The Traitor's Gate

The dreaded Traitor's Gate, as seen from both sides here, was the gate that brought the most famed prisoners to the place where they would generally be executed. Seen from the bridge side (outside), a boat would bring the prisoner under the bridge and into the shelter of the Tower directly from the Thames. Seen from the gate side (inside the Tower), the boats would be drawn up to these ominous gates and rowed to the inner edge, where they would climb a concrete staircase on the way to their imprisonment. It is the most ominous portion of a visit to the Tower on a bright sunny Monday morning.

Ominous due to the difference in the meaning of 'traitor' to an American as compared to a subject of the historical Kings (and Queens) of England. A traitor, to an American, is one who has conspired to overthrow the lawful government and is a felon deserving punishment. While the words would be the same in British history, when the government is the reigning monarch, the actual working definition of 'traitor' might be anyone who irritated the monarch. Considering the names our Yeoman Warder mentioned, anyone who crossed Henry VIII or Bloody Mary or Richard III would have been legally considered a traitor and would have been executed. A chilling bit of history.