A luxurious suite of “rooms with a view”, built for the son of William the Conquerer but partly destroyed in the English Civil War, has become accessible to visitors for the first time in almost 400 years, thanks to a new viewing platform at one of England’s most dramatically situated castles.
The King’s Tower was built in 1107 for William’s son Henry I at Corfe castle, which sits on top of a steep hill on the Purbeck peninsula near Wareham in Dorset. Constructed from gleaming white limestone inside the imposing fortification, the 23-metre tower was Henry’s personal penthouse, built to the highest standards of luxury and including an “appearance door” from which he could be seen by his subjects far below.
After remaining a royal fortress for centuries, the castle was partially destroyed by parliamentarian forces in 1646. The walls of the King’s Tower, though still standing, were badly damaged, and its grand upper rooms have been inaccessible ever since.
Today, for the first time in 378 years, that has changed, thanks to a new temporary viewing platform installed by the National Trust, the castle’s present owner. Visitors are now able to climb a stairway installed inside the keep to see up close the remains of the king’s lavish quarters – and his jaw-dropping view.
The project has arisen as part of an extensive three-year conservation project to shore up the castle against the effects of the climate emergency, which has accelerated deterioration from vegetation and weathering, said James Gould, the castle’s operations manager.
“During the very dry summer in 2020, we noticed that some of the stones were coming a little bit loose, so we did a bigger investigation into the whole condition of the castle. That came back saying, actually we need to do a lot more thinking to conserve it for the future,” he said.
The building of the new viewing platform, a self-supporting structure built inside the keep’s south annexe, required permission from Historic England, given that the Grade 1-listed site is a scheduled national monument.
Gould said the King’s Tower tour, a ticketed extra costing between £5 and £15, would allow “a window on the world of kings”. As well as being able to take in Henry’s views across south Dorset, visitors will also see the king’s “appearance door”, at which he would stand to see and be seen by his guests in the outer bailey and his subjects outside the castle walls.
“It’s a bit like the Buckingham Palace balcony, where the royal family stand to wave to everybody,” said Gould. “This was the point from which the king would be able to see down across the castle, the village,and his dominion.”
The later addition of the keep’s south annexe hid the door for centuries; its rediscovery during conservation works in 2006 underlined Corfe’s status as one of the most important castles in England, experts said at the time.
The trust said it plans to keep the platform in place for a year, or until it has completed its conservation repairs.
