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Inside the Tower of London (2018) Season 8 Episode 1
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00:00The Tower of London, one of the most iconic and infamous places in the world.
00:09Welcome to His Majesty's Royal Palace.
00:12But what you might not realise is that it's more than a single castle.
00:17It's a vast and sprawling complex of towers, chapels and royal apartments.
00:24Their names as familiar as the famous people who lived and died here.
00:28The White Tower.
00:30Traitor's Gate.
00:31The infamous Bloody Tower. Give me a boo.
00:36But the Tower hasn't always looked like this.
00:40In fact, it began as a military stronghold almost ten centuries ago.
00:46It all started here.
00:47I'm Jason Watkins.
00:49For seven years I've been the voice of Channel 5's Inside the Tower of London.
00:54And I'm fascinated by how this royal palace has changed over the centuries.
00:59Wow.
00:59That is incredible.
01:02I'm historian Tracy Borman.
01:04I've spent my career uncovering the Tower's secrets.
01:08It's one of the most terrifying episodes in the Tower's history.
01:11Together, we're going to get to the bottom of exactly who built the different parts of this world-famous fortress,
01:18when they built them, and why.
01:21We'll enlist the help of experts.
01:23This was painted by one of the finest artists in England.
01:26Unearthed amazing documents.
01:29There's nobody in England who's going to be able to do this.
01:31And try out traditional techniques.
01:35Here we go.
01:35As we reveal how this incredible building has been at the heart of ten centuries of British history.
01:48It's late summer, and the royal palace is packed with visitors.
01:53Right, were you all ready to storm the tower?
01:55And while the beef eaters entertain the crowds,
01:58I'm guessing an entirely different view.
02:02Well, there it is.
02:04There's the Tower of London.
02:05I've never approached it from the river like this, and it's awe-inspiring.
02:13It's extraordinary to think that back in the time of Henry VIII,
02:17the tower would have been utterly intimidating,
02:20especially if you're about to be locked up inside it.
02:24It would have been terrifying for a prisoner to see this for the first time.
02:28500 years ago, the tower's surroundings were very different.
02:32It's amazing to see it framed against that modern landscape.
02:39While London has grown into a 21st century city,
02:46the tower seems to not have changed at all.
02:48But is that really true?
02:56To find out, Tracy and I need to turn the clock back to a time when the fortress dominated the skyline.
03:03Hello! Nice to see you.
03:07Nice to see you.
03:08And where better to start than with its most iconic building?
03:13There it is.
03:14Yeah.
03:14The White Tower.
03:15It's hard to believe that it's almost 1,000 years old.
03:20To think that 500 years ago, we're talking about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII and Elizabeth I,
03:24and yet another 500 years previously, this was built.
03:28This originally was known as the Great Tower, not the White Tower.
03:35But the real surprise is, this famous British landmark was actually built by a French king.
03:42William the Conqueror.
03:44In 1066, William the Conqueror wins the Battle of Hastings, becomes king of England,
03:50but nobody wants him here, so he needs to secure London.
03:55And to do that, he needs to build himself a mighty fortress.
04:00And it was no accident that William chose this precise location to construct his castle.
04:06800 years before the Normans set foot on English soil, London was actually a thriving Roman city,
04:15protected by a giant wall around two miles long.
04:20When William invaded in 1066, much of that wall was still standing.
04:26Its southeast corner was the perfect location to build a fortress.
04:30So, 12 years after his victory at the Battle of Hastings,
04:37work on William's Great Tower began in the 1070s.
04:42Hundreds of tonnes of limestone were brought over from France by sea,
04:47as this was actually easier than transporting British stone over land.
04:52The limestone was used for the walls, which were 15 feet thick at the base,
04:58and rose 90 feet into the air.
05:01From the outside, the White Tower looks as solid as it did when it was first built.
05:07But I want to see what remains of this thousand-year-old building on the inside.
05:13So I'm meeting a man who knows it like the back of his hand.
05:17Jason.
05:18Hi, Alfred.
05:18Assistant Buildings Curator, Alfred Hawkins.
05:21What an amazing place.
05:22So we are stood in William the Conqueror's Keep, the central and most important part of the White Tower.
05:28And it's from this point that the entire Tower of London expands and becomes the fortress, if you know it today.
05:34A keep is the name given to the building at the heart of a castle.
05:40It was designed to withstand a siege by an enemy army.
05:44So the first thing to notice as you were walking in was the actual entrance to the tower, which is a level higher.
05:51With that timber staircase, in the event of a siege, you could chop it down, burn it, get rid of it.
05:58And then because the entrance is elevated, it's much more difficult.
06:02So nobody can get in?
06:03Get in.
06:05The White Tower wasn't only a secure fortress, it was also a luxurious royal home, complete with a great hall, private royal chapel, and even some cutting-edge Norman plumbing.
06:19Oh, yeah, great.
06:21So, a toilet.
06:23Excellent.
06:24Known as a guardrobe, this thousand-year-old loo may have been the height of luxury in Norman times, but it's pretty primitive by today's standards.
06:33All of your material would leave the White Tower and end up in a ditch outside.
06:38No danger of being hit, is there?
06:40Well, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, anything could happen.
