Jewel Tower

When you’re walking down past the Westminster Abbey to get some really cool pictures of the Parliament house and you notice this really old 3 story house, it’s the Jewel Tower.
This tower dates back from the 14^th century. It’s now run by the English Heritage so it’s now a museum. The London Pass gets you in for free, but it’s pretty cheap already if you don’t have the pass.
Because this tower is right across the street from the Parliament, the exhibit inside the tower pretty much talks about the Parliament, the laws, and how the Parliament it is at the present time.
So you get to know a little bit of history and you know how laws are passed in Britain. Neat stuff.

The Jewel Tower in London dates back over 700 years and is one of only two surviving sections of the medieval Royal Palace of Westminster, the other being Westminster Hall. It was built in approximately 1365 to house the treasures of Edward III and its alternative name was the King’s Privy Wardrobe.
It is a small three storey building constructed of stone, which stands across the road from the current Palace of Westminster. The bottom floor of the tower features a 14^th century ribbed vault. It was located at the far southern end of the palace complex, and was built into the palace’s defensive walls but was detached from the main buildings, which explains its survival of the great fire of 1834 which destroyed most of the palace.
It displays an exhibition about the history of Parliament ‘Parliament Past and Present’, and the second floor includes panels telling the story of this small but important building. The third floor continues with the more modern role of the tower as the home HQ of the British weights and measures.
It currently costs £3.20 to enter (adults). This is a bit expensive, even for london, for what you actually get. Apart from a few display boards, albeit new, and a few artifacts from history, you will be in and out within 20 mins and onto your next site. The site contains a small shop but no visitor toilets.

This is only one of the two surviving remnants of the great Royal Palace of Westminster. The new display panels tell an intriguing story of the tower over the centuries right through to today. It was originally built as a moated medieval tower in 1365 as a treasury to safe-​guard royal valuables and rich robes.