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

Florence Keen - Islington plaque

Florence Keen - Islington plaque

N7, Manor Gardens, Manor Gardens Centre

Florence Keen, 1868 - 1942, founder of North Islington School for Mothers, later Manor Gardens Centre. London Borough of Islington Manor ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

NW1, Euston Road, King's Cross Station

The Whitsun Weddings (recalling a train journey on Whitsun Saturday afternoon in 1955) was voted one of the "Nation's Top 100 Poems" in 1...

1 subject commemorated
King George's Field - E3 - Tredegar Square - left

King George's Field - E3 - Tredegar Square - left

E3, Tredegar Square

Brought to our notice by Spitalfields Life.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Charles X

Charles X

W1, South Audley Street, 72

English Heritage Charles X, 1757 - 1836, last Bourbon King of France, lived here, 1805 - 1814.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
George Frederick Bodley

George Frederick Bodley

W1, Harley Street, 109

English Heritage George Frederick Bodley, 1827 - 1907, architect, lived here, 1862 - 1873.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator