
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.
In fact, comparatively few people were executed inside the Tower itself – that was the preserve of Queens of the day such as Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey to afford them some degree of privacy – whereas most of the Dukes, Earls and Nobles who had fallen from grace, were beheaded here on Tower Hill in full public view, to ensure maximum humiliation.

Though having your head cut off was the fate of the lucky ones. If you had really displeased the King and were guilty of alleged treason, you were ‘hung drawn and quartered’ and without going into too much detail, the condemned were hung by their neck until nearly dead, their intestines cut out while they were still alive and their body cut into quarters for their remains to be distributed around the Kingdom.
It’s hard to imagine today what a ghastly spectacle this would have presented, but to people of the day this was a great excuse to take the day off, pack a picnic lunch, and head to the Tower to watch the execution of the latest fallen noble. This spot wasn’t for executing common criminals – that took place by hanging over at Tyburn (todays Marble Arch). To be executed at Tower Hill you had to be someone important of noble birth, hence the excitement of the crowd to see the poor unfortunate’s head cut off.

Lord Lovatt had the dubious honour of being the last to be publicly beheaded in 1747. Great crowds had gathered to watch the execution and a wooden gallery erected to enable people to get a better view, collapsed, injuring many. It is said that Lord Lovatt was so amused by this he started to laugh and was still laughing when the axe came down on his neck – hence the expression “laughing your head off.”
Footnote: It was the custom of the time to paint a portrait of the condemned before they were executed as of course, these were important people, often members of the aristocracy. They completely forgot with the Duke of Monmouth. He had to be exhumed, his head sown back on, so a portrait could be painted. (The painting can currently be found in the National Portrait Gallery London. Look closely and you can just make out the scars on his throat where they sowed his head back on!)

Today of course, we have discarded with such barbaric forms of torture and execution, but if you fancy a little bit of ‘hung drawn and quartered’, make your way to the pleaseant pub of the same name just opposite the Tower on 26-27 Great Tower Street.

