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.

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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...

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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...

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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 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...

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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

Thomas Cromwell - SW15

Thomas Cromwell - SW15

SW15, Brewhouse Lane, 3

The plaque fails to explain why it is on this particular spot.  Cromwell's family was based in Putney and he was brought up here but we c...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Edward Johnston

Edward Johnston

W6, Hammersmith Terrace, 3

Note: the typeface used on this plaque is not "English Heritage’s own unique font" to quote EH, but London Underground’s own typeface, Ne...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Seacole - Soho Square

Seacole - Soho Square

W1, Soho Square, 14

Greater London Council Mary Seacole, 1805 - 1881, Jamaican nurse, heroine of the Crimean War, lived here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Remains of Roman wall and bastion

Remains of Roman wall and bastion

EC1, Giltspur Street, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

September 2010: there is a small plaque giving visiting hours: 9:00 - 17:00 Mon-Fri and 9:00 - 13:00 on Saturdays, excluding public holid...

2 subjects commemorated
Gerald Finzi

Gerald Finzi

NW8, Hamilton Terrace, 93

Gerald Finzi, 1901 - 1956, English composer, was born here. City of Westminster

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator