Severndroog Castle — the widow's tower on the gallows hill

London · United Kingdom · Tower

Lady James raised a triangular Gothic tower to her dead husband on Shooter's Hill — London's most notorious robbers' road.

High in Oxleas Wood on Shooter's Hill stands a strange triangular brick tower with hexagonal turrets at each corner. Lady Anne James had it built in 1784, the year after her husband Commodore Sir William James died, as a monument to his assault on the Indian fortress of Suvarnadurg — anglicised as Severndroog. People called it Lady James's Folly. It was filled with the weapons and trophies he had brought home and used for banquets up among the clouds. But the ground it rose on was already infamous: Shooter's Hill was for centuries London's worst highway for footpads and highwaymen, and gibbets stood along the crest with tarred bodies hanging as a warning to travellers. A monument to one death, built on a hill full of them.

FAQ

Where is Severndroog Castle — the widow's tower on the gallows hill located?

Severndroog Castle — the widow's tower on the gallows hill is in London, United Kingdom.

More haunted places in London

• Eltham Palace London · Palace
• Syon House — the night the king's coffin split London · Palace
• Shooter's Hill London · Road
• Croydon Minster — the archbishop who finds no rest London · Church
• Cross Bones Graveyard London · Cemetery
• The Rose and Crown (Enfield) Enfield, London · Pub
• White Webbs, Enfield Chase — the Gunpowder Plot's hiding place London · Forest
• 284 Green Street — the Enfield Poltergeist London · House

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Veghead · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons