👻 HAUNTED PLACE · EXP. Nº8141
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Tower of London
Tower of London is a location reputed to be haunted in London, GB. Its reputation comes from reported apparitions, unexplained phenomena and eyewitness accounts gathered over time.
Where is Tower of London?
- Location
- London, GB
- Type
- Castle
- Coordinates
- 51.508, -0.076
- Testimonies
- 0
- Last updated
LOCATION
Why is Tower of London said to be haunted?
The Tower of London has guarded the Thames since William the Conqueror raised the White Tower in 1078, and its long history of executions, imprisonment, and intrigue has left it thick with reported hauntings. The most cited apparition is Anne Boleyn, beheaded within the walls in 1536 on the orders of Henry VIII; guards and yeoman warders have described seeing a headless woman walking near the site of the scaffold on Tower Green. Visitors and staff have also reported the ghostly forms of the "Princes in the Tower," the young Edward V and his brother Richard, who vanished in 1483 and were long rumored to have been murdered there. Other tales speak of a bear-shaped shadow near the Martin Tower and the phantom figure of Lady Jane Grey, executed in 1554. Whether coincidence or something else, the sheer density of sightings across nine centuries has made the fortress one of Britain's most talked-about locations for the paranormal.
What is the history of Tower of London?
The Tower's reputation rests on executions, so it is worth being precise about how many there actually were — because the number is far smaller than almost anyone assumes.
Across roughly a thousand years, only about twenty-two people were executed inside the Tower of London. On or near Tower Green the count is ten: seven by beheading and three by firing squad. That is the whole of it.
Dying inside the walls was not a punishment but a privilege. It was reserved for prisoners of very high rank, or for those with dangerously strong popular support whom the Crown preferred to keep away from a crowd. Everyone else was taken out to Tower Hill, beyond the battlements, or across the city to Tyburn, and killed in public in front of as many spectators as could be assembled. Historians put the Tower Hill total at around one hundred and twenty-five.
Three of the seven beheaded on Tower Green were queens of England, two of them wives of Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn was executed there on 19 May 1536, convicted of treason, adultery and incest, and buried a few metres away in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, inside the walls. Lady Jane Grey followed in 1554. The firing-squad executions belong to the twentieth century: spies shot during the two world wars.
The ghost tradition accumulated much later, and it is unusually well recorded. In 1864 Captain J. D. Dundas, then living in the Tower, described watching a sentry in the courtyard where Anne Boleyn had been beheaded: a "whitish female figure" appeared to slide towards the man, who charged through it with his bayonet and collapsed. In 1957 two guardsmen reported a shapeless white form high on the roof of the Salt Tower. In 1973 a Yeoman Warder described a glow coming from a prison chamber and the sensation of something touching the back of his neck. Historic Royal Palaces itself recounts the best-known version: Anne gliding across the grounds at the head of a silent procession, from Tower Green to the chapel where she lies.
Timeline: the documented record of Tower of London
- 19 May 1536 Anne Boleyn is beheaded on Tower Green, convicted of treason, adultery and incest, and buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula inside the walls. Hers becomes the most reported apparition in the Tower's history.
- 1554 Lady Jane Grey is executed on Tower Green. She is one of only seven people ever beheaded inside the Tower, and one of three queens among them.
- 1864 Captain J. D. Dundas, living in the Tower, reports watching a sentry charge a "whitish female figure" with his bayonet in the courtyard where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and then collapse. It is the most cited account of the Tower haunting.
- 1957 Two guardsmen report a shapeless white form high on the roof of the Salt Tower.
- 1973 A Yeoman Warder describes a glow emanating from a prison chamber, followed by the sensation of something touching the back of his neck.
Is there a rational explanation for Tower of London?
The most useful sceptical observation about the Tower is not about any individual sighting. It is that the Tower's blood-soaked reputation is largely borrowed from executions that happened somewhere else.
About twenty-two people died by execution inside the walls in a thousand years. Around a hundred and twenty-five died on Tower Hill, outside them, in front of crowds. The Tower is remembered as the great English killing ground because it is the building still standing; the scaffold on the hill is now a memorial in a small garden that most visitors walk past. A reputation for mass death attached itself to the site with the best surviving architecture rather than the highest body count.
The timing of the sightings is the second problem. The famous accounts — 1864, 1957, 1973 — belong to the period in which the Tower had become a major public attraction, not to the centuries when it was a working fortress and prison. Ghost reports appear when there is an audience for them.
The 1864 case deserves a closer look, because it is the one most often cited as evidence. A sentry on solitary night duty was found collapsed at his post. For a soldier, being discovered unconscious or asleep on guard was a serious military offence; a supernatural explanation, corroborated by an officer, is a remarkably convenient one. That does not prove the man invented it — but it is exactly the circumstance in which a striking explanation becomes valuable to the person offering it.
Finally, the list itself is curated. The "thirteen ghosts of the Tower" is not an independent tally: it is maintained and published by the organisation that sells the tickets, and it appears in the same places as the opening hours.
Can you visit Tower of London?
The Tower is one of the most visited buildings in Britain and needs no special arrangement — but it is expensive and it takes longer than people plan for.
Adult admission is £37, children aged 5–15 pay £18.50, under-fives are free, and a family ticket for two adults and up to three children is £96.50. Opening is 09:00 Tuesday to Saturday and 10:00 on Sunday and Monday, closing at 17:30 from March to October and 16:30 from November to February. Last admission is one hour before closing.
The single best thing included in the price is the Yeoman Warder tour. It is free with admission, leaves every thirty minutes from 10:00 Tuesday to Saturday, lasts about an hour, and cannot be booked in advance — you simply turn up at the entrance and join one. The Warders are former senior non-commissioned officers with long service records, they live inside the Tower, and their tour is where the ghost stories are actually told.
Nearest station is Tower Hill, on the District and Circle lines, a five-minute walk away with step-free access to street level.
Two practical notes. Allow three hours as a minimum: the Crown Jewels queue alone can absorb a large part of a visit, and it is worst in the middle of the day. And if you want to see the actual execution sites, you need two stops — the scaffold memorial on Tower Green inside, and the Tower Hill execution memorial outside the walls, which is where the great majority of the deaths took place and where hardly anyone goes.
Sources consulted
- Historic Royal Palaces, «Tower Green and Scaffold Site — quiénes fueron ejecutados dentro de la Torre» — Información institucional, 2026 archive
- Historic Royal Palaces, «Famous ghost stories of the Tower of London» — Blog institucional, 2023 archive
- Historic Royal Palaces, «Tower Hill Execution Memorial — las ejecuciones públicas fuera de las murallas» — Información institucional, 2026 archive
- Free Tours by Foot, «Executions at Tower Hill and the Tower of London — recuento histórico» — Guía histórica, 2024 web
- Historic Royal Palaces, «Yeoman Warder Tours — condiciones y horarios» — Información oficial de visita, 2026 archive
Reviewed by V. Serrano on 2026-07-28 · How we verify our content
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