Hello and welcome back to the Historic Royal Palaces podcast.

I'm Charles Varys and I'm a curator and historian here at the Palaces.

Today marks the first episode in a new mini-series to celebrate the reopening of the medieval palace at the Tower of London.

In the 13th century, the Tao was expanded dramatically to become the awe-inspiring fortress

we recognise today.

It's also during this period, in the 1240s, that the iconic Norman White Tower was first whitewashed,

giving it its famous name.

But what place did the tower hold in medieval society?

And how is it used by the kings, queens and communities who lived and worked in its mighty shadow?

And what did their world look like?

To find out more, let's venture into the Tower of London's medieval palace.

So I'm here at the Tower of London. It's busy and bustling as ever.

You can probably hear noises from the river and the road and perhaps the old Yeoman

water walking around, making sure everything's under control.

And I'm stood in front of St Thomas's Tower,

a grand medieval gatehouse built by Edward I.

And I'm stood on, I should have said, what is now called Water Lane.

It would have once upon the time been the River Thames itself

before Edward I pushed the tower out into the river in order to build

this impressive gatehouse I see before me. Now behind me you can see the Wakefield Tower

and the Lansthorn Tower which I'm going to be talking about a little bit later and these are on

the edge of what we call the innermost ward of the tower of london

...