royal palace and fortress of the tower of london
34:28the tower of london is still a self-contained community
34:36the 37 yeoman warders and their families all live on site
34:42they have their own doctor
34:45and even an english pub
34:49reserved strictly for the yeoman warders and vips
34:56Alan kingshot is the chief yeoman warder
34:59he's giving us a rare glimpse of this very private world
35:03there's my boss
35:06hello ma'am
35:07hello ma'am
35:09it's a very very special place
35:10you can only come here if you've been invited to come into the yeoman warders club
35:15this is not only a place for yeoman warders to retire after a day's work
35:19it's also a repository of extraordinary objects
35:22all around the club there's lots of trinkets there's lots of plaques
35:28loads of pictures and these have been given as gifts from people who've come to visit the tower
35:33tower life is filled with rituals unseen by the public
35:37each yeoman warder has their own tankard for the secret ceremonial dinners
35:43there that's mine
35:45and there's my tankard there
35:46just because i'm the chief it doesn't mean to say it gets put in any sort of prominent position
35:49but there it is
35:50there it is
35:52a big part of yeoman warder life is giving tours of the tower to the hordes of visitors each day
35:57and recounting the bloody tales of yesteryear
36:00third blow had come down and took the top of scots head off
36:03it was the bloodiest execution to happen on the hill
36:06high above them the chief is able to keep an eye on proceedings from his private quarters
36:16and he's invited us inside
36:19to witness what remains an important ritual at any british institution
36:23even the tower of london
36:25tea?
36:26Alan lives here with his wife pat
36:28can i go make it then for you?
36:29be nice
36:30as always
36:34we've been living in here for
36:36about 15 years i think now
36:39it's all very very quirky because it's an actual round tower
36:43they've had to put false walls in and things like that
36:47the wardens of the tower have the privilege of living in unique homes
36:51but there are rules and restrictions that go with it
36:53because we live at the top of a tower we've got something like 50 stairs
36:58so trying to get my groceries up we're not allowed to have an elevator
37:02so it's all steps
37:04when i come back with my shopping i get comments like fancy bringing your shopping into a place like this
37:09and i have to resist the urge to put them right
37:12you get used to the hindrances and the things that are a little bit out of the normal
37:17these modern day prisoners face restrictions better suited to earlier inmates of the tower
37:21probably cold by now dear
37:24we can't get out easily at night
37:28because they lock all the doors at 10 o'clock
37:30if we want to come back after midnight we have to book in to let them know we're coming back
37:34otherwise we could have a problem getting back in
37:36the yeoman warders have all carried out a minimum of 22 years service in the british military
37:47and received a good conduct medal
37:50the yeoman warders true title is yeoman warder of her majesty's royal palace and fortress of tower of london
37:55yeoman of the guard in extraordinary
37:56putting the uniform you are unique in many respects you're the icon of all things british
38:04a roles for a yeoman warder has changed quite dramatically
38:10initially we would have been custodians of the prisoners that were brought here
38:15these prisoners of course were very wealthy people they're not common criminals who wouldn't have come here not the tower of london
38:23Alan and pat's bedroom once housed vips
38:26in this case very important prisoners
38:29the higher up the building you went the more important you were in your status
38:33that obviously doesn't apply nowadays it's those that are the fittest i think that can get up the 50 odd stairs that we've got to get here
38:40two scottish lords were held in here in 1747 prior to their execution outside on tower hill
38:47now obviously it's evolved over these years and then it's been adapted now for modern day living so it's our bedroom
38:55you can still see the bars over the window
38:58we still have the fixings on the door the locks
39:02you can't actually open this thing very quietly you can't sneak anywhere in this place
39:06Alan's wife pat has an extraordinary job
39:13she cares for the nation's most precious and priceless objects
39:17and now she's off to work
39:20a supervisor in the jewel house
39:22custodian of england's most prized possessions
39:24the crown jewels a breathtaking collection of royal regalia
39:38in all over 23,000 jewels
39:41their estimated value is 32 billion dollars
39:45although their emotional and historic value is priceless
39:47they've been guarded here for centuries
39:58the most impressive piece is the imperial state crown
40:01a dazzling showstopper for queen elizabeth the second's coronation
40:05it's encrusted with over 3,000 rare and precious gems
40:11and these celebrated jewels have been on some extraordinary adventures
40:16in 1671 there was a big hoist attempt on the crown jewels
40:22a man called Colonel Blood posed as a clergyman
40:28befriended the jewel housekeeper
40:30and then essentially they mug the jewel housekeeper
40:33and try and steal the jewels
40:35Blood crushes the imperial state crown
40:38and hides it under his cloak
40:40the sceptre is attacked with a saw
40:42and his comrade sticks the orb down his britches
40:46just as they are about to make their getaway
40:49the alarm is raised and the thieves arrested
40:53so far so good
40:55that's the only real attempt there has been
41:02the jewels have been stored on site since the 14th century
