Plaque

(lost) Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Inscription

Site of the scaffold on which were executed Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey & others.

This image came from Twitter via Londonist, and from the children's clothes must be about 1910.

2020: Terje Hartberg contacted us via Twitter directing us to this Flickr stream which has a photo of this plaque in 1939, from a different angle. The frame of the plaque has changed since the earlier photo but that's all. Thanks Terje.

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. We're being very nerdish, publishing them as 'lost' memorials, even though the current location of one of them is actually known.

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.

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Subjects commemorated i

Anne Boleyn

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

Read More

Lady Jane Grey

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

Read More

Catherine Howard

As lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves Catherine attracted Henry's ever-roving ...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - c.1910

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 scaffold - 1946

Tower scaffold - 1946

See Anne Boleyn's plaque for when/how this plaque was displayed.

Read More

Nearby Memorials

John Alcindor

John Alcindor

W2, Harrow Road, 209, Harrow Road Health Centre

Dr John Alcindor, 1873 - 1924, physician, Pan-Africanist and WW1 local hero, had his surgery here, 1913 - 1924. Nubian Jak Community Trus...

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Sir Victor Horsley

Sir Victor Horsley

WC1, Gower Street, 129

Sir Victor Horsley, 1857 - 1916, pioneer of neurosurgery and social reformer, lived here. English Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

E1, Brick Lane, 91, Old Truman Brewery

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1786 - 1845, anti-slavery campaigner, lived and worked here. English Heritage

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Merton Place

Merton Place

SW19, Merton High Street, Doel Close

We've read at London Gardens Online that the house was actually where Nelson Grove Road now is.

4 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Baker Street and Waterloo Railway Centenary - Piccadilly Circus

Baker Street and Waterloo Railway Centenary - Piccadilly Circus

W1, Piccadilly Circus

Bakerloo Line Centenary of the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway, 1906 - 2006

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

Sir Joshua Reynolds - Great Newport Street - lost

Sir Joshua Reynolds - Great Newport Street - lost

WC2, Great Newport Street, 5, The Photographers Gallery

April 2016: Our colleague Alan Patient reports that this plaque is now lost, or, at the very least hidden, behind the large "White Space...

1 subject commemorated
Marta Krawiec

Marta Krawiec

WC1, Theobald’s Road

This is our third memorial at the junction (Francis Golding, Federica Baldassa) - all to cyclists killed by HGVs at this junction.  Road....

2 subjects commemorated
Edward Lear - Seymour Street

Edward Lear - Seymour Street

W1, Seymour Street, 30

2016: Douglas Eaton told us the plaque has gone. Checking on Google Street View history: it was still there in July 2009, then number 30 ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem

Priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem

EC1, St John's Square

These cobbles mark out the site of the original circular church of the medieval priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.

1 subject commemorated
Teddington Studios - David Nixon

Teddington Studios - David Nixon

TW11, Broom Road, Teddington Studios

July 2015 The Mirror reported that 4 of these plaques (Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, Sid James and Irene Handl) were stolen just prior to the...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator