Tower Hill

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Tower Hill
London 12 2002 5070.JPG
10 Trinity Square, Tower Hill
Tower Hill is located in Greater London
Tower Hill
Tower Hill
 Tower Hill shown within Greater London
OS grid reference TQ333806
   – Charing Cross 2 mi (3.2 km)  W
London borough Tower Hamlets
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region London
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LONDON
Postcode district EC3
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK Parliament Poplar and Limehouse
London Assembly City and East
List of places
UK
England
London

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Tower Hill as shown on the "Woodcut" map of c. 1561

Tower Hill is an elevated spot northwest of the Tower of London,[1] in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, just outside the City of London boundary.

It was formerly an extra-parochial area known as Great Tower Hill. Historically it was the site of countless public executions and today it is notable for being the site of the Tower Hill Memorial.

The area is served by Tower Gateway DLR station and Tower Hill tube station. A road named Tower Hill forms a short stretch of the A3211 route between Byward Street in the west and a junction with Minories and Tower Hill Terrace in the east.

History

Depiction of the 1685 execution of Sir James Scott at Tower Hill in a popular print.
Site of the Scaffold on Tower Hill

Settlement

One of the oldest parts of London, archaeological evidence shows that there was a settlement on the hill in the Bronze Age and much later a Roman village that was burnt down during the Boudica uprising. A nearby church, All Hallows-by-the-Tower, is known for fragments of Romanesque architecture dating back to AD 680; the church itself dates from 675.

Local government

Great Tower Hill was an extra-parochial area within the Tower Liberty, under the direct administrative control of the Tower of London and outside the jurisdiction of the City of London and the county of Middlesex. In 1855 the area became part of the district of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The "District of Tower" became part of the Whitechapel District, under the authority of the Whitechapel District Board of Works. This was ambiguous and The Great Tower Hill Act 1869 was required to explicitly interpret it as Old Tower Without, including within it Great Tower Hill.[2] The Tower Liberty was abolished in 1894 and incorporated into the County of London.

Executions

Public executions of high-profile traitors and criminals were often carried out on Tower Hill, including:

References

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  2. The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain, His Majesty's Statute and Law Printers, (1869)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Sign at site of the scaffold (2)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Sign at site of the scaffold (3)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Sign at site of the scaffold (4)
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Sign at site of the scaffold (5)

External links

  • Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons