Refuge (United Kingdom charity)

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.

The Tower Hotel is a large hotel situated on the north bank of the River Thames, on the east side of Tower Bridge, in London. The hotel was designed by the Renton Howard Wood Partnership, constructed by Taylor Woodrow for owners J. Lyons & Co., and opened in September 1973 by the Constable of the Tower of London, Sir Richard Hull. It was built in a Brutalist style and was voted the second most hated building in London in a 2006 BBC poll.J. Lyons operated the hotel until July 1977 when it was sold for £6.5m to EMI Leisure. In 1980, EMI Leisure properties, including the Tower Hotel, were sold to Trusthouse Forte. The hotel was later acquired by the Thistle Hotels group. The hotel has 801 rooms, as well as 19 meeting rooms with capacity for up to 600 people. It also has a gym, restaurant, coffee bar, and licensed premises. The hotel is ultimately owned by Singapore-based GuocoLeisure which shifted the hotel into a separate luxury brand called Guoman Hotels, now GLH Hotels.It is frequently used for roof top filming due to its high level view of a skyline including Tower Bridge, Tower of London and the river.The nearest London Underground station is Tower Hill. Tower Gateway DLR station is also nearby.

Royal Mint Court is a building complex in East Smithfield, in London's East End, close to the City of London financial district. The site was the home of the Royal Mint from 1809 until 1967 and was earlier the site of a Cistercian abbey, built in 1348 and known in its time as Eastminster. Eastminster's foundations are relatively well preserved and visible in the partially open basement of the site.After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the 5.5 acre (2 hectare) property was used as a victualling yard for the Royal Navy, then as a tobacco warehouse, before becoming a mint in 1809. After the mint relocated, the site was redeveloped with a new office and residential block added to the complex alongside the two remaining Grade II listed mint buildings. In 2017, Royal Mint Court was again set to be redeveloped with plans for a new office, shopping and leisure complex. Planning permission was granted in July 2016. However, in May 2018 the site was sold to the People's Republic of China to be used for their new London embassy. Sir David Chipperfield was appointed as the architect for development of the site with some critics questioning if this was his most controversial job.

The Silver Jubilee Crystal Crown is a perspex sculpture by Arthur Fleischmann which has been displayed at the St Katharine Docks in London since the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977. A plaque nearby claims that it is the largest solid block of acrylic in the world. The Crystal Crown is made from a large block of transparent perspex measuring approximately 10 feet 9 inches (328 cm) by 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) by 8 inches (20 cm) and weighting about 2 tons. The block was cast by Stanley Plastics, having been commissioned by Stanley Kubrick to be used as the monolith in his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Kubrick rejected the transparent block in favour of an opaque plywood structure painted black. Fleischmann acquired the unused perspex block after MGM's Borehamwood studio closed in 1970. Working in a temporary studio at St Katharine Docks, Fleischmann carved away on one side of the block, excavating a crown surrounded by the rays of a sunburst. The completed work was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 5 June 1977 as part of the celebration of her Silver Jubilee, mounted inside the colonnade of the Coronarium Chapel at the docks in London. The Coronarium was roofed over and converted into a coffee shop in 2000, and the Crystal Crown was moved and mounted on the side of the Tower Hotel as part of a lightbox that is backlit at night.

St Katharine's by the Tower (full name Royal Hospital and Collegiate Church of St. Katharine by the Tower) was a medieval church and hospital next to the Tower of London. The establishment was founded in 1147 and the buildings demolished in 1825 to build St Katharine Docks, which takes its name from it. It was re-established elsewhere in London and 123 years later returned once more to the East End. The church was a royal peculiar and the precinct around it was an extra-parochial area, eventually becoming a civil parish, which was dissolved in 1895. The royal peculiar survives to the present day as the Royal Foundation of St Katharine. It is currently a Danish Lutheran Church.

