Tower of Torture and Gift Shops! (Allen)
By Natasha Allen.
Hello from the Tower of London! Right before the semester officially started, our class did a tour around the historic castle-turned-prison to get a glimpse into one of London’s most famous historical sites! Here is my journal entry from that day.
The Tower of London is located near Tower Bridge and is known for being a castle in the early 1000s, then turned into a prison, and now holds all this history for visitors to see (along with the Crown Jewels too!). I had a great time exploring the site, as there were many unique exhibits, but I also felt creeped out about how much death and torture must have happened here. After all, the Tower was the spot to send enemies of the Crown to be publicly executed and tortured.
It’s a lot of heavy stuff when you think about it, and I felt like the Tower was a little too calm about the subjects. There was a gift shop right next to the Torture exhibit that kind of startled me. I don’t really think I would need a bear dressed like a royal guard after reading about brutal torture unless it would be to de-traumatize me from reading all of that!
Actually, maybe that’s why they do it. It made me raise a larger question about what the intent of these historical sites really is- to entertain or to inform?
I felt like I learned a lot, but also felt like I was benefiting from someone’s pain a little. Besides the fact that the place was haunting enough to hold ghost tours, it was actually very beautiful and was really exciting to see and explore throughout the day, I would recommend it to anyone who is coming to London for a trip! It has been around long enough to walk you through most of British history in a day.
