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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
OS grid reference TQ333806
• Charing Cross 2 mi (3.2 km) W
London borough
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region
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
List of places
UK
England
London
51°30′31″N 0°04′42″W / 51.5085°N 0.0782°W / 51.5085; -0.0782
London Roman Wall - surviving section by Tower Hill gardens full section
A surviving section of Roman Wall on Tower Hill. Great Tower Hill lay inside the wall, Little Tower Hill outside.
Tower Hill as shown on the Agas map of 1561
Tower Hill as shown on the "Woodcut" map of c. 1561

Tower Hill is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher ground north-west of the Tower of London moat is now occupied by Trinity Square Gardens.

Tower Hill also covers a wider area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, rising from the north bank of the River Thames to reach a maximum height of 14.5 metres (48 ft) Ordnance Datum. The land was historically part of the Liberties of the Tower of London, an area the Tower authorities controlled to keep clear of any development which would reduce the defensibility of the Tower. Building has encroached to a degree, but a legacy of this control is that much of the hill is still open. The hill includes land on either side of the London Wall, a large remnant of which is visible.

History

London Tower Hill Scaffold Site
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. 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:


Public transport

London Buses route 15 east to Blackwall and west to Trafalgar Square runs along Tower Hill. Tower Hill tube station is adjacent and Tower Gateway DLR station close by.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Tower Hill para niños

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