Tower of London scaffold site inscription

What it is

This is a modern photograph, taken on 27 October 2005, of the site of a scaffold in front of St Peter's Chapel at the Tower of London. A dark metal plaque on a post names the people executed on this spot. Anne Boleyn is listed as the second wife of Henry VIII, executed on 19 May 1536. The plaque also names Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, Katherine Howard, Jane, Viscountess Rochford, Lady Jane Grey and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and notes that Lord Hastings was beheaded near the spot in 1483. The photograph was uploaded by a Commons user named August.

Why it matters

The plaque shows how the Tower was used as a place of execution for people of high rank. It also shows how later generations chose to remember these deaths. The record connects Anne Boleyn with other queens, nobles and royal relatives who died here, so students can see her fate as part of a wider pattern of Tudor power struggles.

Look closer

• Why do you think the plaque lists so many names and dates rather than a single story?
• Who wrote the inscription, and what might they have wanted visitors to remember?
• What does this photograph leave out about the people who died here and how they experienced their final moments?