London Buildings West End The Jewel TowerThe Jewel Tower
The Jewel Tower in London is one of only four surviving sections of the medieval royal Palace of Westminster, the others being 
Westminster Hall, the cloisters and chapter house of St. Stephen's and the chapel of St. Mary's Undercroft. It was built in approximately 1365 to house the treasures of Edward III and its alternative name was the "King's Privy Wardrobe". Its purpose was to store the King's private jewels, gold and silver. The existing King's Privy Wardrobe at the Tower of London was filled with munitions at the time, needed for the war against France (The Hundred Years War).
It is a small three storey building constructed of Kentish rag stone with Portland stone dressed windows, which stands across the road from the current Palace of Westminster (home of the British Parliament). 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. The remains of a moat can be seen next to the tower, which was there to protect the contents against both thieves and fire (another reason why it survived the blaze of 1834).
The Jewel Tower was built in what was the Privy Garden of the Royal Apartments and was seen as an encroachment on Westminster Abbey's grounds at the time. Keeper of the Privy Palace - William Usshebourne, choked from a fishbone stuck in his throat shortly after construction. The pike had been caught in the Jewel Tower's moat and the monks of the Abbey saw it as divine retribution for the unwelcome trespass onto hallowed ground.
The Jewel Tower is managed by English Heritage and contains exhibitions about "Parliament Past and Present" and weights and measures. Between 1621 and 1864 the historic records of the House of Lords were stored here; they are now in the Victoria Tower (the tall part of Westminster Palace, over the road). After 1864, the Jewel Tower became the Office of the Standards Department, which stored official weights and measures (hence the exhibition), but bomb damage during the second world war led to its restoration and subsequent opening to the public.
Dan Cruickshank explains what happened to the original palace of Westminster and its subsequent replacement by Barry & Pugin
The Jewel Tower, Abingdon Street, London, SW1P 3JY
