Inside The Tower Of London Tour With A Yeoman Warder!!

Welcome to the Tower of London. Star Wars, Game of Thrones, a zoo, ghost tales, off with everybody's head. This is the symbol of England. This is where William the Conqueror came in in 1078 and built his tower, the White Tower. This was his death star. King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, the Tudors, War of the Roses, Richard III, and the murder of the two boys. This is arguably the most important symbol in English history. Today, we have special access to a yeoman warder, which is an extremely special position that guards the tower and the crown jewels. Follow me inside. DBAs, let's go. We won't be able to film in there. There's a lot of places we can't film. Crown jewels is one, the chapel's another, but we will be going around the grounds. And I just saw one of the yeoman guys right here, look. Who's walking right there? All right, that's it. We're entering the tower, Tower of London. I'm excited. So this is Emma. She's a yeoman warder. Yeoman warder. What is a yeoman warder? A yeoman warder is, I would suggest, is a carer. A carer of the tower, a carer of the history of the Tower of London, in a kind of nutshell, I would describe it as that. But we're also ceremonial personal bodyguards of the monarch, too. So we get involved in coronation, gun salutes. I actually stood around the coffin when the Queen laid in state over at Westminster Hall. So yeah, some of those responsibilities still belong with us, which is very cool. And how do you become one? There's three criteria, quite strict. 22 years in the military is your minimum amount of service required. And we take them all the branches. And we also take Commonwealth soldiers. You also need to be of a certain rank. So highest rank in the non-commissioned cadre, so warrant officer, sergeant major in the army. The wording changes depending on which branch you're in. And then you also need to have your long service called conduct medal, which is this one on the end of my ribbons here. On the end, you've got one with a little rosette. That's my long service called conduct medal. And that basically says that I've got an unblemished career for a recognised end of time. We sometimes call it the undetected crime medal. Yeah, because we've not been caught. And so when you were growing up, did you want to become a yeoman? I didn't, no, not at all. I didn't even know it existed, to be honest, yeoman. Wasn't something that I'd probably ever seen. And I've never visited the tower myself before I thought about getting a job. Wow. And anyway, yeah, yeah. So a job came open and I thought, oh, I wanted a new challenge. And I thought, oh, I'm gonna give it a crack. So yeah. Amazing. And you apply for it. Obviously that criteria, you apply for it, upload your CV online, you know, like any other job, really. So you wait for the position to come open because we're one for one. And then, yeah, I was chosen. There's 35 of us. 35, okay. Already employed. Yeah, and we all live here too. Families, children, whoever's connected with us lives here also. So that's pretty cool. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah. And so the tower, so much history. Tell me, so what's the most obscure thing you can tell me that people don't really know about? I know there's one that's very interesting. I think for me, the most obscure, many people don't really know that we live here. And I think that's quite a surprise for a lot of people. You know, they come in and they always say, oh, I've just seen, you know, some houses and there's some kids' scooters and toys and that. What's that all about? Well, we live here. And they're like, wow, you know, absolutely. So I live right next door to the bloody tower. Wow. So yeah, the bloody tower, my bedroom window opens out onto the entrance of the bloody tower. And the bloody tower, if you weren't aware, is some horrible things happened in the bloody tower. The two boy princes, 1483, they disappeared while they were living in that tower. And yeah, and although they haven't concluded, they found two skeletons to the side of the white tower. About 191 years after the boys disappeared. And then they declared they were the two missing boys. Taken to Westminster Abbey on orders of the king and re-buried in Innocence Corner, where they still remain. But yeah, we don't really know whether that, whether they are the two boys or not. It's kind of still unknown, really. It's not been proved. Yeah. So the crown jewel is behind us. Crown jewels. I've seen it in so many movies over my lifetime. What are the crown jewels? The crown jewels, I would describe them as a collection of crowns, jewels themselves. So a lot of the crowns are reused. But what's more important and what's older are the jewels inside the crowns. So the jewels are moved with monarchs and created into different things. And it's a collection of crowns, robes, jewellery, that is used during coronation. And actually, generally the question we get asked about the crown jewels is, are they real? That's always the question, are they real? And I absolutely, 100% know they're real because during the coronation, 75% of what is on show over there disappeared. Yeah, so it went. So why would they need to be, you know, they wouldn't disappear if they weren't real, would they? They'd just stay there. Yeah, so that's kind of. Ravens. The ravens, the ravens, they're amazing, the ravens. They're very popular, actually, for guys when they come visit. And generally the question I get asked is, Emma, where's the crows? Well, we've got loads of crows, but we've got seven very special ravens. The ravens are the largest member of the crow family. And it's actually, they were here before the tower was built, the White Tower behind us, which is the oldest part. Yeah, 1078, William the Conqueror ordered that to be built. So they were here before that tower was built. And over the years, superstition and legend decreed there'll always be ravens at the Tower of London. King Charles II commanded six ravens must stay. And if they ever leave, the White Tower crumbles to dust, the monarchy falls, and a great tragedy falls upon the people of England. Wow. And