Visit London -Tower of London

Barney Chandler è un beefeater, ovvero uno dei guardiani della famosa Tower of London, ascoltatelo parlare del suo lavoro e di Londra!

Barney Chandler (Standard British accent)

So the body of Yeoman Warders consists of 37 of us that form the Queen’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard In Extraordinary, but we’re probably better known as Beefeaters. By tradition, we have to live here in this, one of her royal palaces. Really nobody knows why we’re called Beefeaters. It comes from the Tudor period, we know that, and we know that we used to be paid partly in fresh meat from the monarch. There have been ravens here since the reign of Charles II, so we’re looking at the 1660s. Merlin’s my favourite, but yesterday we were getting on OK, she’ll come up to me, eat out of my hand, be quite affectionate with us, however I tried to do the same half an hour ago and she nearly took my finger off. There’s a legend that says, and we stick by it, that says if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the White Tower, over there, will crumble to dust and a huge disaster befall the queen and England. The one special thing for me is the Ceremony of the Keys. It’s the traditional locking up of the Tower of London. Without doubt it’s the oldest ceremony of its kind in the world, having been performed every night without exception for over 730 years. People come to see the likes of Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, but London’s got a lot more than that, it goes a lot further back, it’s deeper. We’ve got tradition in the soldiers, the guards outside, pieces of Rome, Roman walls. This is the world’s best city. There is something for everybody here. It’s the most vibrant, exciting place on the face of the earth. I absolutely love it.

For more visit: www.visitlondon.com