Tower of London reclaims ancient free-fire zone

LONDON (Reuters) - The historic Tower of London has reclaimed a free-fire zone around its walls once deemed vital for its survival.


The entire eastern side of the Tower, palace and fortress of the monarchs of England for nearly 1,000 years, has been fully revealed with the creation of a giant esplanade 50 metres wide and 200 metres long.


"This has reopened the old Tower Liberties -- a military free-fire zone, one arrow shot from the outer wall," said archaeologist Graham Keevil.


The Liberties were an area of clear ground running round the outside of the moat which ringed the Tower and which any attacker would have to cross under fire from the walls.


But over the centuries a clutter of buildings gradually encroached almost up to the edge of the moat, threatening to engulf the Tower, which was originally founded by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion in 1066.


The esplanade -- which will be opened by the Queen on Friday -- is the final phase of a project that has taken eight years and cost 20 million pounds.


Architect Alan Stanton, who cut his teeth on the ground-breaking Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1977, said the aim of the project had been to give back to the Tower some of the status it had once enjoyed in dominating the area.


"We have tried to put back the historic open space and some of the historic forms," he told Reuters.


The esplanade runs from the River Thames next to the old royal wharf up to Tower Hill where public executions were held.


Not only does the Tower hold the Crown Jewels, it was used to imprison and execute spies and traitors who incurred the royal wrath.


Two young princes were killed there in 1483 on the orders of their uncle Richard who wanted the throne; Henry VI was murdered there; Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn was beheaded there, and gunpowder plotter Guy Fawkes was tortured there in 1605.


The tower is currently working on plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary next year of the Roman Catholic Fawkes' plans to blow up parliament.