Sir Walter Ralegh

Number Seven Tower Green is a house on the site sometimes used as a home for Beefeaters serving at the Tower. There have been several reports of ghostly goings-on there, with Sir Walter Ralegh as the phantom culprit.

Eerie stories include an occupant terrified of taking a bath as she claimed to be physically touched by an entity that she believed was a man from the time of Ralegh. The next occupant mentally prepared himself for a visit, and on one night heard a loud click and the door leading from Raleigh’s Walk to his bedroom opened (part of Raleigh’s Walk, said to be where the prisoner took exercise, is now part of the house). He was understandably terrified.
 

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn, the most well-known wife of Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Green in 1536. Her ghost has often been seen both on the Green and also in the Chapel Royal in the White Tower.

It was in the Chapel that a Captain of the Guard saw a light burning late at night. Finding a ladder, he was able to look down on what was happening. This is how it was described in a 19th century account:

Slowly down the aisle moved a stately procession of Knights and Ladies, attired in ancient costumes; and in front walked an elegant female whose face was averted from him, but whose figure greatly resembled the one he had seen in reputed portraits of Anne Boleyn. After having repeatedly paced the chapel, the entire procession together with the light disappeared. (excerpt from Ghostly Visitors by "Spectre Stricken", London, 1882.)

Another sighting of Anne Boleyn is alleged in 1864 by a sentry standing guard at the Queen's house (built by Henry VIII as a royal palace for Anne Boleyn). The guard saw and challenged a white shape, veiled in mist, that he thought to be Anne Boleyn. The sentry then put his bayonet into the figure and claimed to have received shocking bolts that knocked him unconscious. This was witnessed by two onlookers who saw the whole event from a window of the Bloody Tower. 

Sir Thomas Beckett

Traitors' Gate, the water gate entrance for prisoners condemned after trial at Westminster, is also said to be home to a ghost. It dates from 1240 and there is a story that when the work was nearing completion on St George's day of that year, there was a great storm resulting in the gate collapsing.

The same thing happened a year later and an inquiry revealed that a priest claimed to have seen the ghost of Sir Thomas Becket (who was Constable there in 1162) striking the walls with a crucifix. He said the ghost was proclaiming that the new building was not for the common good but "for the injury and prejudice of the Londoners, my brethren". 

Since then its rooms have always had a reputation of being haunted. Doors open and close without reason, and the figure of a monk in a brown robe has been seen. Ghostly footsteps, including the distinctive slap of monastic sandals, are sometimes heard.

Also, an American visitor took a strange photograph at Traitor's Gate. She claimed there was no one there at the time but when the film was developed, there was a gloved hand with a silk cuff in the right hand corner. The photo was analysed and there was no evidence of tampering. 

Lady Jane Grey

Some prisoners were brave in the face of their death. Sixteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey was queen for nine days in 1553 before she was overthrown by her cousin, Mary Tudor, who ordered Grey and her husband put to death. Just before her beheading, the teenager delivered an articulate speech, then laid her head courageously upon the executioner's block.

Since then, Lady Jane's serene ghostly figure has been seen numerous times, especially on the anniversary of her death.  Others have seen her husband's weeping ghost in the Beauchamp Tower.

Princes in the tower

Perhaps the most poignant ghostly sighting is that of young King Edward V, aged 12, and his nine-year-old brother, Richard, Duke of York. The boys were taken to the Tower by Richard III and they disappeared in 1483, supposedly murdered by any one of a number of suspects who saw them as a threat. Their apparitions have been seen standing together, hand in hand, looking very lost. 

Guy Fawkes

Another ghostly tradition includes the screams of Guy Fawkes echoing through the tower, as they did when he was tortured before being hung, drawn and quartered.

Countess of Salisbury

The most gruesome execution and haunting is that of the 70-year-old Countess of Salisbury, the last of the Plantagenets, executed by King Henry VIII for political reasons. The defiant Countess refused to put her head on the block like a common traitor. When her executioner came after her she ran, but was pursued by him, with his axe in hand hacking at her until he had hewn the Countess to death.

Her ghost has been seen reliving this truly hideous act. The shadow of a great axe has also been seen falling across the scene of her murder.

And a bear!

At one time the Tower of London was home to the Royal Menagerie. Lions, leopards, bears, birds, monkeys and an elephant were among the exhibits. On the stroke of midnight one day in January of 1815 a sentry saw a bear from this menagerie emerge from a doorway. He lunged at it with his bayonet, but it passed straight through the apparition. The Sentry was later found unconscious, and it is said he died of fright within two months.