Tower of London

The Tower of London is one of the best-value paid attractions in London, and that’s not a compliment people usually hand to a site charging £33.60 for adult entry. At most tourist landmarks you pay that and get 90 minutes of disappointment. Here you get a 900-year-old fortress, the Crown Jewels, several floors of medieval weaponry, live ravens, and a Yeoman Warder tour that’s genuinely entertaining.

What’s Actually Inside

The Crown Jewels are the obvious draw. The Cullinan I diamond (530 carats, the world’s largest clear cut diamond) is set into the Sovereign’s Sceptre. The display is well-arranged, with moving walkways past the main cases preventing people from stopping in front of the best items, though the pace is quick. First thing in the morning before the groups arrive gives a more comfortable experience.

The White Tower, the central Norman keep built by William I around 1078, holds the Royal Armouries collection on its upper floors. The Line of Kings display, featuring life-size wooden horses with armour, has been here in various forms since the 17th century. The horse used to carry Henry VIII’s suit of armour is the same horse that has been through multiple versions of the display for centuries.

The Yeoman Warder tours leave every 30 minutes from the main gate. They’re free with entry and run about an hour. The Warders have been leading these tours for a long time and the script, while well-worn, hits the best stories: the prisoners, the executions, the ravens (legally required to live here under a Charles II royal decree, on pain of the kingdom falling).

The Bloody Tower and the Beauchamp Tower both have original prisoner graffiti scratched into the stone walls from the 16th century, some of it elaborate and affecting.

Practicalities

Buy tickets online at hrp.org.uk and choose a morning timeslot. Walk-up tickets are available but cost slightly more and can mean a wait. Tower Hill is the nearest tube station (Circle and District lines), one minute’s walk from the entrance. The site is closed Mondays from November through February.

The ticket price covers everything inside. There’s a café near the south wall that does sandwiches and hot food at standard London attraction prices (£9-12 for a hot main). Tower Bridge, directly adjacent, charges a separate fee (£11.50) for its upper walkway exhibition.

Around the Tower

The Thames Path east toward Bermondsey offers some of the better riverside walking in London with minimal crowds. Leadenhall Market is a 20-minute walk north and makes a good stop: a Victorian covered market with good pubs and the visual familiarity of having been used in early Harry Potter films.

For accommodation, the obvious choices for this part of London are the hotels around Tower Bridge itself (expensive, convenient) or the Aldgate area, which is more central and connects directly to multiple tube lines.