06:45But perhaps the White Tower's most spectacular feature is the view from the roof.
06:51Welcome to the roof of the White Tower.
06:55Wow, look at this.
06:57Well, yeah, it's the four towers that you've seen from below.
07:01They're actually around me at my height, at my level.
07:09A thousand years ago, this modern view would have been a sea of small wooden buildings on the banks of the River Thames.
07:16Looming high over London, the White Tower would have dominated the skyline for miles around.
07:25It sent a clear message to Londoners.
07:28Don't mess with the Normans.
07:30But not only that, the Normans even made the Londoners build it.
07:33There would have been stonemasons from Normandy who were doing the really fine work with the masonry,
07:41but a lot of the grunt work would actually be the pre-conquest Londoners.
07:45So they'd be carrying the lumps of stone from the boats onto the land.
07:50It's an interesting thing to think about that the Londoners were building the object of their own domination.
07:57It gives me a real idea of what this place meant.
08:01I think it's just this feeling of being above everything is the thing that they wanted, wasn't it?
08:05This is just such an astonishing, formidable piece of architecture in itself, let alone what it was like in Norman times.
08:14I want to know how it was built.
08:16How can you build something like this?
08:19To find out how such an imposing building was created,
08:23I'm heading to one of the few places where, remarkably, the same ancient techniques are still used today.
08:31Canterbury Cathedral.
08:32One of the first Norman cathedrals to be built in Britain.
08:45Wow, this is absolutely astonishing.
08:50To think that this was built a thousand years ago.
08:55Historic records show that some of the stonemasons who built this place also worked on the White Tower.
09:03The sheer craftsmanship and detail, it's the height that really takes your breath away.
09:10And like the White Tower, Canterbury Cathedral is made from thousands of blocks of French limestone.
09:17Jordan Cliff is one of 11 stonemasons still using the same traditional methods employed by the Normans.
09:29I'm hoping he's going to show me how it's done.
09:33Hi, Jordan.
09:34Hello, Jason.
09:35The stone would have arrived from the quarry in rough, uneven chunks.
09:40The sides of each block would have had to have been chipped completely flat before they could be used to construct the building.
09:47This is known as dressing the stone.
09:49This wouldn't be usable yet.
09:51With this, you would have to make this surface flat.
09:54Jordan's already smoothed five sides.
09:57Now he's letting me have a go at the last one.
10:00You want to be really steady with your hand.
10:01OK, right, OK.
10:05Beautiful.
10:06Very satisfying, isn't it?
10:07A whopping 24,000 of these would have been used to construct the walls of the White Tower.
10:14No wonder it took around 20 years to build.
10:18So what you're doing here is exactly the same as what an apprentice on the first day would have been doing in the Tower of London.
10:25How long would it take to shape this block?
10:27Anywhere between a day to five days.
10:29Well, I've been working carefully for over an hour, but I'm discovering that one mistake could ruin the whole block.
10:40Oh!
10:41That's good.
10:42Thank you so much, Jordan.
10:44It's been my pleasure.
10:45Good first time.
10:45Good.
10:46Well, again, if the acting work dries up, you know, I might be knocking on your door.
10:50You never know.
10:51With a mallet.
10:52Coming up, I dig into the archives to reveal how one of the Tower's most famous features was made.
10:59It really brings it to life, doesn't it?
11:00Already, this is fascinating.
11:02And I discover how one of my own ancestors met a terrifying fate at the fortress.
11:08Oh, dear.
11:08This is not going to end well.
11:19Folks, if you're here for the tour, gather round.
11:21That's it.
11:22Tracy and I are back at the Tower of London to investigate the secrets of how this iconic landmark was created.
11:29It was here in the year 1078 when William the Conqueror authorised the building of his first ever royal palace and fortress of its kind in England.
11:39I've discovered how the White Tower began as a single structure 1,000 years ago.
11:47But what happened to it next?
11:50Just imagining that on its own looks pretty impenetrable.
11:54It isn't just now the White Tower.
11:57It's actually a whole fortress.
11:59The next major phase of building was in the 1200s and that's when actually the walls that we're standing on was added.
12:06There's this huge wall encircling the whole of the White Tower and along this new wall were added a load of new towers.
12:14King Henry III wanted to turn the tower into the most powerful fortress the country had ever seen.
12:22He built a defensive wall which rose 41 feet from the ground and peppered it with 11 massive watchtowers.
12:31Known as the Inner Curtain Wall, it was strengthened even further by a moat running along three sides.
12:39But sadly, the builders who dug it were not up to the job and the water drained away.
12:46So this is the outer walls?
12:48Yeah.
12:49The river came right up to where we're standing now.
12:51So that's why that's called Water Lane.
12:53Exactly.
12:54The king who cracked how to build the tower's famous moat was Henry's son Edward I.
13:02He put in a second, even bigger wall, encircling the entire fortress.
13:07Yet more watchtowers were constructed, among them a brand new riverside entrance, St. Thomas's Tower.
13:16And a new 50-metre-wide moat was dug along the west, north and east of the tower.
13:22This time it stayed full of water.
13:26That meant the tower was surrounded and defended on three sides by the moat and on the fourth side by the river itself.
