Our next stop was the Jewel Tower which I persist, even to this day, in calling the Little Jewel
Tower. It was a jewel of a building! Not very large but veerrry
medieval. Built in the 14 century (about 1365) as part of the original
Palace of Westminster, its purpose was to house King Edward III's
treasures. They called it the Treasury or the "King's Privy Wardrobe." I
think they had a different definition of privy back then. It is one of
the two buildings from the original Palace of Westminster that
survived a fire in the 19th century. (please don't ask me what the other
one was...)
Here you can see what is left of the moat and the wall that separates the Jewel Tower from the Abbey. (more about that little bit of history later)
I had taken allergy medicine and these stairs seemed very steep and actually swayed beneath my feet. Or not. (that was some strong allergy medicine, I tell you) We went round and round, higher and higher until we finally got to rooms at the top. If I hadn't already been a bit woozy from the meds, I surely would have been after climbing up these stairs.
Heather AKA Paddington Bear
very medieval tower steps
A few of the treasures and artifacts that are now housed in the Jewel Tower. The above picture shows part of the not-to-be-missed exhibit of the history of weights and measures.
Sara looking pensively out the window...as the sunlight streams in
Me, enjoying the view with a ray of diamond sunlight that I was oblivious to at the time.
What a gift to see it now! Isn't that just life? It is so glorious, so sunny, so eternal, yet we are often
so occupied with the mundane that we don't see what a gift it was until we reflect back upon it.
View of Westminster Palace
The Jewel Tower was to be built near the royal gardens of the Palace of Westminster. High walls and a moat were to be constructed to protect it, because it was, after all, a Jewel Tower. The unusual L-shaped design of Jewel Tower came about because King Edward didn't want to lose any of his garden space. So to accommodate this requirement, the building was designed to fit in the available space, which required that land be annexed from Westminster Abbey. The monks were never recompensed for the loss of this section of land and in addition to the loss of property, they had to erect a wall to cordon off the abbey from the palace, apparently agreeing with the immortal words of Robert Frost: "Good fences make good neighbors." And also, wisely, acquiescing to the truism: "The King is always right."
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