41:06and the tower's archives reveal when they first became a public attraction
41:12originally there would have been jewel houses the south of the white tower
41:18you get a sense of the different experiences that you have when you come to the tower
41:24the menagerie, the new armouries
41:26and you can see that in this map of the tower
41:29the jewel house has moved to the martin tower there
41:32and it is one of the sights people come to see
41:34from as early as the 1660s the jewel house forms one of the tower's attractions
41:38and visitors can view the regalia stored in the basement of this building
41:43after Blood's escapade security is stepped up
41:47iron bars replace wooden ones around the regalia
41:50and visitors are never again allowed within touching distance of the collection
41:54but that doesn't discourage the sightseers
41:57by the year 1851
41:59the number of visitors has risen to around half a million
42:03a purpose-built ticket office is erected to cope with demand
42:06and official tours of the jewel house begin
42:10even though its presentation attracted some harsh criticism
42:14there is an account in the early 19th century
42:17where the jewel house is described as being rather like a wash house
42:21an aged lady takes a lantern in, seats everybody down
42:25reveals the jewels and she has a set script
42:28and if you knock her from her script she's utterly lost and has to return to the beginning
42:32and I think some people actually made quite a joke of it in the end to see how often they could distract her
42:38Today the crown jewels live in a purpose-built bank vault within the Waterloo Barracks
42:45the newest building on site
42:46and thousands of tourists queue each day for a glimpse of the Queen's prized possessions
42:57modern security measures forbid any visitors taking photographs of the jewels
43:01and they may never be filmed in situ
43:03but these are not the only precious possessions stored within the tower walls
43:09in 2012 a different form of regalia is safeguarded here
43:14all the London Olympics medals
43:17freshly minted from eight tons of gold, silver and bronze
43:21the tower is well used to the storage and display of precious objects
43:26it's been home to the longest running exhibition in the world
43:33since the 1600s there has been a lavish display of arms and armour
43:39mounted on life-size wooden horses
43:42it's called the Line of Kings
43:45the exhibit is currently off limits to visitors while it's given a facelift
43:51when armour and weaponry became redundant on the battlefield
43:56it all remained on site
43:58and in the 1650s someone had the bright idea of displaying it to visitors
44:03just like the crown jewels it is designed to impress
44:07the original mission statement is to demonstrate the monarch's right to rule
44:12the mid-1600s is a precarious time to be a king
44:16so in an exercise in public relations
44:20the official Line of Kings is created to big up and fly the flag of the British monarchy
44:26part propaganda, part fantasy
44:29significant doubts exist over the armour of William the Conqueror
44:33such armour is not even invented until 500 years after his death
44:38the Line of Kings is a truly theatrical experience
44:42Karen Whitting has the task of bringing it into the 21st century
44:51what we're doing is re-interpreting it for a new generation
44:56we are following in the tradition of those craftsmen, the mount makers, the people that crafted the horses
45:03we found a photograph of a horse and some wooden plinths during an installation from the 1880s
45:09and that photograph is exactly like the installation here where we are building wooden plinths and putting horses on them
45:16many of these horses, once props for armour, go back hundreds of years
45:21today they are in themselves rare and precious artefacts
45:25and after months of work they are once again about to be unveiled to the public
45:30once they are in place you get a real tingle and a buzz because you can see the exhibition taking shape
45:38yeah, let's do an unveiling
45:40the one that we've just put in here will eventually have a rider on its back as well
45:46so I think it will look really dramatic
45:51the 400 year old spectacular royal armour re-displayed is now open to a new generation
45:58the tower was to survive for another thousand years
46:05it's because people want it to, it's because we will continue to have visitors
46:08it's because we can preserve and share this heritage
46:11which is just so exciting
46:18preserving all of the towers treasures and even the basic fabric of the building
46:21is a 24-7 job
46:26and keeping this royal fortress standing takes a team of people working behind the scenes
46:34Alex Atlesi is one of the building surveyors
46:38her job allows her a unique view of London and the tower
46:42the best bits are going in places where nobody else gets to go
46:45so you get these fantastic views of London that nobody else can see
46:51at the moment we're on the bowyer tower
46:53we're doing some stone cleaning, repairs
46:56the roof was failing, water was getting in, so we're replacing that
47:02but that's not all, the walls themselves need attention
47:05and there are plenty of secrets and surprises hiding within them
47:09we found the stone was loose and when we took the stone out we found this void
47:13in this one we had found two bones
47:16nobody yet knows exactly why the bones were placed there
47:19one possibility is that they were a superstitious offering to the gods
47:23deposited within the walls by one of Alex's predecessors
47:25if you look in the background of a lot of old photographs you can see a little bit of scaffolding up somewhere
47:32the tower generally has had some building work or some scaffold repair work going on
47:36for its entire lifetime
47:38and there's nothing new about the techniques Alex and her team are deploying
47:44we have gone back to the traditional construction of the buildings
47:47so we use hand tools to take out the mortar, we use hand tools to carve the stones
47:57and we use the original bedding mixes between the stone joints
48:02so basically we've gone back to how they were built
48:05a 19th century addition, the gargoyles
48:09functional as well as decorative, they were used to keep the evil spirits at bay
48:14that have the more practical function of channeling rain water away from the building
48:21this one is a grotesque, it's purely decorative
48:26now we're cleaning it with basically a brass toothbrush and water
48:30and we're cleaning off all this pollution and dirt build up
48:33because otherwise it suffocates the stone and then we end up with problems like cracks and things
48:38the work of Alex and her team is never done
48:45every 60 years the cycle of repairs begins again
48:52but as an ancient legend states, if certain residents leave the tower
48:57it might be more than just repairs that are needed
49:05ravens have been kept here pretty much forever
49:08pretty much forever
49:16as the story goes, if the birds depart the tower, the kingdom will fall
49:21so the wings are clipped to keep them life-long prisoners of the Tower of London
49:25and the man with the job of looking after them
49:31raven master Chris Scaife
49:35there was an ancient legend, should the ravens leave the Tower of London
49:41it would crumble into dust and a great harm would be fought with the monarchy and the country
49:45it is the 17th century
49:48and these black birds of doom were about to be shown out of the door
49:51we had the telescope on top of the white tower
49:54and there was hundreds of ravens around the tower at that period of time
49:58the ravens are becoming a pest and interfering with the telescope
50:02the king said get rid of them all
50:05until someone turned around to the king's esquire
50:07if the ravens leave the Tower of London
50:09it will crumble into dust and yourself, it will disappear
50:12now he was quite superstitious
50:14they thought I'd better keep some ravens here
50:16so he decided to keep six here by royal decree
50:19that's why we have six here to this day
50:21in fact I don't, I have eight
50:23I have two spare just in case
50:25so the ravens are allowed to stay
50:34they often hang around in pairs
50:37but each bird is given a name
50:39water
50:41feeding time for the ravens is just another ancient ritual at the Tower
50:44yum
50:46they get treated like royalty
50:50eating their way through a ton of meat a year
50:53there we go
50:55sheep's hearts are a favoured raven delicacy
51:01Tower green, the former site of royal beheadings
51:03is today a haunt for Chris's favourite raven, Merlina
51:09Merlina at the moment
51:11she's probably behind that bush over there
51:13so we'll just go and have a look over there to see where she is
51:15come on then
51:17I'll just go into the jungle and get her out
51:20come on trials and tribulations of a raven master
51:25good girl
51:27that's better
51:29right where did she go, oh there she is over there
51:31I'll keep the ravens here at the Tower of London as wild as possible
51:38she was originally friendly to start off with when she came here
51:41that's the reason why she's my favourite because I can actually approach her
51:45and on occasions as well
51:47when I'm sitting down in the bloody tower box
51:49she'll come into the box with me and she'll sit with me
51:52and I can actually stroke her and she'll just fall asleep on my lap
51:54it's quite lovely
51:55Despite having clipped wings, Chris's feathered friends have been known to put the future of the tower in jeopardy
52:06there have been many occasions where ravens have escaped from the Tower of London
52:10we had an incident about two years ago now where Moonim flew off
52:13she flew around the tower and off she went up into the distance
52:18first thing I thought I'd do was check to make sure the tower was still standing
52:22I checked, yep, still there
52:24three days later we got a phone call from a gentleman who lived near Greenwich
52:29and he'd seen a raven in his back garden
52:31and he'd caught the raven and put it in a bag and his little head was poking out of the bag
52:35today it's back at the Tower of London
52:37and it's the longest time a raven's ever been away from the Tower of London in full flight
52:40with a full contingent of ravens, its beefeaters, stores of secrets and bloody history
52:47the Tower survives for another day
52:51as night falls over the great city of London
52:54it's locking up time
52:56an excuse for some more pomp and ceremony
53:01The Ceremony of the Keys is the oldest military ceremony anywhere in the world
53:06goes back more than 700 years
53:09it's also the shortest
53:11it lasts seven and a half minutes
53:17Hush!
53:19Who comes there?
53:21Their keys!
53:22Whose keys?
53:23Queen Elizabeth's keys
53:26Hush! Queen Elizabeth's keys
53:28all is well
53:29with bars
53:30Hush!
53:33This ceremony has been performed every night for 600 years
53:37I leave at exactly 53 minutes and 25 seconds
53:41to carry out the ceremony
53:43God is out!
53:45Hushman!
53:47Tower of London, God!
53:49To the Godroom!
53:51When we finish the ceremony
53:53we hear the chimes on the Jewel House clock
53:56which is exactly 10 o'clock
54:00And the mighty fortress stands guard over London
54:08Just as it has for almost a thousand years
54:10for a thousand years
54:40a few months
54:58a few years
55:01It hasn't been a big reconciliation
55:03this afternoon
55:04I remember seeing a funny Lisbon