13:33Along with the massive walls and moat, weapons were installed along its perimeter.
13:41I'm curious to know exactly what they would have used back then, so I'm heading to rural Oxfordshire.
13:47I'm going to meet a man who's going to show me a weapon from the 1200s, the type of which was kept in the tower at that time.
13:59And I'm imagining this is quite a big weapon.
14:02And I'm right.
14:04It's enormous.
14:06Named after the French word for overthrow, this is a trebuchet.
14:11And it's been built by historic weapons maker Todd Todaschini.
14:16Before gunpowder, if you wanted to throw heavy things at something, you had a few choices,
14:21but the absolute pinnacle of that was the trebuchet.
14:24Big things, a long way.
14:26Before cannons arrived in Britain in the 1300s,
14:30armies used trebuchets like this to catapult 900-kilo missiles at their enemies,
14:35up to 1,000 feet away.
14:38And what would it throw?
14:39You can throw single rocks, you can throw baskets of rocks, even dead cows on occasion.
14:44It's nicely rotten, splat, and send disease everywhere.
14:47Basically biological warfare.
14:49Incredibly, Todd's replica is probably smaller than the trebuchets that were stationed at the tower in the 1200s,
14:55but it works in exactly the same way.
14:58A counterweight, a big bag of rocks or sand, in this case weighing half a ton, is winched in the air.
15:04When the pin is pulled, the weight drops, flipping the sling and firing the ammunition.
15:10Well, I think it's probably time that we saw it in action.
15:13Do you want to go?
15:14I'd love a go, yes.
15:15Thank you very much.
15:15We won't be firing rocks or, thankfully, dead cows.
15:20Instead, we'll use a seven-kilo bowling ball to give us an idea of the impact of hurling a large stone.
15:28So, two hands.
15:29Two hands.
15:30OK, right, here we go.
15:32OK, OK, chocks away.
15:34Today, it's the moment of truth.
15:36It's like, ahhh!
15:41Whoa!
15:48Wow, how far...
15:50How was that?
15:51That's quite a distance, isn't it?
15:53That's...
15:53Brilliant.
15:54That's incredible.
15:58This is not a full-size trebuchet like they would have had at the Tower of London, for instance.
16:02No, so it would have been bigger than...
16:03It would have gone further.
16:03Yeah.
16:04Well, thank you very much, Todd.
16:08Even if anyone trying to attack the Tower had managed to dodge the trebuchets,
16:13they'd soon have run into a pretty big obstacle.
16:16Now, our third line of defence was the moat or the ditch.
16:21Once filled with water, it goes all the way round the Tower.
16:25At 50 metres wide, the moat was a feat of engineering, built in the 1270s by King Edward I.
16:33But it was a massive construction project.
16:37How on earth did he manage it, and what did it cost?
16:41I've come to the National Archives in Kew, where archivist Dr Catherine Maud has something special to show me.
16:50So, this is the end-of-year accounts for the royal government.
16:55These original documents detail government spending every year from the 11 to the 1800s.
17:02That's over seven centuries of accounts.
17:05They're like a 700-year-old spreadsheet.
17:07This one's from 1275.
17:10It's got a lot of details about the building of the Tower of London.
17:13It tells us they had to buy houses and places for the enlarging of the moat.
17:19They're buying up land and houses all around where the Tower was to be able to dig that moat.
17:26And presumably people are going to suck, because it's the king.
17:29So you don't say no.
17:29Absolutely. You can't say no to Edward I, right?
17:31If Edward I wants a moat, he gets a moat.
17:33To create his perfect moat, Edward needed the right man for the job.
17:39So we get Master Walter of Flanders.
17:43He is an expert from Flanders on what is now the Netherlands.
17:47When we think of the Netherlands even today, we're thinking of those water canals
17:51and the management of water on a very large scale.
17:55That's brilliant. So they're bringing in the expertise.
17:57And he has paid a huge amount of money.
18:00How much are we talking?
18:00So it says here that he's paid £19 for 19 weeks.
18:06So he's paid a pound a week.
18:07So he's paid 20 times as much as the next best paid person on site.
18:12He's absolutely this important consultant brought in from abroad
18:15to make sure this project gets off the ground.
18:19But it seems that Edward was shrewd about his new moat.
18:23The records show he found a way to actually make some cash back.
18:27All of the earth that's dug up from the moat is then sold to tilers to make tiles.
18:34So if there are any medieval tiles that you find in London,
18:37it's entirely possible that those were made from the earth dug up in the process of these building works.
18:43Fantastic. So royal earth. Royal soil, we might say.
18:46Exactly. And they call it exactly that, the king's earth.
18:50So that's going to go for a premium, presumably.
18:52Absolutely, yeah. Special.
18:53All of this money that Edward spends, all of that effort was worth it
18:57because the moat's still there. You can still see it today.
19:00In fact, the moat remained full of water for over 500 years,
19:04until the 1840s, when the stink of raw sewage became so overwhelming it had to be drained.
19:13These days, visitors enter the tower along another of Edward I's creations,
19:19the causeway linking the middle and bywood towers.
19:23The causeway was built in the late 1200s and was designed for defence.
