Tower of London Early Access Tour
Experience the Crown Jewels and royal armories before the crowds with a tower of london early access tour that opens restricted areas ahead of general admission. Your guide leads you through the White Tower, Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, and the Yeoman Warders' quarters while sharing stories of executions, escapes, and the ravens that guard the fortress. Tower of London early access tour tickets include priority entry and small-group access to sections closed during regular hours.
William the Conqueror ordered the White Tower built in 1078 to terrify Saxon Londoners into submission. Nine centuries later, the fortress complex remains the most intact medieval royal palace in Britain, its Norman keep rising thirty metres above the Thames.
The Tower has served as royal residence, mint, menagerie, armoury, and prison — Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey both met their end within these walls. Today it houses the Crown Jewels, protected behind bomb-proof glass installed after a 1671 theft attempt by Colonel Blood.
A Tower of London early access tour grants entry before standard 09:00 opening on select weekdays, allowing visitors to witness the formal unlocking ceremony conducted by Yeomen Warders in Tudor dress. These Beefeaters — all retired military with at least twenty-two years of service — have guarded the fortress since 1485. The earliest tours begin at 08:30, when the Chief Yeoman Warder meets the Resident Governor to receive the keys and open the Middle and Byward Towers. The ceremony follows protocols unchanged since the 1600s, complete with sentry challenges and formal salutes.
The Crown Jewels occupy the Waterloo Block's vault, where St Edward's Crown — solid gold, weighing over two kilograms — rests beside the Imperial State Crown set with 2,868 diamonds. Early entry means walking straight to the display without the usual hour-long queue that forms by mid-morning. The Jewel House travelators move at a fixed speed, but morning access allows multiple passes before the first standard-admission crowds arrive at ten. Tower of London early access tour tickets typically include a ninety-minute guided walk covering the execution site on Tower Green, the Bloody Tower where the Princes disappeared in 1483, and the medieval palace rooms Edward I built in the 1200s.
The White Tower's Royal Armouries collection fills four floors with tournament armour, including Henry VIII's 1540 suit that reveals his 132-centimetre waist. The Line of Kings display — the world's oldest visitor attraction, opened in 1652 — presents mounted royal figures in full plate. Chapel of St John the Evangelist on the second floor remains London's finest Norman interior, its rounded arches and thick columns unchanged since 1080. The fortress wall walk connects all towers except Wakefield, offering Thames views and access to the battlements where medieval defenders once stood.
4 hr
