Jewel Tower facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Jewel Tower |
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| Part of Palace of Westminster | |
| Old Palace Yard, London, England | |
The Jewel Tower
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 The Jewel Tower
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| Coordinates | 51°29′54″N 0°07′35″W / 51.498417°N 0.126472°W |
| Site information | |
| Owner | English Heritage |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Condition | Intact |
| Site history | |
| Built by | Henry Yevele |
| Materials | Kentish Ragstone |
| Events | Westminster Palace fires of 1512 and 1834 |
The Jewel Tower is a cool old building from the 1300s in London, England. It's one of the few parts of the original Palace of Westminster that still stands today. King Edward III had it built between 1365 and 1366. He wanted a safe place to keep his personal treasures, like jewels and fancy silver items.
This tower was originally a three-story stone building with a moat around it. The moat connected to the River Thames, making it extra secure. Inside, the ground floor had amazing sculpted ceilings, which historians call an "architectural masterpiece." The tower was used for royal treasures until 1512. A big fire at the palace made King Henry VIII move his court, and the treasures, to a new palace.
Later, in the late 1500s, the House of Lords started using the tower. They stored their important parliamentary records there. The tower was improved over time, especially to protect it from fires. It was one of only four buildings to survive the huge fire that destroyed most of Parliament in 1834. After that, the records moved to the new Victoria Tower.
In 1869, the Jewel Tower became home to the Standard Weights and Measures Department. They used it to store and test official weights and measures for the country. However, as more cars and trucks drove by, the vibrations made it hard to use the delicate equipment. So, by 1938, the department moved out. After being damaged in Second World War, the tower was repaired and opened to visitors in 1956. Today, English Heritage looks after the Jewel Tower, and many people visit it every year.
Contents
History of the Jewel Tower
Why Was the Jewel Tower Built?
The Jewel Tower was built inside the Palace of Westminster between 1365 and 1366. King Edward III ordered its construction. He needed a secure place for his personal collection of jewels and valuable items. Kings at that time often used their personal treasures like money. They would use them to pay for wars or give them as special gifts. Edward III had a huge collection of these treasures in the 1360s.
The king's personal items were managed by a group called the Privy Wardrobe. This group was in charge of keeping track of the king's belongings. They also sent items around the kingdom as gifts. The Privy Wardrobe was first located in the Tower of London. But it became very busy with supplies for Edward's wars in France. This likely made the King decide to build a new tower just for his personal jewels and valuable items. This new branch also handled royal clothes and other non-military goods.
How Was the Jewel Tower Constructed?
William of Sleaford was in charge of the whole building project. He was the king's clerk and surveyor for works at the Palace of Westminster. Henry de Yevele, a famous royal architect, designed and built the Jewel Tower. He worked with a team of skilled masons. Hugh Herland was the main carpenter for this project and a nearby clock tower. Records of the payments for the tower were kept on a very long parchment scroll.
Workers brought in lots of stone for the tower. This included rough stone and cut stone from places like Maidstone and Reigate. They also brought in heavier stone from Devon and Normandy. Timber came from Surrey, and red floor tiles from Flanders. Glass was bought just for the Jewel Tower's windows. Iron grilles were added to the windows for security. Eighteen locks were bought for the different doors. A team of 19 stonemasons and 10 carpenters worked on the site. In July 1366, 23 laborers dug out the new moat in just one month.
The tower was built in a quiet corner of the Palace of Westminster. It overlooked the king's private garden. It was placed carefully so it didn't get in the way of the existing palace. But this meant it was built on land owned by Westminster Abbey. It took six years for the abbey to get the king to pay them for using their land. The tower was connected to the palace walls. Its moat was linked to the River Thames by a long channel. The top of the walls had crenellations (like castle battlements). There were no windows on the ground floor facing outside to keep intruders away. The keeper of the jewels worked on the first floor. The king's treasures were kept in locked chests on the second floor.
What Was the Tower Used for Later?
The Jewel Tower continued to store treasures for kings after Edward III. But in 1512, a fire at Westminster Palace changed things. The royal court, along with the jewels, moved to Whitehall. King Henry VIII didn't move back to Westminster. He built a new palace at Whitehall. However, he still used the Jewel Tower, calling it "the old Jewel House." He stored other household items there, like expensive cloths and royal chess sets. These items were likely moved out after he died.
The Jewel Tower became less important. The palace walls next to it were taken down. Part of the moat was filled in by 1551. By the 1590s, the tower was used to store records for the House of Lords. A wooden house was built next to it for the parliamentary clerk. This was part of a bigger renovation in 1600. The whole area started to be called the Parliament Office. The ground floor of the tower might have even been used as a kitchen for the new house.
Changes in the 1600s and 1700s
In 1621, the House of Lords decided to improve how they kept records. The tower was updated for better storage. The first floor, where documents were kept, got new brick vaulting. This was much better at protecting against fire than the old wooden ceiling. A new iron door was also added to this room for more security.
The parliamentary clerk continued to live next to the tower. The moat started to fill up with dirt and trash. This happened even though the House of Lords worried it made the tower more likely to catch fire or be robbed.
By 1716, the tower was in bad shape. Repairs were ordered, costing a lot of money. Work began under Nicholas Hawksmoor, a famous surveyor. The outside of the tower was changed to look more like it does today. It got plainer, larger windows and a simpler top. A new chimney was added to keep people warm while they read records. Special wooden cupboards were put on the first floor for documents. More work was done in 1726 to make the tower even safer from fire.
