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In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Home Bookshop My Promise

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Graffiti at the Tower of London
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DECEMBER 6, 2011
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Now that tourists are scarce and the trees are bare once more, it Street Life
suits me to visit the Tower of London and study the graffiti. The
austere stone structures of this ancient fortress by the river ARCH I V ES

reassert their grim dignity in Winter when the crowd-borne January 2022

hubbub subsides, and quiet consideration of the sombre texts December 2021

graven there becomes possible. Some are bold and graceful, November 2021

others are spidery and maladroit, yet every one represents an October 2021

attempt by their creators to renegotiate the nature of their

September 2021
existence. Many are by those who would otherwise be forgotten
August 2021
if they had not possessed a powerful need to record their being,
July 2021
unwilling to let themselves slide irrevocably into obscurity and
June 2021
be lost forever. For those faced with interminable days, Advertisement
May 2021
painstaking carving in stone served to mark time, and to assert
identity and belief. Every mark here is a testimony to the power April 2021

of human will, and they speak across the ages as tokens of brave March 2021

defiance and the refusal to be cowed by tyranny. February 2021

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“The more affliction we endure for Christ in this world, the
February 2020
more glory we shall get with Christ in the world to come.” This
January 2020
inscription in Latin was carved above the chimney breast in the
December 2019
Beauchamp Tower by Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel in 1587.
His father was executed in 1572 for treason and, in 1585, November 2019

Howard was arrested and charged with being a Catholic, October 2019

spending the rest of his life at the Tower where he died in 1595. September 2019

August 2019

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February 2019
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December 2018

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Sent to the Tower in 1560, Hew Draper was a Bristol innkeeper
June 2018
accused of sorcery. He pleaded not guilty yet set about carving
May 2018
this mysterious chart upon the wall of his cell in the Salt Tower
April 2018
with the inscription HEW DRAPER OF BRISTOW (Bristol)
March 2018
MADE THIS SPEER THE 30 DAYE OF MAYE, 1561. It is a
zodiac wheel, with a plan of the days of the week and hours of February 2018

the day to the right. Yet time was running out for Hew even as he January 2018

carved this defiant piece of cosmology upon the wall of his cell, December 2017

because he was noted as “verie sick” and it is low upon the wall, November 2017

as if done by a man sitting on the floor.

October 2017

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December 2016

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January 2016
The rebus of Thomas Abel. Chaplain to Katherine of Aragon,
December 2015
Abel took the Queen’s side against Henry VIII and refused to
November 2015
change his position when Henry married Anne Boleyn.
Imprisoned in 1533, he wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 1537, “I October 2015 Advertisement

have now been in close prison three years and a quarter come September 2015

Easter,” and begged “to lie in some house upon the Green.”After August 2015

five and half years imprisoned at the Tower, Abel was hung, July 2015

drawn and quartered at Smithfield in 1540.

June 2015

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December 2014

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September 2014

August 2014

July 2014

June 2014
Both inscriptions, above and below, have been ascribed to Lady
May 2014
Jane Grey, yet it is more likely that she was not committed to a
April 2014
cell but confined within domestic quarters at the Tower, on
March 2014
account of her rank. These may be the result of nineteenth
February 2014
century whimsy.
January 2014

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December 2010

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JOHN DUDLE – YOU THAT THESE BEASTS DO WEL
September 2010 Advertisement
BEHOLD AND SE, MAY DEME WITH EASE WHEREFORE
HERE MADE THEY BE, WITH BORDERS EKE WHEREIN August 2010

(THERE MAY BE FOUND) 4 BROTHERS NAMES WHO LIST July 2010

TO SERCHE THE GROUNDE. The flowers around the Dudley June 2010

family arms represent the names of the four brothers who were May 2010

imprisoned in the Tower between 1553-4 , as result of the April 2010

attempt by their father to put Lady Jane Grey upon the throne.
March 2010
The roses are for Ambrose, carnations (known as gillyflowers)
February 2010
for Guildford, oak leaves for Robert – from robur, Latin for oak
January 2010
– and honeysuckle for Henry. All four were condemned as
December 2009
traitors in 1553, but after the execution of Guildford they were
pardoned and released. John died ten days after release and November 2009

Henry was killed at the seige of San Quentin in 1557 while October 2009

Ambrose became Queen Elizabeth’s Master of the Ordinance September 2009

and Robert became her favourite, granted the title of Earl of August 2009

Leicester.
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Edward Smalley was the servant of a Member of Parliament who

was imprisoned for one month for non-payment of a fine for
assault in 1576. Thomas Rooper, 1570, may have been a member
of the Roper family into which Thomas More’s daughter
married, believed to be enemies of Queen Elizabeth. Edward
Cuffyn faced trial in 1568 accused of conspiracy against
Elizabeth and passed out his days at the Tower.

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BY TORTURE STRANGE MY TROUTH WAS TRIED YET OF

MY LIBERTIE DENIED THEREFORE RESON HATH ME
PERSWADYD PASYENS MUST BE YMB RASYD THOGH
HARD FORTUN CHASYTH ME WYTH SMART YET PASEYNS
SHALL PREVAIL – this anonymous incsription in the Bell
Tower is one of several attributed to Thomas Miagh, an
Irishman who was committed to the Tower in 1581 for leading
rebellion against Elizabeth in his homeland.

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This inscription signed Thomas Miagh 1581 is in the Beauchamp

Tower. THOMAS MIAGH – WHICH LETH HERE THAT
FAYNE WOLD FROM HENS BE GON BY TORTURE
STRAUNGE MI TROUTH WAS TRYED YET OF MY LIBERTY
DENIED. Never brought to trail, he was imprisoned until 1583,
yet allowed “the liberty of the Tower” which meant he could
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move freely within the precincts.

Subjected to the manacles fourteen times in 1594, Jesuit priest

Henry Walpole incised his name in the wall of the Beauchamp
Tower and beneath he carved the names of St Peter and St Paul,
along with Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory – the four
great doctors of the Eastern church.

In this graffito in the Salt Towerr, the “E” in the heart stands for
Elizabeth. Giovanni Battista Castiglione, Italian tutor to Queen
Elizabeth.

JAMES TYPPING. STAND (OR BE WEL CONTENT) BEAR THY

CROSS, FOR THOU ART (SWEET GOOD) CATHOLIC BUT NO
WORSE AND FOR THAT CAUSE, THIS 3 YEAR SPACE, THOW
HAS CONTINUED IN GREAT DISGRACE, YET WHAT HAPP
WILL IT? I CANNOT TELL BUT BE DEATH. Arrested in 1586
as part of the Babington Conpiracy, Typping was tortured, yet
later released in 1590 on agreeing to conform his religion. This
inscription is in the Beauchamp Tower.

T. Salmon, 1622. Above his coat of arms, he scrawled, CLOSE

PRISONER 32 WEEKS, 224 DAYS, 5376 HOURS. He is believed
to have died in custody.

A second graffito by Giovanni Battista Castiglione, imprisoned in

1556 by Elizabeth’s sister, Mary, for plotting against her and
later released.