Plaque

(lost) Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946
Inscription

Site of Ancient Scaffold
On this spot Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded on the 19 May 1536.

This image comes from the 1946 short documentary film 'Prisoners of the Tower'. It is shown laid into the ground at the centre of a cobbled enclosure formed of 4 bollards chained together, with another more informative plaque on a stand alongside. The bollards are identical to those shown in the c.1910 photo, showing an earlier arrangement. This Boleyn plaque looks as if it might date back to that arrangement, and maybe earlier.

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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

Subjects commemorated i

Anne Boleyn

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

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

Also at this site i

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 of London execution site - c.1910

Tower of London execution site - c.1910

This image came from Twitter via Londonist, and from the children's clothes m...

Read More

Tower scaffold - 1946

Tower scaffold - 1946

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

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Heath & Hampstead Society

Heath & Hampstead Society

NW3, Heath Street

This stone was placed here in the Millennium year 2000 AD to commemorate the 100th anniversary in 1997 of The Heath & Hampstead Socie...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Sir John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais

SW7, Palace Gate, 2, Zambia House

Sir John Everett Millais, Bt. PRA (1829 - 1896) painter, lived and died here. L. C. C.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Meiklejohn

Meiklejohn

SW7, South Carriage Drive, Hyde Park Barracks

Not related to the Meiklejohn story at all: the Model Villager has a great post about how the horse dung was (possibly still is) removed ...

1 subject commemorated
Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

N16, Stoke Newington Church Street, 113

Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 1743 - 1825, poet and writer, lived in this house from 1802 and died here. London Borough of Hackney

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Great Conduit in Cheapside - blue

Great Conduit in Cheapside - blue

EC2, Cheapside, Tescos

The stone plaque is laid into the pavement.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator