Westminster Abbey & The Tower of London

Day7 London Town.

The centre of London is easy to get around on the tube network, the nearest station to the Mad Hatters hotel is Southwark and just one stop away is Westminster Abbey. Steeped in the nation’s history for 1000 years, the abbey has been the coronation site for all our sovereigns since Edward the Confessor, William the conqueror was also crowned here hastily Christmas 1066.

There have been many royal weddings here and the last one was Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April of this year. There is a superb photo exhibition of the event in the chapter house, very good quality and very large prints. A very happy event for the young couple and the nation.

The Abbey also contains the tombs of 10 of our Sovereigns, including Edward the Confessor, Henry V. Henry VII and his queen Elizabeth of York lay together in the Lady chapel. Elizabeth I and her sister Mary lay side by side in a small chapel off the Lady chapel. Mary Queen of Scots now lies in a huge Gothic tomb much grander than Elizabeth on the other side of the Lady Chapel. She was at Peterborough Cathedral but her son James I had her moved to London at the start of the Stuart Dynasty.

After a magnificent State funeral, Anne of Cleves lies here under the main alter stage in a tomb somewhat hard to find with only some small gold lettering to mark her resting place. She outlived all the wives and was a wealthy woman as a result of the Divorce from Henry VIII.

A boat journey down the river Thames takes us right to Traitors Gate, we see it from the water level just as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard would have seen it before they entered the Tower of London.

Another historic site steeped in the nation’s History, the Tower of London is a huge area in the centre of London and has many splendid exhibitions and things to see. The Crown Jewels, the Bloody Tower, the White Tower and the scaffold site, where only 8 people have been executed, three of which were Queens of England, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey.

We had dinner at the Swan at the Globe only 10 minutes walk along the Thames from the hotel and after saw “Much ado about Nothing” one of Shakespeare’s great comedies. It was rip roaringly funny and this reconstruction of the famous theatre means that you are so close to the action that you are almost part of the cast. A great way to finish a busy day.

www.tudorhistorytours.com