Ghosts in The Bloody Tower.

The exhibition in the tower commemorates the imprisonment of Sir Walter Raleigh, and his ghost has been seen here on more than one occasion.

But it is the little princes, Richard and Edward, whose tragic tale has given the Bloody Tower its sinister reputation. The boys were sent to the tower by their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in 1483 when he became Richard III, both boys mysteriously disappeared. It was always assumed that they had been murdered on Richard’s instructions and their bodies buried somewhere within the grim fortress. When two skeletons were uncovered beneath a staircase of the White Tower in 1674 they were presumed to be the remains of the little princes and afforded royal burial in Westminster Abbey. But their whimpering ghosts, wearing white nightgowns and clutching each other in terror, often return to the dim rooms of their imprisonment. Witnesses are moved to pity, longing to reach out and console the spectral boys. But, if they do, the trembling wraiths back slowly towards the wall and fade into the fabric.

Leave the Bloody Tower and descend the staircase marked ‘Exit’.Turn right, go under the Bloody Tower and you will see Traitor’s Gate opposite. Kings, queens, lords, ladies, clerics and commoners would have taken their last look at the outside world from the top of those steps.The tower has been no respecter of birthright or rank. So offer a prayer for their repose as you shake the dust of history from your shoes and leave this grim fortress to its memories and shadows.