The mas­sive White Tow­er is a typ­i­cal exam­ple of Nor­man mil­i­tary archi­tec­ture, whose influ­ence was felt through­out the king­dom. It was built on the Thames by William the Con­queror to pro­tect Lon­don and assert his pow­er. The Tow­er of Lon­don &ndash, an impos­ing fortress with many lay­ers of his­to­ry, which has become one of the sym­bols of roy­al­ty &ndash was built around the White Tow­er.