'Broken Stones'

Day 87

 

Tottenham Hale - Totteridge & Whetstone - Tower Gateway - Tower Hill

 

A sunnier, if still slightly chilly, start to the day this morning. The forecast is for rain either side of today, so this looks like being my best opportunity to go out Wombling this week.

 

Which is all to the good, as today I'll be visiting one of the oldest and best known landmarks of the Capital, and I'd like to get some decent photos if I can.

 

Before that though, I'm heading to two rather less well-known corners of London.

First up (and 'up' is very much the appropriate word, as I'm heading very much north for my first two stops) is Tottenham Hale, which is almost at the very northern end of the Victoria Line.

 

Tottenham Hale

It is, of course, in the borough of Tottenham, and lies to the south of that area. The 'Hale' part of the name refers to the 'haling' (hoisting or pulling) of goods from the nearby River Lea. To the north are the Tottenham Marshes, and to the east are several large reservoirs, which are collectively known as the Walthamstow Reservoirs.

The area immediately surrounding the station is - unfortunately - not much to write home about. For a start the station itself is undergoing a major refurbishment, so is covered in scaffolding and construction hoardings. In addition though, the area is largely taken up with a huge retail park - with its Pizza Huts, B&Qs, Carphone Warehouses and the like. Other than that, it's mainly tower blocks.

So rather than hang around outside the station I head to the River Lea, where I can at least enjoy the sight of the narrow-boats moored along the riverside.

Tottenham Lock and the River Lea

On the whole it's a pleasant scene - despite the pylons in the distance - and I take a few more snaps of both the boats and the local wildlife before heading back towards the station.

River Lea, looking south

It's a tough life...

On my way there I pass one of the many collections of tower blocks.

'Hale Village'

This one is - I believe - mainly student accommodation, which might be why they've gone to a bit of an effort to make it look a little more decorative. I think, however, that calling it a 'village' is pushing it a bit - it's certainly not a patch on Theydon Bois, the last (proper) village I saw when I was out last week.

In a final effort to find something a little more picturesque, I head north of the station to the local park - 'Down Lane Park'.

Down Lane Park

This too though is a fairly run-of-the-mill affair. In fact, everything - including the riverside narrow-boats - is just a little on the tired-looking side. It's a shame because I think it could all be so much better, though I suspect that would take a financial commitment greater than most local councils are willing to contemplate.

On to my next stop I think...

***
From the top of the Victoria Line to the top of the Northern Line next - Totteridge & Whetstone.

Totteridge & Whetstone

And here there's definitely more that could be described as 'picturesque'. This feels very much like some of the other more rural places I've visited - the 'village' feel definitely in evidence.

In fact, as the name suggests, Totteridge & Whetstone station actually serves a combination of two places, which are next door to each other. The Totteridge area is to the west of the station itself, which technically lies within the Whetstone area, to the east.

And it's Whetstone which seems to offer the most interest for my purposes.

My first port of call is a pub called 'The Griffin' - built in the 1920s, although there has been an inn of sorts on the same site for several centuries.

The Griffin

The reason for my interest isn't the obvious attractions of the pub itself, but for what sits - unobtrusively - in front of it, between a couple of short metal posts.

The Whetstone

This is - according to local lore - the 'whetstone' after which the place is named. A whetstone is the stone used to sharpen knives and other tools, and the chunk of stone outside the pub is, presumably, one that was used by the locals in centuries gone by to keep their cutlery in pristine order.



High Road

The pub is on the High Road, and as I stroll along this street I enjoy a rather more attractive line of shops than I was ever likely to find in Tottenham Hale (I mean, anywhere with a Waitrose has - by definition - got to have a certain class, doesn't it?)

After picking up a sandwich (from Waitrose naturally) for lunch, I head westwards towards (but not actually into) Totteridge. I'm going to have a quick look at the long stretch of green parkland I've seen on the map - just to the west of the station and marking the dividing line between the two neighbouring villages.

Dollis Valley Greenwalk route map

It follows the path of Dollis Brook - a tributary of the River Brent - and is made up of several different smaller parks. A footpath called the Dollis Valley Greenwalk takes you through them all, and I take a short stroll along part of it heading northwards.