19:28Thus, the middle and bywood towers were both fitted with portcullises,
19:33heavy gates that could be lowered to protect the tower from enemy advances.
19:38Despite these sophisticated defences, the tower did come under attack.
19:44A century later, in 1381, its walls were breached for the first and only time.
19:51When it happened, King Richard II was on the throne.
19:54He was made famous by Shakespeare for being a better poet than a king.
20:01Richard was desperate for funds
20:03and began to implement crippling poll taxes on the people with disastrous results.
20:10Historic records tell us incredible detail of what happened next.
20:17Thousands of angry peasants descended on London
20:23and about 400 of those rebels managed to storm the tower.
20:27Storm the tower?
20:29They're just peasants, not even soldiers.
20:31How did they get over the walls?
20:32They actually just walked right in through the gate,
20:36which the guards had thoughtfully left open for them.
20:39Well, that was pretty incompetent, wasn't it?
20:44The rebels raced up the White Tower.
20:46They burst through the doors of the chapel,
20:52where they found two of King Richard's senior advisers
20:57who they blamed for the tax.
21:03Oh, wow.
21:05Yeah.
21:06It's beautiful, isn't it?
21:08It's incredible, isn't it?
21:09Yeah.
21:10So this is the most ancient part of the tower,
21:12the White Tower Chapel.
21:13It's like a sort of miniature cathedral, almost, isn't it?
21:18King Richard's advisers didn't stand a chance.
21:24It's here that Archbishop Simon Sudbury
21:27and the Lord High Treasurer Sir Robert Hales
21:30were captured by the rebels.
21:33So Hales, I have an ancestor who's a Hales.
21:37It's not Edward Hales, who was lieutenant here of the tower
21:41later on in the 1600s.
21:44This isn't... He's not related, is he?
21:47He certainly is.
21:48You have another tower ancestor.
21:50Sir Robert Hales, Lord High Treasurer to King Richard II,
21:54was also one of your direct ancestors.
21:57Robert Hales, Lord High Treasurer to King Richard II in 1381,
22:04was a distant uncle of Jason's relative, Edward Hales.
22:08And he's also Jason's uncle, stretching back 18 generations.
22:13Sir, the masses found them in here.
22:17And, oh, dear, this is not going to end well.
22:19I'm afraid it's not,
22:20because the rebels seized Sudbury and Hales,
22:25dragged them out of the tower and up to Tower Hill,
22:29and there just beheaded them.
22:33It's one of the most terrifying episodes, really,
22:35in the tower's history,
22:36and it could all have been prevented
22:38if the guards had closed the portcullis.
22:42Shut the door.
22:44You know, it's not difficult, is it?
22:45What are you? I'm a guard. I'm a doorman.
22:47Well, you know, close the door. That's your job.
22:51Oh, it's strange to think
22:52all that actually happened here,
22:55so my ancestor could have been dragged
22:57on this very spot.
23:01I mean, that's one of the things
23:03of the Tower of London, isn't it?
23:04That these incredible events
23:06happened where you can stand.
23:08Yeah.
23:11Coming up, I unearth an extraordinary hidden treasure.
23:15It's actually blown my mind.
23:16I mean, that's one of the glories of this place, isn't it?
23:19And I discover one of the most lethal places
23:22to work at the tower.
23:23Very, very hard, dangerous work.
23:27They're risking life and limb, literally.
23:30Jason and I are investigating
23:41how kings and queens have changed the tower
23:44over the centuries
23:45to create the world-famous fortress
23:48we can see today.
23:50And there's one king above all
23:52who I think most visitors identify with the tower.
23:55King Henry VIII.
23:57Henry VIII.
23:58Henry VIII.
23:58King Henry VIII.
23:59But just how did England's most famous king
24:02leave his mark on the fortress?
24:05Well, the most prominent changes he made
24:08were to the White Tower itself.
24:10The wall's over 90 feet tall.
24:13On each corner, we have turrets.
24:16And it was these turrets
24:17that Henry had his eye on.
24:19He added the eye-catching onion domes
24:23to celebrate the coronation of his second
24:25and most notorious wife, Anne Boleyn.
24:31They were very high on the skyline,
24:34so you would see these more than anything else.
24:37And I suppose that's saying,
24:38we're here, aren't we?
24:39We're Tudors, we're here.
24:40Yeah, all the rage when Henry added them.
24:43And he was always at the forefront of fashion
24:46when it came to building his palaces.
24:48And I think you would be impressed.
24:50They'd have been seen for miles around.
24:52What I love is that you can trace
24:54the pattern of Henry's marriages
24:56in bricks and mortar.
25:00Henry had been making changes
25:02to the tower for years.
25:04In preparation for Anne Boleyn's coronation,
25:08Henry lavishly refurbished
25:10the royal apartments on the south lawn.
25:13Over a decade earlier,
25:14he had rebuilt the chapel of St Peter at Vincula,
25:18designing the roof in honour of his first wife,
25:21Catherine of Aragon.
25:22On Tower Green,
25:24he built a new home for the tower lieutenant,
25:27now known as the King's House.
25:30Today, it's one of only a handful
25:32of Tudor timber buildings
25:34to survive the Great Fire of London.
25:40That's the King's House.
25:41The King's not living there, OK?
25:44You won't see him on the balcony
25:45like waving at you.
25:52Although Tudor architecture
25:53is easy to spot at the tower,
25:55not all of it is on display to the public.
25:59I'm about to be shown a secret treasure
26:01which is hidden from view.
26:04So I've seen, with Tracy,
26:06the scale and grandeur of the Tudor era.
26:08So now I'm going to look at something
26:09a bit more intricate, I don't know,
26:11but it's a secret,
26:12so that's exciting, isn't it?
26:13So these guys, they can't see it,
26:15but I can.
26:16I'm rather intrigued to see what this is.
26:19The Bywood Tower
26:20is in the south-west section
26:22and was built over 200 years
26:24before Henry VIII set foot in the fortress.
26:27It's completely off the tourist trail.
26:30I'm heading for a small room at the top of it.
26:35Revealing its features to me
26:36is curator Alden Gregory.
26:39Hi, Jason.
26:39Nice to see you.
26:40I think if you look up on the wall,
26:42you'll see some clues
26:44as to what the Tudors did here.
26:45That's the top of the Tudor rose, isn't it?
26:48Absolutely right.
26:48This is the Tudor rose,
26:50the badge of the Tudor dynasty,
26:51and it sat on this fireplace.
26:54So we know the Tudors put a huge fireplace in this room,
26:58but someone else had decorated in here first.
27:01I'll draw your attention
27:02to the other wall painting that's on this wall,
27:05a much earlier wall painting
27:06that we think was painted in the 1390s.
27:09That's amazing, isn't it?
27:10The 1390s.
27:12Goodness me.
27:15Astonishingly,
27:15the Tudor fireplace has been plonked
27:17directly on top of this stunning
27:19600-year-old wall painting.
27:22We've got this beautiful angel up here.
27:25I mean, the wing's all done, extraordinary.
27:27You can see just how beautifully
27:28the feathers of the wing are picked out.
27:31This is St Michael the Archangel.
27:33Ah, right.
27:35This lion, is that a lion there?
27:38It is, it's the Lion of England.
27:39And it's so bright, isn't it?
27:42The lion itself is painted with gold leaf.
27:45These are the most expensive pigments
27:47that the painter could use.
27:48This was clearly painted
27:50by one of the finest artists
27:52working in England in the day.
27:55Even before the Tudors built over it,
27:58this incredible gold leaf mural
28:00was tucked away from the public.
28:03But why?
28:04The answer lies in what this room
28:06was previously used for,
28:08when the tower housed the royal mint.
28:11We think that this was the king's exchange.
28:15So the king's exchange was part of the mint.
28:18This is where gold and silver and coinage
28:21was exchanged,
28:21where the raw materials were bought into the mint.
28:24This, in effect, is the kind of head office
28:26of the Tower of London's mint.
28:28That's fascinating, isn't it?
28:30With all the gold passing through this room,
28:33the angel was painted to deliver a serious message
28:36to the people working here.
28:37And you can see, if you look very closely,
28:40that St Michael is holding a set of scales.
28:43Ah, yes, yes.
28:44Weighing the souls of the dead
28:46on the Day of Judgment.
28:48Workers of the mint being reminded
28:50that on the Day of Judgment,
28:51if they transgress from the rules of the mint,
28:54then their souls will be judged.
28:56You know, it's actually blown my mind.
28:58I mean, that's one of the glories
29:00of this place, isn't it?
29:01This is one of the treasures
29:02of the Tower of London.
29:03The Tower of London
29:08has had its own royal mint since 1279.
29:12It's where most English coins
29:14were produced for the next 530 years.
29:18To find out more,
29:20I'm heading a few yards
29:21along the aptly named Mint Street,
29:24and I'm hoping
29:25Assistant Buildings Curator Alfred Hawkins...
29:28Hi, Alfred. Hi, Jason.
29:29..can tell me what happened
29:31to all that gold and silver
29:32after it left the King's Exchange.
29:36This is just like a place
29:38that the Yemen Warder would live.
29:39There's nothing remarkable
29:40about this particular area.
29:41So why am I here, Alfred?
29:42Well, it's the great joy of the Tower
29:44that there are remarkable things
29:46hidden behind almost every wall.
29:49And so I'm going to show you
29:49one of the most exciting things
29:51we've uncovered in the recent past.
29:53Intriguing.
29:53Oh, follow me.
29:57It's completely unexpected.
29:59I was expecting someone's living room.
30:01What is this?
30:02So you are looking at
30:03the standing remains
30:05of the Tudor royal mint.
30:07Originally, the mint
30:08would have been huge,
30:10taking up almost all the space,
30:127,000 square metres,
30:14between the inner
30:15and outer curtain walls.
30:18Now, this is all that is left.
30:21What am I looking at here?
30:23You are looking at the remains
30:25of the forge
30:26in which gold and silver
30:28would be purified
30:29at the royal mint
30:30in the 1500s.
30:32This section here,
30:33this is where you would have
30:34your fires burning
30:35to heat your metal.
30:36We have an entire building
30:38dedicated to the processing
30:40of gold and silver.
30:42And then vast workshops
30:44going down Mint Street
30:45where all of the coins
30:47would actually be made.
30:48So on a scale,
30:49which is not seen
30:50anywhere else in the future.
30:51And it's like a production line.
30:52Yes, precisely.
30:53By the 1550s,
30:55when Henry VIII's three children,
30:58Edward, Mary and Elizabeth,
30:59took the throne,
31:00every new coin in England
31:02was made right here.
31:04Security at the mint was tight,
31:06with gates at either end,
31:08sealing it off
31:09from the rest
31:09of the tower community.
31:11Anyone caught stealing
31:13precious metals
31:14faced harsh punishment,
31:16including execution
31:17and even castration.
31:20There was a good reason for this.
31:22The people who worked
31:23in the tower mint
31:23literally held the nation's wealth
31:25in their hands.
31:28It's this room
31:29that is the beating heart
31:30behind the economy of England.
31:33And the economy does not work
31:34without this room existing
31:36and without the headquarters
31:37of the royal mint
31:38and the tower.
31:40Working in the mint
31:42was one of the most
31:43hazardous jobs in history.
31:45But the story of those
31:46employed here
31:47is often overlooked.
31:49So I've come to see
31:51blacksmith Owen Bush.
31:53Hi, Owen.
31:53Hello.
31:54To find out
31:55what life was like
31:56for those making
31:57the nation's coins
31:58for Tudor monarchs
31:59like Elizabeth I.
32:01It would have been
32:01dangerous,
32:03toxic fumes,
32:05no idea of health
32:06and safety.
32:07Well, I'll show you
32:08a smaller version
32:09of making a coin
32:10so we can see the process.
32:12Thankfully,
32:13unlike Tudor mint workers,
32:14we have modern safety
32:16equipment to protect us.
32:18So what are we going
32:18to do first?
32:19I'm going to melt
32:20up some silver.
32:21I'm using a modern way
32:22of doing it.
32:23Historically,
32:23it would have been bigger
32:25and in a charcoal fire.
32:26Right, I'll stand back
32:27a bit then.
32:29Coins were often made
32:31in the summer months
32:32when there was more daylight.
32:34I can only imagine
32:35the searing temperatures
32:37inside the mint
32:38and the toxic fumes
32:39of the metals
32:40they were working with.
32:41Wow, yeah,
32:42there it goes.
32:43You can see it.
32:44It's rather beautiful,
32:45actually.
32:45It is.
32:45It's excess of 1100 centigrade.
32:48That's incredible.
32:49It wasn't just the heat
32:51that was a threat.
32:52I'm going to put
32:53a tiny bit of heat
32:54into the mould here.
32:57The big risk with it
32:58is if there was
32:58any moisture in the mould,
33:00then we could actually
33:01have a little explosion.
33:03That kind of thing
33:03must have happened
33:04all the time.
33:04Oh, absolutely, yeah.
33:07Oh, there it is.
33:08Wow.
33:11And it comes down
33:11quite quickly.
33:12Oh.
33:14So that's our silver block,
33:16our little brick.
33:16That's amazing.
33:21Next, the precious metals
33:23needed to be hammered
33:24into shape
33:25and punched
33:25into discs.
33:28Up until 60 years
33:29after the death
33:30of Elizabeth I,
33:31it was all done
33:33by hand.
33:34It was a risky business.
33:38It seems to me
33:39that just a lapse
33:41in concentration,
33:42you could easily
33:42lose a finger.
33:43Oh, absolutely, yeah.
33:44So here's our punch.
33:45It's a very simple way
33:46of just making a disc.
33:48Mm-hmm.
33:48So I'm putting it
33:49into this little
33:50coining press
33:51and I've got a pattern
33:52on the top
33:52and the bottom
33:53of the punch.
33:54Right.
33:55And then it's just
33:55a case of hitting it
33:56pretty hard.
33:57OK.
33:57In the 1500s,
33:59the noise in the mint
34:00would have been deafening
34:02as blank coins
34:03were hammered.
34:04So I just need
34:05to knock the coin out.
34:08Oh, there it is.
34:09And that's our coin.
34:10Oh, that's amazing.
34:12Wow.
34:15Very, very hard,
34:17dangerous work.
34:19They're risking
34:20life and limb,
34:21literally,
34:22but also
34:23incredibly important.
34:24Coming up,
34:28it's a race
34:28against time
34:29to save
34:30one of the tower's
34:31most unique features.
34:33You're keeping
34:33these buildings safe
34:34for another thousand years.
34:36And I'm put to the test
34:37on a vital renovation.
34:39You can't really go wrong.
34:41What?
34:43Let's see.
34:44Let's see.
34:44Ever since the White Tower
34:55was built by
34:56William the Conqueror
34:57a thousand years ago,
34:58generations of monarchs
35:00have left their mark
35:01on the Tower of London.
35:02The whole place
35:03is a 950-year-old montage
35:05of building fashions
35:06throughout history.
35:08But there are
35:09some alterations
35:10that were made
35:10not on the orders
35:11of kings or queens,
35:12but as a result
35:14of the tower's
35:15newest role
35:15as a tourist attraction.
35:18The Victorian era
35:20saw an explosion
35:21of visitors
35:22as people flocked
35:23to see the places
35:24they'd read about
35:25in history books.
35:27From the bloody tower
35:28where two princes vanished
35:30to the exact spot
35:32where Queen Anne Boleyn
35:33lost her head.
35:34To make sure
35:35they weren't disappointed,
35:37Victorian builders
35:38recreated
35:39old parts of the tower
35:40that had been
35:41previously demolished.
35:43Like a modern-day
35:44theme park,
35:45they hastily threw up
35:46ancient-looking
35:47stone walls
35:48and classic castle features
35:50such as arrow loops,
35:52narrow slits
35:53medieval archers
35:54would have fired from
35:55to defend the fortress.
35:57But they didn't have
35:58to recreate everything.
36:00Hi, Frity.
36:01Hi, Tracy.
36:02How are you?
36:02I'm good, thank you.
36:04Well, there's clearly
36:04a lot going on here.
36:06The broad arrow tower
36:07is on the eastern
36:08inner curtain wall
36:10and incredibly,
36:11its original arrow loops
36:13from the 1200s
36:14survive to this day.
36:16They're so precious
36:17that in 2023,
36:19a major restoration project
36:21was launched
36:21to preserve them.
36:23The woman in charge
36:24is project manager
36:25Preeti Narasimhan.
36:27So this tower
36:28is one of the
36:2911 or 12
36:30watchtowers
36:31along the inner curtain wall.
36:33This tower
36:33is the only tower
36:34that retains
36:35all of the 1200s
36:36arrow loops.
36:37All of the other
36:38arrow loops
36:38in all of the other
36:39towers have been
36:40replaced over time.
36:41It was in this tower
36:43that the arrows
36:44themselves were also
36:45made, mended
36:46and stored.
36:48So this is one
36:49of the five arrow loops
36:50that we have conserved.
36:53The fact that these
36:53are 800 years old,
36:55these features,
36:56gives it that much
36:57more authenticity
36:58and uniqueness.
36:59But it's such a feature,
37:00isn't it,
37:01of this tower,
37:01so I can understand
37:02the need to really
37:03look after these.
37:05And to protect
37:06these ancient features
37:08from rain damage,
37:09Preeti has come up
37:10with a very simple
37:11yet ingenious solution.
37:14We've also been able
37:15to introduce
37:15this hund
37:17at the top.
37:18It's a folded
37:19piece of lead,
37:20basically,
37:20that we have inserted
37:21just to slow
37:23the rate of deterioration
37:24by, you know,
37:25making sure the water
37:26is, you know,
37:28falling off
37:29of the arrow loops
37:29and not washing down
37:30on the face of it.
37:31That's very subtle.
37:32I don't think
37:32I'd have noticed that.
37:33And it's so much
37:35care and attention
37:36for a single feature
37:37in a single tower
37:39in a huge site.
37:41You're keeping
37:41these buildings safe
37:43for another thousand years.
37:45The tower's conservators
37:47are careful
37:48to use authentic materials
37:50for their restoration work.
37:52But when they can't be sourced,
37:53there's only one solution.
37:55They make them.
37:57I've come to one
37:58of the most magnificent
37:59buildings in London,
38:00Hampton Court Palace,
38:02to see how it's done.
38:04I'm here to meet
38:05some conservationists
38:06who are going to teach me
38:07and show me
38:08how you cut bricks.
38:10I mean,
38:10I'm not even sure
38:11what that process is.
38:12Here's the clue.
38:13But my first question
38:13is going to be to them
38:14how many bricks
38:16are there
38:16in Hampton Court Palace?
38:17That's what I want to know.
38:18I can't wait.
38:19One, two, three, four, five,
38:21five, five, six, seven.
38:21I'm meeting
38:22I'm meeting
38:22master bricklayer
38:23Emma Simpson.
38:25Hi, Emma.
38:27Oh, hello, Jason.
38:27How are you?
38:28I'm very good.
38:30Emma's team
38:30repairs the brickwork
38:31across many historic palaces,
38:34including the Tower of London.
38:36For each restoration project,
38:38she must first remove
38:39all the original bricks
38:41from the location
38:42and assess the damage
38:43from centuries
38:44of being exposed
38:45to the elements.
38:46So if I take this one,
38:48for example,
38:49then you can see
38:49it's quite broken,
38:51it's deteriorated,
38:52it's gone very, very
38:54sort of, you know,
38:55flaky
38:55and it's starting to break up.
38:57And that's happening
38:58all the time.
38:58It is, I'm afraid, yeah.
38:59And you have to just...
39:00So your job
39:01is absolutely crucial.
39:04When recreating bricks,
39:06Emma must precisely match
39:08the original materials
39:09or the structure of the building
39:11will be compromised.
39:15It's a lot of work.
39:17All the bricks we use here
39:18are handmade specifically
39:19for whichever project we're doing.
39:22So if we were going to be
39:23repairing a bit of Tudor walling,
39:25we'd study everything
39:26about that particular brick
39:27in terms of colour,
39:29texture, size, shape,
39:30and we'd give all that information
39:32to the brickmaker
39:33and they would make us
39:35a brick that would match.
39:36God, that's staggering.