The Keys, more frequently known as the Yeoman Warders Club, is a non-public pub in the Tower of London, in England, open only to the members of the Yeomen Warders, and their guests. The Yeomen Warders, who are known colloquially as the "Beefeaters", are the guards of the Tower of London; as of 2020 there were 37 Beefeaters. Beefeaters generally live in the Tower along with their families, which led to the existence of a dedicated pub. The current name of the pub, "The Keys", refers to a nightly locking-up ritual in the Tower; the name is a recent change, and the establishment was historically known as the Yeoman Warders Club. Though numerous pubs used to exist in the Tower, this is the only remaining one, and is about 150 years old. The pub serves several unique drinks, including a "Beefeater bitter" and "Yeoman 1485" beers (1485 refers to the year the Beefeaters were founded). It also features copious amounts of Beefeater Gin. The pub enforces a strict formal dress code. Though usually only open to Warders and their guests, it is often made accessible to the public during the annual Open House London. Business Insider notes that it might be the "most exclusive pub in the world".The pub features elegant red leather seating, and a highly detailed carpet that includes symbols of the British Monarchy. The interior is decorated with uniforms of the Beefeaters, as well as various historical artifacts from the Tower of London. Prominent among those is a signature of Rudolf Hess, who was imprisoned in the Tower during World War II. A Yeoman executioner's axe also hangs on the wall, along with a sign that marked execution spots. The pub also hosts a collection of silver goblets, which are used to swear in new recruits; the Beefeaters traditionally toast the new recruit by saying "May you never die a Yeoman Warder." The phrase originates from a now defunct custom of Beefeaters selling their position to another person when they retired; but if they died in office, the Tower would earn money from selling the vacant post instead.

Eastminster, also known as New Abbey, St Mary Graces, and other variants, was a Cistercian abbey on Tower Hill at East Smithfield in London. It was founded by Edward III in 1350 immediately outside the Roman London Wall in what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It stood just to the north of an older royal foundation, the Hospital and Collegiate Church of St Katharine by the Tower. Among the abbey's endowments was the reversion of one of the four manors of Shere in Gomshall, Surrey, given by King Edward III in 1350. This manor acquired the name Towerhill, due to its patronage by the abbey.In 1375, Sir Nicholas de Loveyne bequeathed to the Abbot and Convent the reversion of the mills of Crash Mills, to endow the perpetual singing of masses for the donor. Crash Mills were situated on the River Thames, near East Smithfield.The Abbey's benefactors were mainly courtiers; it attracted relatively few bequests from the merchants of the City of London.The abbey was dissolved in 1538. From 1805 to 1966 the site was the home of the Royal Mint, after which it was renamed as Royal Mint Court and used for offices. A large-scale excavation of the site of the abbey took place between 1983 and 1988. An analysis of the archaeological and documentary evidence uncovered has been published by Museum of London Archaeology.

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a public art installation created in the moat of the Tower of London, England, between July and November 2014. It commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The ceramic artist was Paul Cummins, with conceptual design by the stage designer Tom Piper. The work's title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in World War I.

Beyond the Deepening Shadow: The Tower Remembers was an artistic installation at the Tower of London in November 2018, to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War. Each evening in the week before Remembrance Day, 10,000 torches were lit in the moat of the tower, after an opening ceremony of a bugle call, minute of silence and reveille. The torches remained lit for several hours while loudspeakers broadcast a soundscape composed by Mira Calix, based on a sonnet written by nurse Mary Borden to a British officer at the Somme. The event was conceived by Tom Piper and directed by Anna Morrissey.The installation was similar to Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, an installation of poppies at the Tower which commemorated the start of the war. That was so popular that crowd control measures were organised to control the large number of spectators.

Tower Bridge Quay previously St. Katharine's Pier, is a river transport pier on the River Thames, in London, UK. It is owned & operated by Woods River Cruises trading as Woods’ Silver Fleet and served by various river transport and cruise operators. It is situated on the north bank of the Thames, on the east side of Tower Bridge, and immediately in front of the Thistle Tower Hotel. The pier is about ten minutes walk from Tower Hill Underground station. St. Katharine's Pier should not be confused with the nearby St Katharine Docks, which is a private yacht marina and residential area.

The White Tower is a central tower, the old keep, at the Tower of London. It was built by William the Conqueror during the early 1080s, and subsequently extended. The White Tower was the castle's strongest point militarily, provided accommodation for the king and his representatives, and housed a chapel. Henry III ordered the tower whitewashed in 1240.

St Katharine Docks is a former dock and now a mixed-used district in Central London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and within the East End. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. From 1828 to 1968, it was one of the commercial docks that made up the Port of London. It is in the redevelopment zone known as Docklands and is now a popular housing and leisure complex.