At the beginning of the nineteenth century about 15,000 people visited the Tower of London each year to enjoy a spectacle which had taken shape over the previous century and a half. Patriotic tableaux, trophies of victory, vast arrays of arms and armour, the menagerie and the Crown Jewels were what took the eye; the fabric of the Tower was little more than a backdrop for these splendours and curiosities. By the end of the century, there were more than 400,000 visitors each year, and they came primarily to experience the Tower itself, the associations and ambience of its buildings, as the ‘stone epitome of England’s history’.1