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...

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Lady Jane Grey

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

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Catherine Howard

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

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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...

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Tower of London execution site

Tower of London execution site

Catling wrote the poem as well as creating the sculpture. Doesn't that cushio...

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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 ...

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Tower scaffold - 1946

Tower scaffold - 1946

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

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Nearby Memorials

Victoria Cross recipients  - East Ham

Victoria Cross recipients - East Ham

E6, High Street South, East Ham Central Park

The Victoria Cross plaques are located on the grass by the memorial. and can be seen in the bottom right of our photograph. Regarding Ce...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Queen Elizabeth's birthplace - Silver Jubilee

Queen Elizabeth's birthplace - Silver Jubilee

W1, Bruton Street, 17

This plaque was dedicated in the Silver Jubilee Year of Her Reign. To Her Majesty, The Queen, who was born here on April 21st 1926. {In...

2 subjects commemorated
William Blake - SE1

William Blake - SE1

SE1, Hercules Road

The shield with the red crosses is from the Coat of arms of the City of London and suggests that the Corporation was responsible for its ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Football Association

Football Association

WC2, Great Queen Street, 63, Connaught Rooms

The development of the southern side of Great Queen Street is complex: it's a story of overlapping rebuildings and extensions to the Free...

3 subjects commemorated
South End Road bridge

South End Road bridge

NW3, South End Road

2020: The road is surprising wide at this point. Via Facebook Dugald Gonsal helpfully explained "I was selected and appointed by Ken Harm...

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Previously viewed

Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse

W1, Cleveland Street, 139

London County Council Samuel Morse, 1791 - 1872, American painter, and inventor of the Morse Code, lived here, 1812 - 1815.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Herman Melville

Herman Melville

WC2, Craven Street, 25

Herman Melville stayed at number 25 for two months in 1849. 2021: This house is available to rent (£19,500 a month, since you ask). Mans...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Suffragettes - WC2 - new building

Suffragettes - WC2 - new building

WC2, Clements Inn, Pethick-Lawrence House, LSE

We first saw this plaque when it was on the building that used to occupy this site. That was from 1990ish but the style of the plaque is ...

7 subjects commemorated
St Mary Abbots - girl

St Mary Abbots - girl

W8, Kensington Church Walk, St Mary Abbots Primary School

The net seems undecided how many 't's there are in Abbotts, but the school has settled on just one. The school's history page provides t...

1 subject commemorated
St J. A. M. Tolehurst
War dead, WW1
1 memorial