Courtesy of Wikipedia. The site of the Scaffold on Tower Hill London where many notables were executed. Author Bryan MacKinnon
Everyone knows the cry ‘off with his head’ but how many people visiting the Tower of London fail to spot the Tower’s most notorious execution site, just across the road in a small sectioned off area within the now pleasant Trinity Gardens.
Very few people were actually executed inside the Tower itself – that was the preserve of Queens of the day such as Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey as to afford them some privacy – most of the dukes, earls and nobles who had fallen from grace, were executed here on Tower Hill in full public view to ensure their maximum humiliation.
Its hard to image now what a grotesque spectacle this must have been with thousands of baying onlookers gathered to witness the bloody event. Some of the unfortunate souls to lose their heads here include Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Cromwell. A plaque on the ground marks the spot where the chopping block would have been, and around the side is plaque containing names of some of the notable people executed here.