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50 free Tower of London trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Tower of London has been a palace, a prison, a mint, a zoo, an armoury, a record office and the strongroom for the Crown Jewels, and at various points all of those at once. William the Conqueror founded it at the end of 1066 to overawe the Londoners; Henry III and Edward I built the concentric fortress that stands today; the Tudors turned it into the grim prison of legend, even though only seven people were executed inside its walls before the 20th century. This quiz walks the wards: the White Tower and its Kentish ragstone, the Bloody Tower and Traitors' Gate, the Beauchamp Tower's first bricks since the Romans, the Jewel House and Colonel Blood's near-theft, the polar bear that fished in the Thames, Ranulf Flambard's escape down a rope smuggled in a wine barrel, and the ravens that must never leave. It ends with the Blitz, the last execution in 1941 and the charity that runs the place today. Fifty sourced questions from easy to hard, each with an explanation that adds one more stone to the story.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which river does the Tower of London stand?
Thames
It sits on the north bank, tucked into the south-east corner of the old Roman city walls.
Q 02Which king founded the Tower of London in 1066?
William the Conqueror
London yielded to him without a fight that December, and he built the castle to "overawe the Londoners".
Q 03Which building gives the whole castle its name?
The White Tower
Work on the keep began around 1078; it was whitewashed from 1240, which is how it got its colour and name.
Q 04Which London borough contains the fortress?
Tower Hamlets
The open space of Tower Hill separates it from the eastern edge of the City's square mile.
Q 05Which bishop did William make responsible for building the White Tower?
Gundulf of Rochester
It may not have been finished until after William's death in 1087, and was the earliest stone keep in England.
Q 06Who was the first recorded prisoner in the Tower, and also the first to escape?
Ranulf Flambard
In 1101 he got his captors drunk at a banquet and climbed down a rope smuggled in inside a butt of wine.
Q 07Which three kings oversaw the main phases of the Tower's expansion?
Richard I, Henry III and Edward I
The general layout has not changed since Edward I finished his rebuild in 1285.
Q 08How many concentric rings of defensive walls surround the Tower?
Two
The inner ward came under Richard I and the outer under Edward I, with a moat beyond.
Q 09What is the main building stone of the White Tower?
Kentish ragstone
Caen stone from Normandy was imported for the facing, but was largely replaced with Portland stone in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Q 10How tall is the White Tower at its southern battlements?
27 metres
It measures 36 by 32 metres at the base and was originally three storeys; the top floor was added in the 15th century.
Q 11Which place of worship occupies the south-east corner of the White Tower?
St John's Chapel
Archbishop Simon Sudbury sought sanctuary there during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, but was dragged out and beheaded.
Q 12The Beauchamp Tower marks Britain's first large-scale use of what since the Romans?
Brick
It replaced the old gatehouse in the west wall and later became famous for prisoners' carved inscriptions.
Q 13How many towers stud the inner ward's curtain wall?
13
Clockwise from the south-west they run Bell, Beauchamp, Devereux, Flint, Bowyer, Brick, Martin, Constable, Broad Arrow, Salt, Lanthorn, Wakefield and Bloody.
Q 21Which Gunpowder Plotter was tortured at the Tower before confessing in November 1605?
Guy Fawkes
Torture needed Privy Council sanction; only 48 cases were recorded between 1540 and 1640.
Q 22The rack was nicknamed the "daughter" of which Constable who introduced it in 1447?
The Duke of Exeter
The Scavenger's daughter and manacles were the other two common instruments.
Q 23Which Elizabethan courtier's Tower rooms were altered so his family could live with him?
Walter Raleigh
His son was born in the Tower in 1605; high-status prisoners could buy better food and even tapestries.
Q 14Which building got its grim name from the legend of the murdered princes?
The Bloody Tower
It began life as a simple water-gate with a portcullis, giving access from the Thames.
Q 15St Thomas's Tower, built by Edward I as a river entrance, is better known as what?
Traitors' Gate
Its only close parallel was the demolished water-gate at the Louvre in Paris.
Q 16The royal bow-maker's workshop gave its name to which building?
Bowyer Tower
The bowyer made longbows, crossbows, catapults and other siege weapons; the Bell Tower housed the alarm belfry.
Q 17How many people were executed inside the Tower before the 20th century?
Seven
Executions were usually held on Tower Hill outside, where 112 took place over 400 years.
Q 18How many executions took place on Tower Hill over four centuries?
112
Tower Green inside was reserved for prisoners whose public execution was deemed too dangerous, such as Lady Jane Grey.
Q 19Which queen of Henry VIII was beheaded at the Tower in 1536?
Anne Boleyn
Her ghost is said to walk the White Tower with her head under her arm, as a 1934 comic song recounts.
Q 20On what date was Lady Jane Grey executed at the Tower?
12 February 1554
Days later Mary I locked up her sister Elizabeth, suspected of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion.
Q 24Who became the first woman imprisoned in the Tower, in 1321?
Margaret de Clare
Baroness Badlesmere had refused Queen Isabella entry to Leeds Castle and had her archers fire on the royal party.
Q 25Which baron escaped the Tower in 1323 through a hole hacked in his cell wall?
Roger Mortimer
He fled to France, began an affair with Edward II's queen and returned to overthrow the king.
Q 26Who was the last monarch to process from the Tower to Westminster Abbey for a coronation?
Charles II
That was 1661; the lodgings were so decayed he did not even sleep there the night before.
Q 27In the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, who was dragged from sanctuary in the Tower and beheaded?
Archbishop Simon Sudbury
The mob broke in unopposed while Richard II was out meeting Wat Tyler, and looted the Jewel House.
Q 28Which king was imprisoned in the Tower and probably murdered there in 1471?
Henry VI
Richard II had also been held in the White Tower, in 1399, before abdicating to Henry Bolingbroke.
Q 29Bones thought to be the Princes in the Tower were found in which year?
1674
They turned up when a 12th-century forebuilding at the White Tower entrance was demolished.
Q 30How old was Edward V when he was confined to the Tower in 1483?
12
He and his brother Richard were last seen in public that June; their uncle became Richard III.