Welcome to our Impaled Heads on London Bridge history section. You can skip to subsequent pages using the links below or simply continue reading to start at the beginning.
A particularly disturbing and historic addition to the Bridge was the setting up of heads on its gatehouses! Among these ghastly sights was the head of Sir William Wallace, 1305; Simon Frisel, 1306 four traitor knights, 1397; Lord Bardolf, 1408; Bolingbroke, 1440; Jack Cade and his rebels, 1451 ; the Cornish traitors of 1497; and of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 1535, displaced in fourteen days by the head of Sir Thomas More.
In 1577, several heads were removed from the north end of the Drawbridge to the Southwark entrance, Traitors Gate. In 1578, the head of a recusant priest was added to the horrendous sight; and in 1605, that of Garnet the Jesuit, as well as those of the Romish priests executed in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Hentzner counted more than thirty heads on the Bridge in 1598. The display was transferred to Temple Bar in the reign of Charles II.