The Jewel Tower is one of the medieval towers making up the Palace of Westminster, which was home to the kings and queens from the mid-1000s. A fire in the 1800s destroyed a lot of the former palace, but the Jewel Tower is on of the medieval buildings that remains (along with the chapel of St. Mary Undercroft, the cloisters, and St. Stephen's Hall). The Jewel Tower is open to visitors as a museum, and this is managed by English Heritage.
The Jewel Tower is a 14th century construction and was protected by a moat and used to house the treasury of the king. It was then used to store parliament records.
Inside are displays relating to the weights and measurements, which are governed for fairness on setting the standards to prevent corruption. There is a wealth of information about the building and its history.
One room depicts how the records were stored, and some of the most important documents in the country were housed here. A clerk also used to live here, and the role exists today, but the records are housed in another building after a fire in the 1800s.
During the reign of Henry VIII in 1512, a fire broke out at the king's quarters. It was abandoned as a royal palace after this, but the buildings remained to be used by parliament.
There was one room that contained some items discovered in and near the tower - pipes, glass bottles, pieces of ceramic, and a cat skull coloured green. It may have been used as some decoration.
There were also records about the inventory and checks on the items that travelled with the royal family and if any breakages happened.
There is a lot of histoy in this little pocket of London, and the Jewel Tower was worth a visit to understand the role that it played during medieval London.
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