Comments on: The Tower of Old London https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/23/the-tower-of-old-london/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Fri, 24 May 2013 07:09:26 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Greg Tingey https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/23/the-tower-of-old-london/#comment-112592 Fri, 24 May 2013 07:09:26 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=89725#comment-112592 Gary – yes & no.
The surroundings & apputenances have xhanged.
The fortress – no.

One of the strangest views on the planet, one that would defy many fantasy-descriptions as too extreme, yet it is real …
Stand on the S bank of the Thames on Shad Themes, & look NW.
What do you see?

A Victorian steel bridge, cased in stone, “Gothick” in the extreme, beyond & under that the WWII cruiser, preserved as memorial, behind them the thousand-year-old fortress, still keeping its “silent watch & ward” ( Thnak you, W. S. Gilbert ) & as final backdrop the concrte steel & glass towers of a 21st Century city in all its owm pomp.

“London, flower of cities all.”

]]> By: Gary https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/23/the-tower-of-old-london/#comment-112469 Thu, 23 May 2013 19:59:17 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=89725#comment-112469 I was taken there as a child in 1936, it must have been the same as those photographs then.
I haven’t been back since – has it changed much ?
Gary

]]> By: Phil Maxwell https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/23/the-tower-of-old-london/#comment-112426 Thu, 23 May 2013 16:27:01 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=89725#comment-112426 Marvellous photographs!

]]> By: Greg Tingey https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/23/the-tower-of-old-london/#comment-112264 Thu, 23 May 2013 07:04:44 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=89725#comment-112264 When our gallant Norman foes
Made our merry land their own.
And the Saxons from the Conqueror were flying.

At his bidding it arose.
In its panoply of stone,
. A sentinel unliving and undying.

Insensible, I trow,
As a sentinel should be.
Though a queen to save her head
should come a-suing.

There’s a legend on its brow
That is eloquent to me.
And it tells of duty done and duty doing.

“The screw may twist and the rack may turn,
And men may bleed and men may burn,
O’er London town and its golden hoard
I keep my silent watch and ward!”

Chorus. The screw may twist, &c.

Within its wall of rock
The flower of the brave
Have perished with a constancy unshaken.
From the dungeon to the block.
From the scaffold to the grave.
Is a journey many gallant hearts have taken.
And the wicked flames may hiss
Round the heroes who have fought
For conscience and for home in all its beauty.
But the grim old fortalice
Takes little heed of aught
That comes not in the measure of its duty.

“The screw may twist and the rack may turn.
And men may bleed and men may burn.
O’er London town and its golden hoard
I keep my silent watch and ward!”

Chorus. The screw may twist, & c …..

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