Tower Hill Memorial

You are standing in Trinity Square Gardens, a place that holds two distinct layers of memory. While the Tower of London nearby was often used for private, royal executions, the ground beneath your feet at Tower Hill was the site of the public scaffold. Historians estimate that around one hundred and twenty-five people were executed here in brutal displays of state power. This included rebels, religious martyrs, and powerful courtiers who were beheaded, hanged, or worse in front of thousands of spectators. A memorial plaque nearby lists the names of twenty-nine of those who died on this exact spot, including figures like the Earl of Strafford and Lord Lovat, the latter of whom was the last person to be beheaded on this hill in seventeen forty-seven.