The Ravens of the Tower
If the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the kingdom falls. The story behind Britain's strangest state tradition, and the birds paid to keep it standing.
Illustrative image.
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The United Kingdom officially employs six ravens. Their job, according to legend, is to prevent the collapse of the kingdom, because the old prophecy says that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the White Tower will crumble and the Crown will fall with it.
A prophecy with a payroll
The Tower takes no chances. There are always at least six ravens on duty, plus a spare, cared for by a dedicated Yeoman Warder called the Ravenmaster. The birds are fed raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, live in their own lodgings beside the White Tower, and have one wing lightly trimmed, just enough to keep them from leaving. They are enlisted like soldiers, and one raven was famously dismissed from service for unsatisfactory conduct: it ate a television aerial.
Where the story comes from
The romantic version credits King Charles II, who was supposedly warned in the 1600s that removing the ravens would doom the kingdom, and ordered them protected. Historians have hunted for evidence and found almost none; the earliest solid records of the legend date only to the late 1800s, and some suspect the Victorians invented it, weaving together the Tower's grim history of executions with the ravens that really did scavenge around the fortress. Older still is the Welsh myth of Bran the Blessed, whose name means raven, and whose severed head was said to be buried under the White Tower facing France, guarding Britain forever. Whether the legend is ancient or Victorian, the Tower has decided it is not worth testing.
It nearly happened
The closest call came during the Second World War, when bombing left the Tower with a single surviving raven, named Grip. Churchill is said to have ordered the flock brought back up to strength at once. The kingdom, for the record, did not fall.
Seeing them yourself
- The Tower of London - the ravens strut freely around Tower Green, usually near the White Tower; the Ravenmaster's talks are worth catching.
- Tower Bridge - the classic view over the fortress and the Thames is a two-minute walk away.
- Westminster Abbey - a thousand years of coronations that the ravens have, so far, kept safe.
A London legend day
The Tower rewards a full morning, and London rewards comfortable feet: the city sightseeing kit is built for exactly this kind of day, and a slim anti-theft daypack makes the crowds around the Crown Jewels less of a worry. Book Tower tickets ahead; the queue believes in the legend too.
Six ravens, one spare, one kingdom. So far, the arrangement holds.
