Anti-terrorist measures aim to tighten Tower security

04 June 2008

What one of the new barriers will look like approaching The Tower

By Julia Gregory

BEEFEATERS are beefing up security at the Tower of London against the threat of car bombs.

Tower officials want to install anti-terrorist bollards around the historic tourist attraction.

The Tower was identified in two security reports from the Security Services and Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorist branch as a potential risk from car bombs.

The royal palace now wants to put up metal security gates and reinforced stone bollards to deter would-be bombers.

Its planning application to Tower Hamlets Council says: "This project seeks to deter terrorists from mounting vehicle-bourn explosive attacks against The Tower."

They want the measures installed at four spots around Tower Hill near the main entrance and ticket office and at Tower Wharf.

English Heritage has approved the scheme. Now Tower officials are hoping for support from Heritage Lottery for the measures which would take four months to install.

The Tower of London is Britain's most popular tourist attraction, with two million visitors in 2006 alone.

It has been the target of terrorist action in the past. A woman tourist was killed and 41 others injured when a bomb exploded in The White Keep in the summer of 1974.

No group ever claimed responsibility, but the IRA was suspected at the time because of their bomb attack at the Houses of Parliament a month earlier.

The Tower was closed to the public during the Second World War and the Crown Jewels were removed for safe-keeping.

There is an Army presence today at The Tower for security... and especially to protect the Crown Jewels.

Beefeaters make a nightly procession around the palace as part of the tradition of 'keeping the Queen's Keys' that goes back centuries.