Fitzstephen, a monk of Canterbury, born of religious parents in the City of London, writes of this Palatine Tower in his chronicle of London, that its walls were cemented with "mortar tempered with the blood of beasts" - "Caemento cum sanguine animalium temperato"
The monk probably mistook the pulverised Roman red brick used in the mortar for blood, from its colour.
During the reigns of the first four kings of the Norman dynasty, important changes were taking place along the river-bank which were gradually transforming the view of the old city from the river.
The wall along the riverside had disappeared, the river having sapped the foundations. The fortress of the White Tower at one end of the city had almost its counterpart in Baynard's Castle at the other, and closely adjacent were Montfichet's Tower and two other towers erected by the citizens to protect the western approach to the city, one partly on the site of what was afterwards Blackfriars, and the other on the western side of the river Fleet, a strong tower called Bridewell.
This tower was subsequently demolished, and the freestone given by William to Bishop Maurice towards the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral; but a portion was still retained as a royal residence, and used as a law court, for Stow quotes a deed which he saw inscribed, Facta in Curia Domini Regis apud Sanct Bridgid London, Anno Regni Regis Johannis.
At the north end of the bridge was a strong tower or gate, and another strong tower and gate at the south end to protect and work the drawbridge and cut off the approach to the city from the south.
From the river these various towers and castles must have made the old city look more warlike than ever it did in the days when the walls on the south side still stood with their bastions along the bank.
This was not the only change on the city side. The towers of many parish churches could be seen now clustering thickly round that towering mass of scaffolding which partly hid the lofty walls of the new cathedral, so stately and so vast that the citizens of those days thought it never could be finished.
Looking towards the Surrey side one sees the southern towered gate of the bridge, and hard by it stands the large and imposing priory church of the Austin Canons, in the Norman style of architecture, St. Mary Overie, soon to be rebuilt almost in the form to which it has recently been restored.
Close to it at the west end, with its walls almost rising from the water's edge, is the new palace of the Bishops of Winchester with its large hall and chapel, and beyond a smaller building tenanted by the Bishops of Rochester.
The houses are now also becoming much thicker, and extend some distance southwards, and one or two church towers can be seen, and the characteristics of the old marsh are fast disappearing as it gets covered with houses.
Many of them are built of stone, and are the London residences of some of the wealthy abbots and priors whose business brings them to London and to the King's Court: the Abbots of Waverley and St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and Battle, the Prior of Lewes, and others.
Beyond these again are the roofs and towers of Bermondsey Abbey, just built. Along the southern shore of the river on the bank are many tenements whose inhabitants, even in those early days, have brought an evil reputation to the place.
Even the marshes themselves are beginning to change their character, dykes and drains surround cultivated patches, and there are more cottages now to be seen; but the greatest change is taking place along the brow of the hill, for the old highway to Westminster is fringed with houses, and Royal Westminster itself has become a much more imposing pile.
The Abbey now looks more finished, and William the Red has added to the Confessor's Palace a vast Hall of Norman architecture, with a row of columns and arches down the centre. This vast Hall still stands, but its central row of columns and its Norman windows and wall-passages were to give way in Richard the Second's reign to traceried windows and one huge oaken roof covering the whole area.
Sundry towers have also been added to the pile, but its low position causes it to be frequently flooded at any unusually high tide. Boats are now much more numerous on the river, and bring a number of suitors to and fro, the courts of law being in the King's Palace, and the highway along the Strand frequently impassable.
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