The Liberties of the Tower, or the Tower Liberty is a small neighbourhood in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London, which includes both Tower Hill and the Tower of London. The area was defined sometime after 1200 to provide an open area around the Tower to ensure its defensibility. The liberty was an independent administrative unit from then until it was formally abolished on 25 June 1894. The district maintains a ceremonial existence, with its custom of beating the bounds being a particularly well known example of the tradition. History The liberty was founded sometime after 1200, from land that had previously part of the City of London. Components and purpose The area originally comprised three small liberties: Tower Within; The Tower, its moat and a small area of Tower Hill outside the city wall. Old Tower Without; on Tower Hill, outside the Tower and mostly within the city wall. Great Tower Hill; on Tower Hill, outside the Tower and inside the city wall. In everyday speech, the term Great Tower Hill came to apply to Tower Hill inside the city wall, with Little Tower Hill referring to the area outside the wall. The presence of a unit called Great Tower Hill which covered only part of the area inside the city wall would later cause legal confusion. The liberties had an administration separate from the neighbouring county and city, headed by the Constable of the Tower of London, appointed their own coroner, and had their own courthouse with general and quarter sessions and gaol. A force of constables was appointed for the area. The inhabitants had certain other privileges such as being able to claim any beast that fell from, and any swans under, London Bridge. The boundaries were presented by a Leet Jury in 1525, and again as surveyed by Haiward and Gascoyne in 1597. From the mid-seventeenth century, the liberty was part of a larger liberty, the Tower Division or Tower Hamlets which was independent of the county of Middlesex, carrying out Hundred and County responsibilities locally. Expansion and evolution The area of the liberty expanded in 1686, when letters patent granted by James II added three small exclaves; the Old Artillery Ground, Little Minories and the Liberty of Wellclose. These areas had come into the possession of the Crown when the religious houses that formerly administered them were dissolved. They were subsequently used for