If I asked you to think of a famous bridge in London with stunning towers and blue and white accents, you would instantly think of Tower Bridge. If you are visiting London, you may be considering if the Tower Bridge experience is worth it. Well I’m here to give you a comprehensive Tower Bridge review, so that you can decide if it is worth adding to your London itinerary.
This beautiful Victorian bridge is the most interesting bridge in London, not to be confused with the London Bridge. London Bridge is actually the next bridge over and is quite boring and ugly to be honest.
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Practical Information About Tower Bridge
First, let’s start off this Tower Bridge review with all the important information you need to make a decision about book the tour or not.
How Much Is A Tower Bridge Tour?
Regular entry into Tower Bridge is normally £16 for an adult and £8 for a child. During the week the price is reduced to £12.80 for an adult and £6.40 for a child. It’s not too expensive to visit which is nice.
If you are visiting as a family, they have discounted tickets depending on how many people are in your family. It gives you a slight savings. It isn’t a lot but nice all the same.
Please note that I’m researching this in September, so prices may adjust with the season. Check Tower Bridge’s official website for exact pricing.
Want to visit with less people? There’s a way! They have a ticket option where you can book a tour at a quieter time. These are random days in the month where they reduce the amount of people that can enter.
The ticket prices for these are the same as the regular entry, so if you are lucky enough to be around on one of these dates, you might as well take advantage of the quiet. The unfortunate part is that there aren’t many quieter time dates during the month, so if your schedule is limited, it might not work out.
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What Time Is The Tower Bridge Open?
Tower Bridge is open at 9:30am for its first tour. The last tour time of the day starts at 4:30pm. The tour times are every 20 minutes. The inside of the bridge closes at 6pm.
Do You Need To Book Your Tickets In Advance?
Yes! It is essential to book your tickets in advance for the Tower Bridge Tour. You will wait in a queue at your selected time and enter using the tickets you have purchased.
The queue doesn’t take too long, but you are waiting outside, which is good to know, especially if it’s raining.
If you need to change the date or time of your ticket you can, but they are non-refundable. Go to the bottom of the ticket page and you can adjust them there. Here is a quick link to the correct page to change your Tower Bridge tickets.
It is also possible to buy tickets at the door, but there is no guarantee that there will be space.
How Long Is A Tower Bridge Tour?
With the self-guided tour, you’re free to take your time, but expect to spend around an hour covering all the highlights. If you take the guided tour it is 90 minutes long.
Is Tower Bridge Fun For Kids?
I do love it when a tourist attraction does something fun to keep the kids entertained. Makes my life so much easier and the kids love it too. Tower Bridge does just that!
When you enter at the ticket office, the kids get a scavenger hunt booklet where they look for various stations during the tour and collect stamps.
It is a fun way for the kiddos to stay engaged. Even our older kids liked looking for the stamp locations and learning the little bits of fascinating info at each station.
In addition to this, our kids loved the glass floors and staring down at the street below. The steam engine room was also cool.
Accessibility At Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is accessible for all. They have made sure to make it very inclusive. Here are some of the ways Tower Bridge is accessible.
- There are elevators for those that can’t use the stairs.
- If you are unable to stand in the queue, you can speak with someone at the ticket office entrance, and they will arrange priority entry for you.
- They have quieter times for those that get overwhelmed with crowds of people.
- There are BSL interpreters for guided tours.
- Guide dogs are welcome.
- There are wheelchairs and walking frames available at the Ticket Office and Engine rooms to borrow.
- There are Braille books available to borrow as well.
Self-Guided Or Guided Tour Of Tower Bridge
You can choose between a self-guided tour and a guided tour.
The guided tours are 90 minutes long and cost £35 for adults and £27.50 per child. Unfortunately, I didn’t go on a guided tour, so I’m not sure if it is worth the price or not.
They are either small with limited capacity or very popular as I’m looking right now, and today and tomorrow are booked and there is limited capacity on a few of the days coming up.
If you are interested in getting more detailed information about Tower Bridge from a person and like to ask questions, the guided tour is for you. These tours start at 10am and 3pm.
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Our Experience – Tower Bridge Review
We visited London in June and really wanted to experience the inside of Tower Bridge. It is such an iconic structure and I liked the idea of walking on the glass walkways to see the street and the Thames below.
We scheduled our self-guided tour for 4:30pm because that is what fit best in our busy schedule. We hoped for the best, but unfortunately were a little disappointed.
Best Time To Visit Tower Bridge
There were a couple of things that made 4:30pm in June an undesirable time to visit Tower Bridge. The first is that June is the beginning of the busy season in London. Tower Bridge is a popular attraction and because of this gets busy in the afternoons.
In addition to this, it was the end of the school year in London. What made our Tower Bridge experience the most unpleasant was the school groups that were visiting at the same time as us. Not that I don’t like kids, it was just that there were packs of them…. everywhere!
I did do a little research after our semi-failed tour because I have heard so many glowing reviews of visiting Tower Bridge. What I found was that the best time to visit is in the morning.
If you are in London during the week, book your tour before noon, but if you are only there on the weekend plan to end before 11am.
What To Expect During A Tower Bridge Tour
To begin, you will start by waiting in a queue to enter the North Tower. Even though you have tickets for a specific time, you will still need to wait. For us the line moved quickly, so we didn’t wait long.
After getting your kids’ scavenger hunt booklets, you will begin the Tower Bridge tour by climbing the stairs of the North Tower to the walkways. There are two glass floor walkways you can walk across.
You will want to walk across both of them as you can enjoy different views of London from each one. Don’t forget to look up either! There is a mirror above you which can make for a fun photo with the street and river below. The walkways are the best places to snap photos. Take your time here.
In addition to the glass floors and views, there is so much information displayed along the walls that give the history of Tower Bridge that you won’t want to miss.
After the walkways, you will descend the South Tower to make your way to the street. Once you are outside you will follow the Blue line which honors the workers of Tower Bridge.
The Blue line takes you to the Engine Room where you will present your ticket again to gain entry. Lastly, you will find the gift shop at the end of the tour.
Tips For Enjoying The Tower Bridge Tour
To enhance your experience, you can listen to an audio guide as you walk through the bridge. It will point out different areas of London that you can see from the bridge and stories about Tower Bridge and much more. You can preview and listen to it all even before you go, if you’d like. Here’s a link to the Tower Bridge Highlights audio tour.
Pro Tip: Download the app before you go and bring your own headphones.
Another Exciting Tip: If you want to see the bridge open while you are inside Tower Bridge, you can plan your visit around this. You can find when the planned bridge lift times are here. It would be a pretty unique view from above.
How To Get To Tower Bridge
There are many different ways to get to Tower Bridge from using the Tube, walking, buses and riverboats. The following are all great options, so choose which one suits you best.
The Tube (London Underground)
The closest Tube stop is Tower Hill station. It is a short walk from there to the entrance of Tower Bridge. The London Bridge station is also a good option.
Both of these stations are on different lines so it just depends on where you are coming from. Tower Hill Station is on the District and Circle lines and London Bridge Station is on the Northern and Jubilee lines.
Riverboat
Riverboats will also drop you off near Tower Bridge. Uber Boat has partnered with Thames Clippers to bring you an easy way to explore London on the water. To use a riverboat, you will use the Uber app to book your tickets.
First, open up the Uber app. Then, select “See All” next to Suggestions. From there, click on Boat. Buy your ticket right in the app and then make your way to the pier.
For more information on how to use Uber Boats and a map of the piers in London, click here.
Bus
Riding on one of the famous, red double decker buses in London is an experience in itself. The following routes will take you to Tower Bridge: 15, 42, 78, 100, 343.
Pro Tip: When taking busses in London, you only need to tap once with a contactless payment card when you get on. You DON’T need to tap again when you get off.
Walk
If you are close enough to walk, I would recommend it. There are so many places to get a great view of Tower Bridge from the outside. When we went, we walked from Sky Garden to Tower Bridge. Once we arrived next to the Thames, Tower Bridge loomed in front of us.
We were also able to walk right next to the Tower of London. This riverwalk is a great place for pictures.
After our tour, we walked to Potters Fields Park which is on the other side of the river. It was a nice park to relax and take in a beautiful view of Tower Bridge as well.
Is The Tower Bridge Tour Worth It?
So, is Tower Bridge worth visiting?
If you visit Tower Bridge in the morning or during off season when there are less people inside, I would say yes! The glass floors are cool, the interactive scavenger hunt for the kids keeps them entertained and the Tower Bridge is an iconic, historic structure.
If you are only able to visit during mid-day or late afternoon, then no. It was too crowded for us to enjoy it. And, honestly all I wanted to do was get out of there.
I hope this detailed Tower Bridge review helps you decide if a visit is worth an add to your London itinerary.
