On the western edge of Trinity Square Gardens, you will find a small square with a horrific history. This was almost the exact site of the Tower Hill Scaffold, where more than 125 people were put to death.
Executions took place at this site from around the 1380s through to 1780, when executions were moved to Tyburn.
Although Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury and Sir Robert Hales are listed as having been executed here, in 1381, the official records state that Sir Simon de Burley, K.G., was the first person executed here, in 1388.
The executions were highly ceremonial, with the ceremony often beginning the night before. Often prisoners would be taken by horse and cart, through the streets, being fed ale or mead, on their way to the scaffold. People would line the streets, often hurling vegetables, sometimes stones, at the poor wretch who was about to die.
Once at the scaffold site, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people would gather with their families, to witness the execution.
All of these were public executions, with various methods being employed to dispatch the condemned.
