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Where They Died, Where They Were Taken
Locksmith EC3Y: A Scaffold And The Church Beside It
For nearly four hundred years, Tower Hill was where London carried out its most public executions. A church older than the Tower itself stood close enough to receive the bodies. Call 020 8534 4949 for a locksmith who knows this ground well.
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Covering EC3Y around Tower Hill and Trinity Square. Open in Google Maps
Why EC3Y Is Different
A scaffold and a church, close enough to share a history
EC3Y sits in the shadow of the Tower of London, around Tower Hill and Trinity Square. The higher ground just northwest of the Tower's moat, now laid out as Trinity Square Gardens, was once London's main site for public execution. The first recorded death there came in 1388. Over the next four centuries, roughly 125 people met the same fate, including Sir Thomas More in 1535 and Thomas Cromwell in 1540. This was a different, far busier scaffold than the one inside the Tower's own walls on Tower Green, which saw fewer than two dozen deaths across its history. The last hangings on Tower Hill took place in 1780, and today a memorial names those who died there.
Trinity Square itself only came later. After executions stopped, the ground was laid out as gardens in 1797, a year after Trinity House, the maritime authority, had completed its own headquarters on the site.
A Church That Outdated The Tower Itself
Close enough to matter, All Hallows by the Tower had already stood on Byward Street for seven centuries by the time most of those executions took place. Founded in 675, it predates the Tower of London by roughly three hundred years, and a surviving Saxon arch, built from reused Roman material, remains one of the oldest pieces of church fabric anywhere in the City. The church's own connection to the scaffold wasn't incidental: it received many of the beheaded for temporary burial, Thomas More among them.
All Hallows went on to its own share of history too. William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, was baptised there in 1644, and his father reportedly helped save the building during the Great Fire by clearing a firebreak nearby. John Quincy Adams was married there in 1797. The church was badly damaged in the Blitz and rebuilt afterwards, its tower and walls among the little that survived intact.
So this small patch of the City held both an ending and somewhere to go afterward, centuries before either was anyone's business but the Crown's. What we deal with is smaller and far less final: making sure a door here does its job properly, whatever the building's own history happens to be.
Quick options: sort a shut door now, book a repair ahead, or ring whenever it suits.
What EC3Y Residents & Businesses Call About
The calls that come in around Tower Hill
Offices Near Trinity Square
Staff and visitors both pass constantly around the gardens here, so whatever security we fit needs to hold up against that mix.
Book aheadOlder Buildings Near The Church
Buildings near All Hallows often predate the area's recent redevelopment by a long way, so we treat repairs on them as worth getting right, not rushing.
Book aheadShops & Cafés Near The Tower
These units rarely see a quiet moment, given constant tourist footfall nearby. A fast lock swap stops a jammed door costing real trade.
Same-day priorityFlats Among The Offices
A handful of homes sit woven among the commercial stock in this postcode. We look at each individually, never lumped in with neighbouring offices.
Book aheadBroken Or Snapped Keys
A snapped key is rarely simple to shift from Tower Hill's older locks. This page walks through a careful extraction. Call now
Evening Lockouts
This stretch goes quiet fast once the tour groups move on for the evening. The response stays the same regardless.
Call nowA quick note: since specialists handle duplicate keys and card or intercom setup, both sit outside what we offer.
Locked Out In EC3Y
A landmark's crowds, and the quiet that follows them
Daytime visitor numbers around Tower Hill are genuinely substantial, so a locked door here needs handling calmly and quickly.
Evenings tell a different story, with tourist numbers dropping away and the surrounding streets growing noticeably quieter.
Neither scenario changes our approach. We exhaust the gentle options first, keeping a drill firmly as a last resort.
A snapped key calls for a different fix than one that's properly lost. Broken keys and lost keys are covered separately, each on its own page.
Around EC3Y
Postcodes bordering Tower Hill
The full EC3 overview, Monument to Aldgate.
Aldgate and the old eastern wall, just north.
Fenchurch Street and Lloyd's, west of here.
Monument and Eastcheap, further west.
Bevis Marks and St Mary Axe, north-west.
North, beyond Aldgate.
What We Do
Services across EC3Y
What Outlasted What
A scaffold that's gone, a church that's still standing
The execution ground had a four-hundred-year run and then stopped entirely. The church it stood beside has now outlasted it by more than two centuries, and shows no sign of that changing.
The fuller history of the scaffold site is set out on Wikipedia's entry for Tower Hill. All Hallows covers its own thirteen centuries on its own history page.
We can't promise a lock centuries of life. Careful fitting and honest upkeep are what we can offer, and they go further than most expect.
Uncertain what your own door actually needs? Tell us how it's behaving and we'll give you a straight answer.
The Process
Booking a locksmith EC3Y callout
- Ring or messageGive us the address, the unit, and a quick summary.
- We sort accessAny sign-off needed gets arranged ahead of the visit.
- Inspection before pricingThe engineer sees the door before any figure gets mentioned.
- Proven before we goWe confirm the lock and door both work before leaving.
Access & Traffic
Getting to you around the Tower and Trinity Square
Tower Hill carries heavy visitor footfall for most of the day, especially near the Tower's main entrance, and loading restrictions apply throughout.
With Tower Hill station right on the doorstep, serving both Underground and DLR, arriving by rail frequently beats sitting in traffic.
Tourist numbers peak at weekends, just as nearby office streets fall quiet. Our routing reflects whichever pattern applies.
Why People Call Us
What EC3Y tenants and residents rely on us for
- We respect what's already there. Older hardware gets repaired wherever that's genuinely possible.
- We don't rush to force. Gentler methods always get a proper try first.
- Comfortable near a major landmark. Crowds and extra security don't slow us down.
- Homes matter here too. A residential job gets exactly what a commercial one does.
- Honest about what we skip. Spare keys and access-system programming aren't ours.
- Always reachable. Whether the street's busy or dead quiet, we answer either way.
Nearby
Areas around EC3Y
Common Questions
The Scaffold Site
Was Tower Hill genuinely London's main execution ground?
Yes, for nearly four hundred years, from 1388 until the last hangings in 1780.
Is this the same place as the executions inside the Tower itself?
No. Tower Green, inside the walls, saw fewer than two dozen deaths. Tower Hill, just outside, saw roughly 125.
Who were some of the people executed here?
Thomas More in 1535 and Thomas Cromwell in 1540 are among the best known.
The Church That Received Them
Did a nearby church really take in the bodies afterwards?
Yes. All Hallows by the Tower received many of the beheaded for temporary burial, Thomas More included.
Is the church genuinely older than the Tower of London?
Yes, by about three centuries. It was founded in 675, long before the Tower existed.
Does anything from that early period survive?
A Saxon arch still stands inside, built using reused Roman material, among the oldest church fabric in the City.
Booking On Tower Hill
Which streets does EC3Y actually cover?
The office blocks and surrounding streets immediately around Tower Hill and Trinity Square.
Do you work on both modern offices and older buildings here?
Both sit close together on this patch, and each gets treated on its own terms.
Can you reach a lockout with tourist crowds around the Tower?
We can, though the last stretch is often faster covered on foot given the crowds.
Is evening cover realistic this close to a major landmark?
Certainly. We keep answering well past the point tour groups clear out.
Do you handle flats as well as offices here?
Residential work happens too, though commercial jobs make up the greater share here.
What if my building has its own visitor-related security?
Walk us through it in advance and we'll build that into the visit.
History settled here centuries ago. Your lock just needs settling today.
Office, shop or flat around Tower Hill — describe the problem and we'll arrange the right engineer.