LONDON BRIDGE AND THE IMPALED HEADS

Erected in 1999, most days, hundreds if not thousands of travellers and tourists pass an eighty-foot high, slanted grey stone spike at the southern end of London Bridge. Most people walk past it, but the feature has a great deal of historical meaning as it remembers a dark era of over three hundred years, when traitors’ heads were put on spikes for all of London to see. This cheery London ritual began around 1300 A.D.

When the bridge was built, it contained contemporary features such as a drawbridge and defensive gates on either side. It also included public toilets and was packed retail shops. The north gatehouse was the first notorious site when, in 1305, the head of William Wallace was attached to the top of a spike. The Scotsman was found guilty of leading a campaign against Edward I. After the beheading, his body was torn to pieces. William’s head was then set on London Bridge. His arms and legs were sent to the four corners of Britain, as a warning to others. The southern gate was ultimately designated to serve the macabre scene for his head because it was more visible to the public.

To guarantee the longevity of the heads, they were parboiled, covered in pitch, and looked after by the Keeper of the Heads. One of Shakespeare’s colleagues stated he saw thirty heads on the bridge in 1599, observing the wilful smugness noblemen sensed at seeing the traitor’s heads on sticks. Shakespeare himself may well have seen the head of plotter Guy Fawkes when passing over the bridge on his way to the Globe theatre.

The heads served as a warning to anybody, thinking of challenging the Crown, and bizarrely at the same time, the heads became a tourist fascination. Attracting visitors from all over the place. Some sources use the word ‘pike’ rather than ‘spike’ to portray the heads on display. Therefore, denoting an infantry weapon with a steel spike on a long wooden shaft, rather than just a sharp point. The pike was undoubtedly in use throughout the period and it seems likely that these devices would have been accessible and at hand for head impaling and spectacle purposes.

In 1598, a German visitor to London called Paul Hentzner totalled up thirty heads on the iron spikes at the south end of the bridge. Once put on the spike on one of the gates at the ends of the Bridge, they were left to the elements to rot. Then, eventually, the heads fell in the Thames.

In 1450, Jack Cade led a rebellious army but failed to defeat the government. So, his head was put up on London Bridge for all to see. His effort was crushed, because he lost the support of the people, after raping many of the locals.

After came Thomas More, who would not accept Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of England. Then Guy Fawkes’ head made the stake after the Gun-Powder plot of 1605. And when the King was restored after Cromwell’s reign, some of those who had signed the death warrant of Charles I also suffered this chilling fate.

The Keeper of the Heads had full managerial control over this section of the Bridge. He was responsible for boiling, bathing them in hot tar to stave off rot, and staking them on top of the gate. After two to three weeks of satisfactory spectacle, the keeper detached the weather-beaten skulls from view. When the original bridge was pulled down, workers found many of the old skulls in the mud at the foot of the bridge. The exercise of putting the heads on London Bridge was ended in 1678 when the heads of most traitors were then displayed at Temple Bar instead.