William Wallace's severed head was placed on a spike on Drawbridge Gate on London Bridge

Following his execution at Smithfield in London on 23 August 1305, William Wallace's severed head was placed on a spike on Drawbridge Gate on London Bridge.

 Wallace's head was the first recorded head ever to be displayed on the bridge and it launched a gruesome tradition that lasted over 350 years.

 From 1305 until the second half of the 17th century the heads of traitors were dipped in tar for preservation and then displayed on the bridge in sight of passers-by, whether by land or water. A man known as the Keeper of the Heads was in charge of their security.

 Once a head had served its purpose it was probably thrown into the River Thames. According to Paul Hentzner who visited London in 1598:

"On the south is a bridge of stone eight hundred feet in length, of wonderful work; it is supported upon twenty piers of square stone, sixty feet high and thirty broad, joined by arches of about twenty feet diameter.

 The whole is covered on each side with houses so disposed as to have the appearance of a continued street, not at all of a bridge. Upon this is built a tower, on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are placed on iron spikes: we counted above thirty."

Other famous heads displayed on London Bridge were that of Simon Fraser (1306), Thomas More (1535) and Thomas Cromwell (1540).

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