The Tower of London, an 18-acre fortress complex alongside the Thames river in England's capital city, dates all the way to the year 1078, in the Norman period, when William the Conqueror showed up in town and built a stronghold he thought would terrify Londoners into submitting to him.
It worked. The Tower, as it's called locally, became London's preferred site for high-profile executions. For hundreds of years, many a detached head was placed on many a pike outside the walls at Tower Hill as a warning to political opponents. The Tower survives to this day, attracting nearly 3 million tourists a year.
It's the safe place where they store the Crown Jewels, including the official crowns of the kings and queens of England as well as Cullinan I, the largest colorless cut diamond in the world.
There are still some gaps in the Tower's extraordinary history.
For example, what happened to the bodies of 12-year-old Edward V and his 9-year-old brother Richard, who were thrown into prison at the Tower in 1483 by their uncle, who seized the throne for himself? Was King Henry VI assassinated while at prayer in the fortress' Wakefield Tower in 1471, or did he die of "an excess of black bile," as government officials told the public?
Do Tower workers really keep seeing the ghosts of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII's six wives who were beheaded inside the fortress, or were all those reported sightings just grisly imagination?
And how did the Tower's world-famous resident ravens come to live inside its walls?
Actually, considering that ravens are passionate about devouring rotting corpses, maybe we shouldn’t look too closely at why those particular birds learned to hang around the Tower.
Instead, let’s look closely at the ravens themselves.
Which you can now do. For the first time, the Tower is selling special access to its ravens.
New way to meet the Tower of London's ravens
The Tower's torturous history may be spotty, but there is no doubt about the beloved position the Tower's ravens enjoy in English tradition.
It has been widely said since the reign of Charles II in the 1660s that if the ravens were to depart the Tower, then England would fall. Or as Kate Bush expressed it in "Oh England My Lionheart": Our thumping hearts hold the ravens in / Keep the Tower from tumbling.
At least six of the giant flinty-eyed birds are kept on hand at all times in their own pen (right now there are a total of eight ravens on-site), their wing feathers regularly clipped to discourage escape.
"The ravens are fed twice a day by our Ravenmaster and dine on a special diet of mice, chicks, rats and assorted raw meats," according to the Tower's human guardians, who are called Beefeaters. "As a special treat, they [the ravens] are given biscuits soaked in blood."
We'd rather have afternoon tea at The Goring or climb up to hear Big Ben bong, but if this sort of celebrity meat-and-greet is your idea of a good time, the Tower's new Ravens Experience is for you.
At 8am on Wednesdays and Fridays (meet at the "Middle drawbridge"), animal lovers and inveterate carnivores will have exclusive access to the birds, who will be introduced by the Ravenmaster in a 45-minute presentation.
Then you'll be on hand (but watch your fingers now that you know what they like to eat) as the ravens' cage is opened to let them out to wander the castle for the day.
Historic Royal Palaces, which operates the Tower for tourists (as it does Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace) says the new program allows visitors to "learn our Ravens’ names, discover their unique personalities, their feeding and care routines, and delve into the history, myths and traditions that have made them an enduring symbol of the Tower for centuries."
Tickets cost £90 ($122) for adults, £50 ($68) kids 5–17, £70 ($95) students and seniors. If that seems like a lot, bear in mind the ticket also includes admission to the Tower that's good all day. By itself, the Tower costs £37/£18.50/£29.50 ($50/$25/$40).
Booking the Ravens Experience comes with a big hidden benefit: Since the tour takes place at 8am, participants will be that day's first visitors at the Tower, which opens to everybody else at 9am.
That's a big deal, especially in peak tourist season, because once the other visitors arrive, the line to see the Crown Jewels can be positively epic (see below).
But if you're already inside the complex to see the ravens, you'll have a head start to the Jewels and more time to tour instead of wait in a queue. Joining the Ravens Experience is like buying first-in-line access with an avian benefit.
Tickets must be booked in advance—you can do that at the official Ravens Experience web page.
Jason Cochran is the author of the award-winning Frommer's London guidebook (paperback and e-book). The latest edition will be released Sept. 15, making it the newest London guidebook on the market.
