Smeaton's Tower administrator Sir John Barrow. Smeaton's Tower has been a Grade I-listed building since 1954. It is open for visitors, who may climb 93 steps, including steep ladders, to the lantern room, and observe Plymouth Sound and the city. Smeaton's Tower Smeaton's Tower is a memorial to celebrated civil engineer John Smeaton, designer of the third and most notable Eddystone Lighthouse. A major step forward in lighthouse design, Smeaton's structure was in use from 1759 to 1877, until erosion of the ledge it was built upon forced new construction. The tower was largely dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe in Plymouth,
Mark Smeaton costume dramatic film "Anne of the Thousand Days". In it, Smeaton is depicted as being tortured by Cromwell's henchmen. In 1971, Michael Osborne portrayed Smeaton in the second episode of "The Six Wives of Henry VIII". One scene shows the knotted rope being twisted onto his eyes. The character of Mark Smeaton appeared in the second season of Showtime's "The Tudors" and was portrayed by David Alpay. In the series, he is depicted as having a sexual relationship with Anne's brother, George Boleyn. It is believed that Smeaton being portrayed as homosexual may have been based on the theories of