39:37So a lot of it is trying
39:38to use similar technology
39:40so you're going to create
39:42something that was very similar
39:43to when it was created originally.
39:44Yeah.
39:44To replicate the skills
39:47of her historic counterparts,
39:50Emma starts out
39:50with a brick called
39:51a red rubber,
39:53named, as it turns out,
39:54for obvious reasons.
39:56It's clearly red.
39:57Yeah, yeah.
39:57Even I know that.
39:59But where's the...
40:00What's the rubber element?
40:01The rubber element
40:01is that it's soft enough
40:03to rub.
40:03We can cut them
40:04and carve them
40:04and rub them.
40:05The bricks that Emma carves
40:07are different shapes and sizes
40:09but they all start life
40:11as one of these red rubbers.
40:13She uses the original bricks
40:15to make a wooden template
40:16called a cutting box.
40:18And then you would put
40:19your blank brick in there
40:21and you would then cut
40:22around that shape
40:24and then it would come out
40:25like this.
40:26So you've got a sort of
40:27head start really
40:27in terms of you're not
40:29just freehand.
40:30No.
40:31As it happens,
40:33brick making is in my blood
40:34so Emma's letting me
40:36have a go at cutting.
40:38After I've got
40:38my protective gear on,
40:40of course.
40:42OK.
40:43You sort of look down
40:44and see where the sides
40:45of the box are
40:46so you can kind of
40:46locate the saw correctly.
40:52That off quite slowly.
40:54This is the same technique
40:56historic brick makers
40:58would have used.
40:59Once Emma's got
41:00the job started...
41:00Yeah, OK, there you go.
41:03It's my turn.
41:04So, yeah, OK, right.
41:10It is hard work.
41:12I mean, luckily
41:13I am a triathlete, so...
41:15You can't really go wrong.
41:18What?
41:19Let's see, let's see.
41:22Bricks have been used
41:23at the tower since 1276
41:25when Edward I
41:27ordered 243,000 of them.
41:30to build the Beecham Tower.
41:33It was the first
41:34large-scale use of brick
41:36in a defensive building
41:37in England
41:38since the Roman period.
41:40And actually,
41:41I think I might have
41:42missed my calling.
41:43Oh, I think I'm getting
41:44a bit of a rhythm now.
41:45I think you are.
41:46I think you are.
41:46I think you're doing
41:46really well.
41:47Bricks like the one
41:48I'm shaping have ended up
41:50at the tower's iconic
41:51Mint Street,
41:53home today to many
41:54of the Yeoman warders.
41:56And with a few more
41:57cuts of the saw,
41:58I'm done.
42:00I mean, this is pretty good,
42:01isn't it?
42:02It's very good, isn't it?
42:02That bit, yeah.
42:03All that's needed
42:05is a final polish.
42:07Yeah, I mean,
42:07this is a...
42:09quite a labour-intensive
42:10process, isn't it?
42:13But I suppose
42:13if you're in the Tower of London
42:15and you are preserving
42:17something ancient
42:19and historic
42:21and it's a lifetime's work,
42:23isn't it?
42:23Because it's ongoing.
42:25And the brick is finished.
42:28I'm pretty pleased with that.
42:29Thank you very much.
42:30It's a pleasure.
42:32It does make you think
42:33what is involved
42:35in the restoration
42:36of these sort of places
42:38like the Tower of London.
42:39What really struck me
42:41was, despite technology
42:42and despite all the advances
42:44in making buildings
42:46more solid,
42:47that really the best way
42:48to do it
42:49is to acknowledge
42:50the old ways
42:51of making things.
42:52So I have nothing
42:53but admiration
42:54and it just shows us
42:55the extent of the work
42:56that is necessary
42:57to keep this incredible
42:59spectacle at the line.
43:00We've explored
43:03the development
43:04of the Tower of London
43:05over a thousand years
43:07from a single tower
43:09to a vast fortress
43:11and royal palace
43:12and, of course,
43:14world-famous visitor attraction.
43:17It's been quite a journey.
43:18It has been a revelation,
43:19hasn't it?
43:20And I suppose it was such a dominating,
43:24revered and feared tower
43:26and since it's been built,
43:28London has expanded and grown
43:30and it's now this bustling metropolis
43:33of skyscrapers
43:35that loom over the tower
43:37and you realise
43:38and you realise
43:39that the sheer permanence
43:41of the Tower of London,
43:43that it's been here
43:44for a thousand years
43:45amid all that change.
43:47Absolutely.
43:47It still stands
43:48as this incredible symbol
43:50of the nation's history,
43:52of the world's history, really.
43:54Everybody who's lived, worked,
43:59reigned here
44:00has left their mark
44:01on the tower in some way.
44:03What I like is that
44:04it's a continuing story.
44:06It's a story
44:06that keeps on evolving.
44:09Exactly.
44:09And the tower remains
44:11constant
44:12and has done
44:15for a thousand years.
44:17It's an incredible thought.
44:18And hopefully
44:19for another thousand years.
44:24A very important pooch
44:26gets the VIP treatment
44:27inside the Four Seasons Park Lane,
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44:34Michael Portillo
44:35gets swept up in the revelry,
44:37brand new Saturday at 8.15.
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