Church of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower Hamlets

St Peter ad Vincula stands inside the Tower of London’s Inner Ward, a small chapel with a short west tower topped by a lantern bell-cote. The present building dates from 1520, though the church was probably founded in the 12th century. It served the Tower’s working residents and became the second chapel after St John’s, built into the White Tower. As a royal peculiar, the chapel remains under the monarch’s direct jurisdiction, with the Tower’s chaplain as its priest. The canonry was abolished in 1685 but restored in 2012. Its plain Tudor windows with cusped lights let in soft light over the nave and north aisle. The chapel is best known as the burial place of some of the Tower’s most famous prisoners. Executed figures lie beneath its floors, including Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley. Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, later canonised as martyrs, are also interred here. The church holds monuments to key figures like Sir Richard Cholmondeley, who rebuilt it after a fire in 1512. A 17th-century organ carved by Grinling Gibbons adds to the interior’s quiet grandeur. A list on the west wall records notable burials from 1534 to 1747. Visitors step into a space shaped by centuries of history. The nave leads past simple wooden pews to the sanctuary where royal prisoners once knelt before execution. The north-west corner holds a memorial to John Holland, Duke of Exeter, Constable of the Tower. Under the central arcade lies Cholmondeley’s effigy, marking the spot where he oversaw the rebuilding. The church’s plain walls and low ceilings focus attention on its sombre memorials. Outside, the Inner Ward’s stone walls enclose this quiet chapel, a place where power and tragedy once met.