Photograph of the exterior of Traitors' Gate. The focal point of the image is the closed gate, whose upper section is screened with a wooden lattice, and whose lower segment consists of a row of vertical iron poles secured in a wooden framework. The gate is set into a whitewashed stone wall and is positioned below street level. The photograph is taken from an elevated viewpoint from a balcony, the handrail of which can be seen in the foreground.

Traitors' Gate was built by Edward I to provide a water gate entrance to the Tower. Prisoners were brought by barge along the Thames beneath London Bridge, where the heads of recently executed prisoners were impaled on pikes. Traitors' Gate forms part of St. Thomas' Tower which provided additional accommodation for the monarch.