THE TOWER OF LONDON.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1126, 17 December 1883, Page 2

THE TOWER OF LONDON.

A Committee for the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings has (says a London correspondent) presented to that body a report on the operations being carried out at the Tower of London, which will be read with dismay L j antiquarians. The committee state that they bare noticed more than once the continued restorations at the Towerj many strange things having been done there, both in scraping anchmt work and in new building, designed to give n mediaeval aspect to the residence of our Norman and Tudor Kings, The worst of all the attempts of this kind is now in progress. It is nothing less than the creation of a new tower to replace that which for 300 years contained the private apartments of the King, when he occupied the tower. Not a stone of the ancient tower remains, nor is there any guide to its appearance beyond what may be assumed from the design of other lowers built by Henry 111. The only excuse for the new buildings is the want of accomodation for the War Office officials, and the committee justly think that the destruction for such a purpose of one of the most interesting of English national monuments is deplorable. Their protests, they add, have been fruitless, and they have the additional regret of knowing that the scheme under which the large warehouses fronting the river have been pulled down involves also the the destruction of a little house known as the Record Keeper’s Office for the last 150 years, though it is certainly far older than that. :