There was evidently a floor above this. In the exterior wall are some cylindrical holes about 2 feet deep and 2 inches diameter. Their use is not clear. There were gurgoyles below the embrasures of the parapet. It is well to rebuild the bridge to the Water Tower, but to vault the ground-floor would be a mistake. The lower floor covering was always timber, and of a curious pattern. It should be replaced. The Bloody Tower is the gatehouse of the inner ward. It stands in the south front, west of the centre, opposite to the earlier Traitor’s Gate, and it abuts against the also earlier Wakefield Tower. The exterior face ranges with the curtain. Its position was no doubt determined by the Traitor’s Gate, and by the advantages offered by the flanking defence of Wakefield Tower on the outside, and Cold Harbour Wall on the inside. It is rectangular or nearly so in plan, 25 feet broad and 38 feet deep, and pierced by a vaulted passage, the axis of which has a twist to the east. It is of three stages, and 47 feet high from the outer gate cill to the parapet, which is modern, and of brick. The portal, 15 feet wide, opens under a low-browed drop arch, 8 feet high at the spring, and 14 feet at the crown; 3 feet 6 inches within the entrance is a 6-inch portcullis groove, working through the vault in a chase 2 feet 6 inches broad, so as to admit a heavy wooden frame. Then follows a double chamfered gateway, reducing the passage to 11 feet 8 inches. Next is the body of the gatehouse, 21 feet long and vaulted, having a pair of gates at each end, and on the right a porter’s lodge. The inner pair of gates are succeeded by another chamfered gateway of 11 feet opening, and this by a second portcullis, with a chase only 1 foot 4 inches broad, followed by a portal of 15 ft. opening. The passage rises about one foot in ten, and this rise, giving a great advantage to the defenders, is continued to a point opposite to the White Tower, where it ends in a short flight of steps. The vaulted space occupying the central part of the passage is about 22 feet long by 13 feet broad, and is divided into two not quite equal bays. The vaulting ribs spring from four corner and two intermediate corbels, representing lions’ heads, each supporting an octangular bracket. Each bay is divided by four main hip ribs into four cells, and along the axis of each cell is a ridge rib, longitudinal and transverse. These cells are subdivided each by a secondary rib, springing also from the six corbels, and, with the ridge rib, dividing each cell into four compartments. Thus, besides the two wall half-ribs, from each intermediate corbel spring seven ribs, and from each angle corbel three ribs.