At the back of Westminster Abbey sits a squat medieval building built by King Edward III in 1365 to house various treasures and important documents. To build it, Edward basically co-opted the land it sits on from the Abbey, engendering ill will from the monks. Called the Jewel Tower, it survived the fire of 1834 that destroyed the original Palace, with hundreds of original rolls surviving. It’s a lovely piece of 14th century history…
Today The Jewel Tower doesn’t house any Royal jewels (they were moved to the Tower of London hundreds of years ago), but houses an excellent history of this period…with views to the Palace of Westminster behind, and the Abbey in front.
