Plaque

(lost) Tower of London execution site - 1972

Tower of London execution site - 1972
Inscription

Site of scaffold

In the first 2 minutes of the 1972 CCF film "The Boy Who Turned Yellow" some boys are taken on a school trip to the Tower of London and we see this memorial. The inscription is about as terse as it's possible to be but it does the job. Certainly minimal by comparison with the glass cushion monument erected in 2006. 

And then we came across an article in the New York Post (July 2017) that locates this plaque - it's one of the unusual objects decorating the bar at the Yeoman Warders’ Club: "Among them is a plaque that reads “SITE OF SCAFFOLD” – kept as a souvenir after it was removed from the site where executions took place. For good measure, the Yeoman Gaoler’s axe hangs just above it, a ghoulish reminder of the gruesome past."

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 other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - 1972

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 - 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

Sun Inn - Hammersmith

Sun Inn - Hammersmith

W12, Askew Road, 120

The Sun A public house called the Sun stood on this site from at least 1722. In September 1940 a wartime bomb landed on the pub killing 2...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
William Morris - W6

William Morris - W6

W6, Upper Mall, 26, Kelmscott House

Morris died here.

1 subject commemorated
St Mary Magdalene Gardens

St Mary Magdalene Gardens

N7, Holloway Road

St Mary Magdalene was built in 1814 as a chapel of ease to Islington Parish Church, the parish having grown from the mid C18th onwards, a...

7 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
Ignatius Sancho - SW1

Ignatius Sancho - SW1

SW1, King Charles Street, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Ignatius Sancho, 1729 - 1780, writer, symbol of the humanity of Africans, lived and had a grocery shop near this site. Foreign and Commo...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Charlie Paynter

Charlie Paynter

E6, Ladysmith Avenue, 36

Charlie Paynter, 1879 - 1970, lived here. West Ham United FC manager 1932 - 1950. Involved with the club and Thames Ironworks FC for more...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator