For hundreds of years prisoners were held here in the Dungeons, even up until the 1940's, when a man was tried and shot for being a spy.
But my favourite, if I can call it that, piece of black history of the tower of London; is the story of Roger Casement. He was a humanitarian, he came back and told the Brits of their barbarianism in the Amazon, where the Amazonians had to chop the rubber trees down for making tyres, if they didn't work hard enough, they had their hands chopped off and their villages were burnt down with their wives and children still in them!
Roger Casement was knighted in 1911 by King George V. Then he was found guilty and sentenced to death for high treason on 29th June 1916 for taking part in the Easter rising in Dublin. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison on 3rd August 1916.
I think the English should hold their heads down in shame.
Black Diaries
Amazon Books
Casement Congo Report
I can't find any links to 'The White Diaries' I'm afraid...
So, when you visit London; make sure that you behave yourself, no Grand Larceny, Spying or Arson of Her Majesty's Docks (you can 'still' be hung for these crimes here!) otherwise you could end up with The Tower of London as your accommodation! They actually still have a reconstructed 'Rack' there, like the one that was used for thre likes of William Wallace.
I have told my husband, that I want a room in the Tower of London, one that faces towards the estuary. I can look out of it and see Canary Wharf in the distance that way.
The pics are some wonderful art around the Tower of London whilst it was being done up in 2004.


