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From The Times
July 7, 2007

Guardhouse used by Beefeaters of Tudor times unearthed at Tower

archaeological finds made at the Tower of London
Dalya Alberge

LONDON New evidence of Tudor and Jacobean life has been found at the Tower of London with the discovery of the extensive remains of a guardhouse.

Plans of London and the Tower from 1597, show that a building stood on the site from about 1570. Now, at the spot seen guarded by a Beefeater, or Yeoman Warder, above, archaeologists have discovered foundations, floors, drains and cellar walls.

The remains suggest at least two different building phases, the first possibly late medieval and the second from the late 17th century. Documentary evidence from the 17th century states that the structure was demolished in 1684 and rebuilt quickly the following year, only to be removed soon afterwards.

Elizabethans such as the disgraced courtier Philip Howard — the Earl of Arundel, who was imprisoned from 1585 until his death in 1595 at the age of 38 after falling foul of the Queen for converting to Catholicism — would have looked out helplessly from their prison windows in the adjacent Beauchamp Tower at the building described in historic accounts as the “Old Main Guard” or the “Warders’ Guardhouse”. It is thought to have been used by the predecessors of the Beefeaters.

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