The 'Greenwalk' footpath, living up to its name

It's a pleasant spot, though perhaps a little unvaried in its scenery, and it's a nice way to end my visit to this part of town. But now it's on to my final two stations of the day.

***
The next two stations are pretty much next door to each other and both serve on of London's major attractions - the Tower Of London.

Tower Gateway - a DLR station - comes first alphabetically, though I've actually arrived in the area at Tower Hill, on the Circle Line. I therefore adopt my usual practice in these situations and pretend I haven't seen Tower Hill as I emerge from its entrance, and nip quickly round the corner to take my photo of its neighbour, the rather unusually shaped Tower Gateway.

Tower Gateway

I've been unable to find any explanation for the large dome covering the entrance to the escalator up to the usual elevated DLR platforms. Obviously it offers some protection from the weather - though not much of an extension of that over the escalators - but it seems inordinately large and ostentatious.

In any case, the stations themselves are the least interesting sights I'm going to see in this part of town, so I leave the puzzle of Tower Gateway behind me and make my way back to Tower Hill station.

Between the two stations, and rather dwarfed by the backdrop of the Tower of London, is a short section of what remains of the London Wall.

London Wall, with the Tower in the background

It's sometimes easy to forget that London was once a walled city  - like York, Canterbury, Winchester and so on. But, while those places have substantially kept their protective battlements, London's wall has all but disappeared in the relentless expansion form its historical centre over the centuries, and only a few small sections of broken stonework remain.

Tower Hill

Before I visit the Tower itself, and having stopped briefly to take a photo of Tower Hill station, I head to a small enclosed garden area, complete with park benches and neatly trimmed hedges, which is called Trinity Square Gardens.

This is the original "Tower Hill", from which the station takes its name. It is also - despite its current cultivated and well-ordered appearance - the site of the scaffold on which the majority of the Tower's erstwhile 'guests' met their gory end. Among those who lost their heads here are such well-known names as Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, George (brother of Anne) Boleyn and various members of the nobility and clergy who had been deemed traitors.

Site of Public Executions

A small memorial marks the spot where the scaffold stood, though this goes largely ignored by the business-suited office-workers having their lunch in the gardens around it.

As well as the site of the public executions, the Gardens also contain a large war memorial - the Tower Hill Memorial - which is dedicated to those who lost their lives at sea, and therefore have 'no grave but the sea'.

Tower Hill Memorial

It's a memorial of two halves - the above 'vault' is actually the memorial to those who died in the First World War, while behind it is a sunken garden - the memorial to the dead of WWII.

And so, at last, it's time to enter the Tower of London itself.

I've probably made this comment before, but it's all too easy, despite (or possibly as a result of) living in London, to see many of the city's landmarks as being "for the tourists" and somehow never to get round to visiting them yourself.

Such is the case with me and the Tower of London. I've passed by it, seen it, read about it - all many times - but I've never actually paid the entrance fee and gone inside its formidable thick stone walls.

Until today of course.

Outer walls of the Tower

I'm not going to regurgitate the official Guide Book for you, as this is one of those places that - having finally seen it for myself - I now urge you (with apologies for the hypocrisy) to make the effort and visit for yourselves.

However, as I spend the next two hours or so both being guided by one of the Yeoman Warders ('Beefeaters') and then wandering around on my own, I take lots of photos which I hope will give you a feel for the place, and what you can see there. I'll also drop in a few nuggets of historical trivia here and there to whet your appetite.

A Yeoman Warder...

As I mentioned, the first hour or so of my visit is spent in the company of one of the many Yeoman Warders - more commonly known as 'Beefeaters' - who takes a large group on a guided tour of the main sights of the tower.



We start at the outer walls of the Tower, and are given a potted history of the growth of the fortress.




The Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror and  has grown over several centuries from its original construction - which consisted of the central 'White Tower', surrounded by a wall of battlements.



...enjoying her work

Two further outer walls were added between 1200 and 1300, surrounded by a moat that was initially enlarged over time, and then eventually filled in (to eradicate the stench from the sewage that had settled in it over the years).



Various sculptures of archers are dotted around the battlements

The main entrance into the Tower is in the same place now as it has been for centuries, though these days the arrow-slits are more likely to contain CCTV cameras than the watchful eye of trained archers. There are a few sculptured figures positioned around the walls, which give an impression of how the place would have been defended in the past.

