Chapel Royal of St Peter Ad Vincula Greater London hotels:

The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula was constructed early in the reign of Henry VIII (1509-47), after a fire in 1512 had destroyed the previous chapel on the site. The tower at the western end of the Chapel may be of Tudor date. It underwent heavy repair in 1670 and it is possible that the earlier tower was taken down and completely rebuilt. The exterior of the tower was covered with knapped flints set in hard mortar in Victorian times. From photographic evidence it is clear that this development took place before the major restoration of the Chapel in 1876-7. The Conservation Department repaired and conserved the stonework and flint knapping to the west elevation of the Chapel. The works aimed to: carefully remove cement-based mortar and re-point in a lime mortar; conserve and repair the deteriorating stonework replacing only where the original stone was so badly deteriorated that other stones were being damaged as a result; repair the flint knapped render to avoid further loss of the flints. Once on site a closer inspection of the existing render took place and it was found that the majority of the existing flint render had already failed, so complete removal was unavoidable. A detailed survey was then carried out, recording the original stone fabric of the tower and analysing the history of repair. There was evidence to show that the tower had not always been covered in a flint render. Indeed, the removal of the flint render revealed that there had been numerous interventions at various stages during the life of the building. Tudor burial place of Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard and Sir Thomas More. The chapel is open to the public for service on Sunday mornings, 0915, Holy Communion (said), 1100, Mattins and Sermon. Request duty Yeoman Warder to be admitted for services 15 minutes before time. Admittance to Tower of London is free of charge for purpose of attendance to Sunday Chapel services.