Tower Of London, London

As part of a very hectic few days in England’s capital – London, we decided to visit the Tower of London.

It is not the cheapest of attractions with adults £18 and children £9 or a family ticket for £47 (without donation prices) or with an extra 10% with. Luckily for us however we had traded in Tesco clubcard vouchers at 4 times their face value in an attempt to keep our visit as cheap as possible.

The Tower of London is located next to the River Thames next to Tower Bridge with HMS Belfast moored on the opposite bank. There are many bus services that stop outside the Tower including sight-seeing tours but for us we chose to use the tube which stops on the opposite site to it – Tower Hill. We chose to buy travel cards rather than oyster cards as from our research they appeared to be easier to use if you had young children although from experience are easier to de-magnestise!

The ticket office is located close to the Tower and there are several shops nearby. Before entry there is a customary bag search.

I have visited The Tower of London on a number of occasions and it is an attraction that I would like to visit more than I have done whether because of the building or the various exhibitions I’m not sure but there is something special about it. What I always find however after my visits is how sore my feet are! There is a great deal of walking involved as you move around the ramparts or walk through the various exhibits.

The most distinguished of its exhibitions is the Crown Jewels which are stunning and the centre piece of a range of gold and silver and coats of arms of current and past kings and queens. There is also another exhibition of crowns that are in the Martin Tower, one of the outer towers that although not stunning are still worth viewing.

The most famous of its towers is The White Tower which is one of the oldest buildings on the site and was originally constructed by the Tower’s founder William The Conqueror in 1067, but there is much to see and much to be inspired by such as the chapel and various exhibitions of armour including shields, suits and swords, and there are various inscriptions carved in to the walls by its prisoners.

The one disappointment to me when I visited The Tower of London was the number (or should say lack) of torture implements which apart from a rack was unexpected after visiting other castles and museums around the UK.

My lasting memory of our visit was unexpectedly the rather nice ice creams that were on offer next to the White Tower.

There is much to see including seeing the Ravens and Tower Green where many executions took place, and there’s the vast history of its inmates including the Princes of the Tower, Anne Boleyn, Sir Walter Raleigh and its most famous governor – The Duke of Wellington.

To give justice to your visit you really need a full day but this is not a place your children will want to thank you for if you do!