page_title: Jewel Tower
section_title: Tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Jewel Tower / History / 19th–21st centuries / Post-war and 21st century / Tourism
caption_attribution_description: English: https://www.flickr.com/photos/evocateur/
context_page_description: The Jewel Tower is a 14th-century surviving element of the Palace of Westminster, in London, England. It was built between 1365 and 1366, under the direction of William of Sleaford and Henry de Yevele, to house the personal treasure of King Edward III. The original Tower was a three-storey, crenellated stone building which occupied a secluded part of the Palace and was protected by a moat linked to the River Thames. The ground floor featured elaborate sculpted vaulting, described by historian Jeremy Ashbee as "an architectural masterpiece". The Tower continued to be used for storing the monarch's treasure and personal possessions until 1512, when a fire in the Palace caused King Henry VIII to relocate his court to the nearby Palace of Whitehall.
  At the end of the 16th century the House of Lords began to use the Tower to store its parliamentary records, building a house alongside it for the use of the parliamentary clerk, and extensive improvements followed in 1621. The Tower continued as the Lords' records office through the 18th century and several renovations were carried out to improve its fire-proofing and comfort, creating the present appearance of the Tower.
context_section_description: In the 21st century the Jewel Tower is managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, and protected under UK law as an Ancient Monument and a Grade I Listed Building. In 1987 the Jewel Tower and the surrounding site of Westminster Palace were declared a World Heritage site, the UN noting that the tower formed one of the "precious vestiges of medieval times" in the area.
  Between 2007 and 2012 an average of 30,000 visitors came to the tower each year, with non-English speaking visitors making up a high proportion. The architecture of the tower has made it a challenging site to operate as a tourist attraction; the fluctuating heat and humidity, and capacity constraints, have prevented it being adapted to house more delicate historical artefacts or accommodate additional visitor numbers.
  Archaeologists have recovered over 400 objects associated with the tower, and various Delftware drinking jars and an Iron Age sword are displayed inside, along with a set of historiated capitals, described by the historian Jeremy Ashbee as "important and rare examples of English Romanesque sculpture", originating from the Westminster Hall of the 1090s, and a set of weights and measures, on loan from the Science Museum.
caption: Archaeological exhibits associated with the tower on display
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