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This gate was the water entrance for the prisoners who were condemned. It was built in 1240 by Henry III.
This expansion of the Tower defenses is the source of one of the first ghost story
about the tower. When the work was almost done, there was a storm that caused
the gate to collapse. A year later, after the section was rebuilt, the same thing happened.
A priest claimed to have seen the spirit of Sir Thomas Becket strike the walls with a crucifix. He said that the ghost
stated that the building was not for the common good, but for "the injury and prejudice of the Londoners, my brethren."
Since the King's father had caused St. Thomas Becket's death, the kind ordered a small oratory in the tower of the new section dedicated to St.
Thomas Becket.
This may have pacified the spirit of Becket, but the rooms in this section have a
haunted reputation. Doors open and close on their own, and the figure of a monk in a brown habit
has been seen and the slap of a monk's sandals have been heard echoing in the empty rooms.
Anne Boleyn, the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII entered this gate in 1536 after she was
convicted of treasonable adultery. Her ghost has been seen in various locations in the Tower, such as Tower Green, the
Queen's House and the Chapel Royal. She gets around quite a bit, for a ghost! she has also been
reported to haunt her childhood home in Kent, Hever Castle
In December 1995, an American tourist took a picture of the Traitor's Gate when she visited the Tower.
When she had her film developed, a hand can be clearly seen in the foreground. Research showed that the style of sleeve
above the hand was that of a 16th century Yeoman Warder Uniform. I have seen this picture and on the print that I saw it did not look very real, but it is hard to say based
on a reproduction of a photo printed in a book. | |||
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