At some point in the 1700s, the tower was split into two separate areas. The spiral staircase from the ground floor kitchen to the upper floors was removed. A window on the first floor was turned into a doorway. This allowed access to the upper floors from the neighboring house. A fire-resistant stone vaulted ceiling was also added to the first floor.
An investigation in 1751 found that the clerk's house was in poor condition. It didn't even have a proper kitchen. Cooking was still being done in the ground floor of the Jewel Tower. So, two new brick houses were built next to the tower between 1754 and 1755. The Jewel Tower was then accessed through a passage between these houses. The tower continued to be used for preparing food.
The Tower in the 1800s and 1900s
By the 1800s, other buildings hid the tower. You had to go through a brick office to get to it. The tower also became too small for all the House of Lords' records. From 1827, only the most important documents were kept there.
A huge fire swept through Westminster in 1834. It destroyed most of the old palace. But the Jewel Tower survived! It was separated from the main fire and away from the wind. Its records were safe. Westminster was rebuilt, and in 1864, big changes happened at the tower. The parliamentary records moved to a new fire-proof place. The kitchen in the tower's ground floor closed. Around this time, people started calling it the Jewel Tower again. They mistakenly thought it had held the Crown Jewels long ago.
In 1866, a new law created the Standard Weights and Measures Department. This department was in charge of keeping the official weights and measures for the country. These were like "master" weights and lengths that other measuring tools were compared against.
The house next to the Jewel Tower was taken over by this new department in 1869. The standards and testing equipment were put in the tower. Its thick walls made it perfect for scientific measurements. The ground floor was used for weighing. The first floor held length standards. The second floor became a museum for old equipment.
However, the tower became less suitable over time. The roof had problems. More and more traffic around the tower caused shaking. This affected the delicate instruments. Some of the department's work moved to another location in the 1920s. By 1938, the department left the tower completely. During the Second World War, in 1941, the tower was hit by a bomb. This caused a lot of damage to the roof.
The Jewel Tower Today
Restoring the Tower
In 1948, the Ministry of Works took over the tower. They did a lot of repairs. They tried to keep both the old medieval parts and the newer features. The old wooden foundations were replaced with concrete. A new roof was installed in 1949. The first-floor entrance was removed, and the spiral staircase from the ground floor was put back in 1953. The inside of the tower was smoothed over to hide the repairs. The Jewel Tower opened to tourists in 1956.
Between 1954 and 1962, most of the buildings around the tower were torn down. This included old offices and houses. A new garden, College Green, was created next to the tower. It was built on top of an underground parking lot. The medieval moat was dug out again in 1956. It was filled with water until the 1990s, when it was drained and filled with gravel due to poor water quality.
Archaeologists have studied the tower several times. They found things during the renovations from 1948 to 1956. More work in the 1960s uncovered a landing dock for boats. Another project in the 1990s found part of the original garden. A survey from 2009 to 2011 found that one of the wooden doors on the second floor is likely from 1365.
Visiting the Jewel Tower
Today, English Heritage manages the Jewel Tower as a place for tourists to visit. It is a protected historic site. In 1987, the Jewel Tower and the area around Westminster Palace became a World Heritage Site. The United Nations said the tower was one of the "precious vestiges of medieval times" in the area.
Between 2007 and 2012, about 30,000 people visited the tower each year. Many visitors came from other countries. The tower's design makes it a bit tricky for tourism. The changing temperature and humidity, and its small size, mean it can't hold many delicate historical items or lots of visitors.
Archaeologists have found over 400 objects related to the tower. You can see some of these items inside. There are old drinking jars and even an Iron Age sword. There are also some amazing carved stone pieces from Westminster Hall, dating back to the 1090s. Plus, you can see a set of old weights and measures, on loan from the Science Museum.
Architecture of the Jewel Tower
The Jewel Tower is a three-story building made of Kentish ragstone. It has a brick top. Its structure is mostly the same as it was in the 1300s. The walls that faced away from the palace are very well built. But the two inner walls are not as neatly finished. Most of the outside windows were added in the 1700s. You can still see jagged parts of the old palace walls sticking out from the tower's sides. The moat, which is now dry, stretches east from the tower. It passes by an old landing spot for boats from the Thames. Because many surrounding buildings were removed, the tower is much more visible today than it used to be.
The ground floor of the tower has two rooms. You enter from the north. The main room is about 7.5 by 4 meters. A smaller turret room is in the south-east corner. The windows in the main room are from the early 1700s. There's also a large medieval window opening on the east side. The main room has beautiful stone vaulting on the ceiling. Historians call it "one of the most impressive medieval interiors in London." The vaulting has 16 carved stone bosses. These carvings include strange heads, birds, flowers, and even the devil. Some are designed to create funny visual tricks. Today, the ground floor is a gift shop and cafe.
The first floor is reached by a spiral staircase built in the 1900s. It also has two rooms, just like the ground floor. The ceiling is made of stone, probably from the 1700s. Most of the windows are also from the 1700s. The iron door to the larger room has the date 1621 carved on it. Its lock has the letters "IR" for King James I. The next room has a brick ceiling. It has a small space that was once a toilet. The iron shutters on its north window are original from 1719. The first floor has an exhibit about the history of the UK Parliament.
The spiral staircase to the second floor is the original one. This floor also has two rooms. The roof was mostly replaced after the war, but it looks like the original medieval design. The fireplace and windows are original. The wooden door to this floor is probably from the 1300s. The wall between the two rooms, and its stone doorway, were built in the 1700s. This room has a display about the tower's history. You can also see some of the original wooden foundations of the building here.
