Hatfield Church

Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill

Aug 10th, 2009

Henry VIII Dressed to Kill During a recent visit to London we visited the Henry VIII: Dressed to kill exhibition at the Tower of London.

Displayed over 3 floors of the historic White Tower, this exhibition celebrates the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII becoming King of England.

Some of the world's rarest arms and armour have been chosen from the riches of the Royal Armouries and international collections. These magnificent objects have never been seen together since the reign of Henry's daughter Elizabeth I.

The exhibition also shows other armour and objects, including some of the armour from Hatfield Church, which was the reason for our trip.

I had contacted the Royal Armories a while before the trip to find out where our armour was located just in case we couldn't find it. We needn't have worried, it was displayed prominently in a case with polished armour.

It looked very much the same as I remember (maybe a little better) even the section some thought was part of a drain pipe. It was great to see our armour on public display again. Sadly as it was behind glass we couldn't try the armour on as we did some years ago, although I don't think it would fit quite the same (maybe it's shrunk).

We then spent the next few hours enjoying the exhibition and touring the rest of the Tower including of course The Bloody Tower.

We ended the day with a tour down the river, starting close to Tower Bridge not far from Traitors Gate, traveling past various London tourist attractions, including HMS Belfast, the Globe Theatre, Tate modern before disembarking close to the London Eye.

Tim Sweed