I'll be out of a job and a place to live, which is key. So are there ghost stories? Ghost stories. Could this be a ghost? Watch as an otherworldly blob floats across the Tower of London before disappearing into the sky. Another question always gets asked, ghost stories. I'm not a believer in ghosts. So I'm going to say I haven't really got any ghost stories, but they say number seven, which is next door to me on Tower Green over there, next door to Billy Tower, is supposed to be the most haunted house in the Tower of London. They do say the Martin Tower is haunted as well, which is just behind you, but I've never really experienced anything. So I know some of the other Yeoman warders possibly would tell you a better story, but I've never really seen anything. But I think to be honest, if there's anywhere that's going to be haunted, it's probably going to be the Tower of London, isn't it? You know, all the stuff that went on here. No, for sure. How many people died here? You have to be very special to lose your head inside the tower. Only six people were officially beheaded inside the tower, Anne Boleyn obviously being one of them, and the one that we generally get asked about, Anne Boleyn. In fact, they say that she was executed pretty much where we're stood. Yeah. Right here? In this central area, yeah. Life for a prisoner in that time. Life for a prisoner. Do you know what? I think there's some confusion between what that kind of thing would look like, you know, prisoner-y. Because a lot of the people that were imprisoned here were state prisoners. So they were people that the monarchs- They were important. Yeah, they were important. They were nobles, wealthy people, and they would have lived in really quite nice surrounds with servants and maids, most of them, you know? So a lot of that stuff was going on. Absolutely, some people were locked away in some horrible places, no doubt about it. But many of the people were state prisoners, and not, you know, not probably the ones that people assume were here. They were probably kept here to stop causing trouble. That was generally the reason they were kept inside the tower, because they weren't a way, you know, causing offense to anybody else. Yeah, especially in that time, you could just disappear in two seconds out there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I forgot which prisoner it was that he had his wives and dogs inside the cell. So that was Sir Walter Riley. He was held in the bloody tower for many years. He spent about 13 years in total inside the Tower of London. And yeah, he was locked away in that very small tower with his wife and his kids. Must have been hellish, yeah, in a very small place. Wow. I have another question. Ceremony of the Keys. It's been going on for 700 years. Ceremony of the Keys. Yeah, Ceremony of the Keys. It's a very important part of our history here. So it's been going on for 700 years and more. So that's the traditional locking up of the Tower of London. It happens every night, 10 o'clock every night. The tower gets locked down, okay? And a lot of people say, well, you live here. Are you locked in? Or are you locked out? Well, it depends, obviously, what time we're getting home. But we're not locked in. We can still go in and out, okay? So we're not prisoners. We can still move in and out. But yeah, 10 o'clock every night, the tower gets locked down. Soldiers that are out here, they'll do a ceremony, basically, on the steps. The King's Keys are used. There's a challenge, obviously, which is part of that. A lot of people talk about the challenge. Who comes there, you know? Because basically, a group of people are walking in, soldiers, and he wants to find out who they are. And that's why he brings his weapon down and challenges them and says, who comes there? So that's how it originates. Halt, who comes there? Yeah, exactly that. But probably a little bit more confident and louder. Want me to do it again? Go on. Halt, who comes there? That's better. Like that? Yeah, you could fit in quite well. I could fit in. And how does that work in terms of like, do you have vacation time? I don't know. I mean, I don't know if that's even. Yeah, I was curious about that. Okay, so my typical day is this, really. Just answering questions like you've just been asking me. We generally start work between nine and 10 o'clock in the morning most days. We have a three-week rota. So we'll do a 37-hour week pretty much, but it's kind of balanced along those three weeks. And absolutely, I get vacation. I wouldn't be here if I didn't get time off. We get the three-week vacation in the summer and we get a two-week vacation in the winter. And yeah, we can obviously just do whatever we want in that period of time. And our day's off, absolutely. So a lot of people think that we just walk around in this uniform all the time, you know? Even when we go out shopping. But we don't. We obviously, we have days at work. Like I say, my day-to-day is basically sharing a history with you guys when you come visit. The biggest question we generally get asked is where's the toilets? That's generally what I do most of the day. The other question is why we call Beefeaters. All right, that's generally the two questions we get asked. And we don't really know the answer to that question. So it's a little bit disappointing when we say, actually, we officially, written down, logged anywhere in history, we don't know. There's nothing written down that tells us. There's lots of suggestions. A lot of people say, oh, is it the Beefeater gin? Well, it would be nice. But actually, we've got a really good affiliation with the Beefeater gin distillery. And- They gift you something every year. Every year, we get a bottle of gin on our birthdays. Wow. So every birthday, a Yeoman Warder would get a bottle of gin. I've got four birthdays throughout the year. A bit like the monarch, you know, with all those birthdays. My gin stash is massive. But yeah. They also say that we were paid with beef. Possibly that's a suggestion. And maybe we ate beef at the king's table. But like I say- That's what I was thinking. Officially, we don't know. There's nothing written down that clarifies it. It's a bit of a mystery. I hear there's a private club that you eat in. There is. Yeah. There's like a silver goblet with your names on them. So yes, we do have, a lot of people call it a pub. I like to call it a club because it makes it sound a little bit more special. You can only get into the club by invitation from one of us Yeoman Warders. That's the only way you're going to get in it. You can call me if you want. You like my eyes. Anyway. Oh, wow. No, I'm only joking. I was like, you got us an ale with it? That's really great. So yeah, we run it ourselves. So it's our club. Okay. And there are only 35 members of that club in there, the Yeoman Warders that live here at the Tower of London. So yeah, we open it on an evening and we invite people in to come and do an evening tour. And then they get to watch the ceremony with the keys also, as well, as our guests. But it's quite prestigious in there. When you go for a drink in there, you have to wear a shirt, tie, blazer. Oh, so you have to be like dressed up? Yeah, you have to be dressed up. It's not like a, you know, although we do have a little snug area where we can hang out in our shorts and T-shirts and stuff. But yeah, it is quite a special place. Were you serious about the invitation? I'll come back. I'm coming back to London. I'm coming back. Well, next time you come back, give me a shout. Oh, wow. Thank you. And I'll take you in for a drink. You're amazing. Absolutely. Thank you, Emma. Thank you. We appreciate it. So beautiful today. It's like a real winter day. You got the Christmas trees in here. You have the buildings around, but then you have the airplanes above us. So it's like ancient, modern. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had the boys brought here to the tower for their own protection. As soon as they were here, he had the boys declared illegitimate. The boys out of the way, funnily enough, that made Uncle Richard the first in line for the throne. And he was soon crowned King Richard I. Now, shortly after his coronation, the boys disappeared. They were never seen alive again. Richard, he died fighting a few years later at the Battle of Bosworth Field in the year 1485. Shortly after the battle, some men came forward and actually admitted to murdering the boys whilst they lay sleeping in a bedchamber behind that top window. They said they smothered the boys in their sleep. They bundled their young bodies down the staircase and covered them over with a pile of stone. The next day, an unknown priest came. He took the bodies away. He buried them underneath the staircase inside the White Tower. There they lay, undiscovered for 191 years, until some workmen, working on the staircase, uncovered a box. Probably thought they'd found hidden treasure. You can imagine their horror and dismay when they opened that box to find the bones of two young children. Now, experts at the time immediately declared, these must be the bones of the two boy princes. So, Yeoman Works explained to us what the Trader Gate is. This was the water gate. This is where all the prisoners would come on a boat through and, you know, from here, enter the tower. On the way in, very, very scary, though. They would see, like, dead, like, heads of everybody who had been decapitated before. And, yeah, Queen Anne Boleyn, Catherine came through here. And then right here, we have the Bloody Tower. And on the way through here, we're gonna make our way to the Crown Jewels. The boys were murdered by Richard III right here, in that, like, right in those windows there. In that window, in that window. We just saw the Crown Jewels, and the process is very simple. You just walk in. They tell you, put the phone down, and people are taking photos and recording. They keep screaming it. But super impressive. You have gold plates. You have diamonds. The biggest diamond in the world is in there. So many crowns. Impressive, to say the least. It's a must. Look right here. Sparkling and splendid, like, decorations on Christmas tree. It literally is, like, super bright in there. It's big, actually, and there's a part where you get on, like, a small escalator that's flat, and it just takes you through all the crowns. That was my favorite part of the whole thing. Beautiful. You know, it's the first time I've seen it. I was never here before. I've seen the Tower of London from outside. First two trips that I came, but never like this. And this is where it all began. The White Tower, back in 1078. William the Conqueror conquered these lands. Normans conquered the Saxons, and he built his Death Star to show the population who's in power to subdue the population. Upstairs, that's executions. Bottom, torture chambers. Anne Boleyn went through here. Guy Fawkes as well. Can you imagine being back then, a thousand years ago, in here? Later in the 1200s, they whitewashed the building, and that's why it looks like this in its current state. This is the Wardrobe Tower, built in 1190 by Richard I, and he built it on top of the Roman city walls. The tower became part of a large building that housed the Great Wardrobe. The king and queens stored portable valuables there, such as jewels, furniture, and armor. Later, the Ordin's office, which supplied the military equipment, used the building, and it was demolished between 1878 and 1883. It's pretty amazing he built this for his clothes. Huge. So we just passed the White Tower, and now we're gonna walk on the walls. So we have some good views from up here. Oh, area. Salt Tower, in front we have Tower Bridge, the most iconic bridge in the city. And right here we have a raven. Whoa, look at that. Room after room, armory after armory. Swords, guns, you have to keep going. There's no way to go backwards. Once you enter, there's only one way out. All the way to the top, and then all the way down. It's very crowded. Get prepared for some lines. So this is King Charles II's armory. So the first and the second, as boys, super, look at the design. Stainless steel, mixes some gold elements and some copper in there. You also have the armor for the horse. You have a different hat here. The shield, armor of Charles I and Charles II, as boys. Tower London, check. Tower Bridge, check. Let's go.