Explore the Byward Angel at the Tower of London

Medieval building accounts suggest that part of the Byward Tower was once occupied by the King’s Exchange – part of the Royal Mint. High value metal objects and coins were handled there. 

The painting was created when England was a Roman Catholic country and English people were familiar with the iconography of the saints.

The elegant style of the painting, called 'International Gothic' by art historians, suggests that it was painted towards the end of Richard II's reign. Richard was deposed in 1399.

In this copy of a lost Elizabethan survey of the fortress, we can see that the Byward Tower was previously named 'The Tower at the Gate'.

It became known as the Byward Tower because it is the inner gate in a series of defences, and the entrance to the Tower's Outer Ward. 'By' means secondary, and 'ward' is an old word for a guarded entrance or the area between a castle's encircling walls.  

Millions of visitors a year now pass underneath the room in the Byward Tower where the mural was painted.

At the end of each day, the gates of the Byward Tower are locked by the Yeoman Warders in the Ceremony of the Keys.

On the left is Saint John the Baptist, who is pointing at the tiny Lamb, the 'Agnus Dei' that he is holding, and also to a lost 'Crucifixion', once in the centre of the wall painting. 

This and the Lamb represented Christ's sacrifice for mankind's salvation. St John was a patron saint of Richard II and had special significance for the King.

St Michael the Archangel is particularly beautiful. He holds a giant set of golden scales and weighs the souls of the dead.

Christians believe that Saint Michael’s action takes place at the End of Time, when all souls are weighed in the balance at the Last Judgement to determine who goes to heaven or hell.

Saint Michael acted as a warning to the employees in the Royal Mint to behave well in life, so that at the Last Judgement they would be rewarded with a quick passage to heaven and avoid a long stay in Purgatory.

The green and gold background and ceiling beam are painted to look like fabulous cloth-of-gold silk textiles, something which only the richest patrons could afford in reality. ​

The paint is made of linseed oil ground up with pigments such as lead white, yellow ochre, verdigris green, azurite blue and vermilion red.​

The saints' haloes, and the background pattern were all gilt. Much of the gold leaf has now gone.

In the centre, the Virgin Mary, and Saint John the Evangelist flank the lost depiction of the Christ on the Cross – forming a 'Crucifixion' scene.