Between the outermost wall and the next one in is a 'street' called the Outer Ward. this encircles the inner walls and is provides a secondary defence. It is here that the famous 'Traitor's Gate' is to be found - the gate through which the accused would be brought, having travelled to the Tower by boat along the Thames.

Traitor's Gate

Of potential amusement to American visitors is the fact that this gate - synonymous with treachery and betrayal - used to be called the 'Watergate'...

Another piece of trivia is that the phrase 'one for the road', meaning a final drink of the evening, originated here. As the condemned left the main entrance of the Tower, on their way up to Tower Hill, they passed an inn, built into the walls. The innkeeper would always offer the prisoner a tankard of ale - 'one for the road' - which would be their last drink on earth. On one occasion, a prisoner was so convinced he would get a reprieve from the King, and so incensed that this had not arrived in time to save him, that he petulantly refused the proffered tankard and was taken to the scaffold immediately.

Had he paused to drink with the innkeeper, the reprieve - which had indeed been sent - would have arrived in time to save him. The moral, of course, is that it's always worth having just one more drink...

There are several towers built into the various walls surrounding the central tower, and most of these have their own names.

Bloody Tower, with original portcullis

I now pass through the gateway of the 'Bloody Tower' into the Inner Ward, where the White Tower is situated.



White Tower

The White Tower is on a raised mound, and was William the Conqueror's original fortress.

Would you leave
if you could....?

These days the mound is home to the famous Tower of London ravens - of whom legend has it that if they ever leave the tower 'the kingdom will fall'.

How the presence or absence of a half dozen black birds can affect the fate of a nation is anyone's guess, but since the current birds are all housed in their own aviary (when not out on the lawns) and have had their flight feathers clipped, they don't really have much say in the matter.







At the top of the mound, behind the White Tower, are the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula and the Waterloo Barracks, in which the Crown Jewels are kept in the Jewel Room.

The former is a working chapel, as well as being the last resting place of the bodies (if not the heads) of the victims of the axe. These include Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey - all three executed on Henry VIII's orders.

Being of higher status than other 'traitors' these three were all executed within the Inner Ward, in private, rather than in public on Tower Hill - and a memorial now stands in front of the chapel on 'Tower Green'.

Execution Site Memorial

The inscription reads:
"Gentle visitor pause awhile · where you stand death cut away the light of many days · here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life · may they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage · under these restless skies"

I now pass into the Waterloo Barracks and to the Jewel Room. I'm not allowed to take photos of the Crown Jewels, for reasons that are not really made clear, but they are - of course - spectacular.







Also dotted around the various nooks and crannies of the Tower are several wire sculptures of wild animals. these are representations of the menagerie that used to reside here, made up of the exotic gifts from foreign Kings and Queens to the monarch of the day.

Are you looking at me?

The menagerie lasted well into the 19th century and included lions, bears, an elephant, wolves, monkeys and various birds of prey.

As I said earlier - I urge you to visit the Tower yourself, as there's far more here than I can possibly cover in this short blog.

Here are a few more of my photos for you to peruse, after which I'll re-join you as I take my leave of the Tower and have a look at the other major landmark of this part of town...



Guards outside the Waterloo Barracks

Armoury inside the White Tower

A selection of weaponry



A fake soldier...

...and another one



Stained Glass

Ravens 'not leaving' the Tower

White Tower seen from the Riverside

The Tower of London is, of course, one of London's foremost attractions, but perhaps a more iconic (in the sense of being an instantly recognisable image) landmark is just to the south of it - spanning the Thames between Tower Hamlets and Southwark.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge is named, not for its proximity to the Tower of London, but because of the two towers that contain the hydraulic winding mechanism that allows the central sections of the bridge to be raised out of the path of tall ships passing along the river.

It's possible to visit these two towers and the walkway that joins them high above the road bridge below. But like the Tower of London, this has so far not been something I've ever got around to doing - despite living in London for nearly thirty years.

And I'm afraid I'm not going to be doing it today either - as it's been a long old day and I need to get home and start writing up this post for your delight and edification.

But who knows, one day I might just get around to it...