Tower of London Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Layout=== [[File:Tower of London EN.png|300px|thumb|Plan of the Tower of London]] The Tower was oriented with its strongest and most impressive defences overlooking [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] London, which archaeologist [[Alan Vince]] suggests was deliberate.<ref>{{harvnb|Vince|1990}} in {{harvnb|Creighton|2002|p=138}}</ref> It would have visually dominated the surrounding area and stood out to traffic on the River Thames.<ref>{{harvnb|Creighton|2002|p=138}}</ref> The castle is made up of three "[[ward (fortification)|wards]]", or enclosures. The innermost ward contains the White Tower and is the earliest phase of the castle. Encircling it to the north, east, and west is the inner ward, built during the reign of [[Richard I of England|Richard I]] (1189β1199). Finally, there is the outer ward which encompasses the castle and was built under [[Edward I of England|Edward I]]. Although there were several phases of expansion after William the Conqueror founded the Tower of London, the general layout has remained the same since Edward I completed his rebuild in 1285. The castle encloses an area of almost {{convert|12|acre|abbr=off}} with a further {{convert|6|acre}} around the Tower of London constituting the [[Liberties of the Tower of London|Tower Liberties]] β land under the direct influence of the castle and cleared for military reasons.<ref>{{harvnb|Parnell|1993|p=11}}</ref> The precursor of the Liberties was laid out in the 13th century when [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] ordered that a strip of land adjacent to the castle be kept clear.<ref name="Parnell 1993 32-33">{{harvnb|Parnell|1993|pp=32β33}}</ref> Despite popular fiction, the Tower of London never had a permanent torture chamber, although the basement of the White Tower housed a [[rack (torture)|rack]] in later periods.<ref>{{harvnb|Wilson|1998|p=39}}</ref> Tower [[Wharf]] was built on the bank of the Thames under Edward I and was expanded to its current size during the reign of [[Richard II of England|Richard II]] (1377β1399).<ref>{{harvnb|Parnell|1993|p=49}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page