Visiting the Tower of London: The Complete Guide to Tickets, the Crown Jewels and the Ceremony of the Keys

The Tower of London is not a museum. It is a working fortress that happens to admit visitors: around 37 Yeoman Warders and their families still live inside its walls, eight ravens hold the kingdom together from Tower Green, and every night at 9:53pm the Chief Yeoman Warder locks the gates in a ceremony that has run, by the fortress's own reckoning, every single night for at least 700 years. A German bomb blew the escort off their feet mid-ceremony in April 1941; they got up, dusted off, and finished locking up a few minutes late.

That is the thing to understand before you go: a thousand years of English history is still on duty here, and how much of it you see depends heavily on which ticket you choose and when you arrive. This guide covers the full range, from standard entry to the after-hours tour that puts you inside the walls for the Ceremony of the Keys itself, along with a summer 2026 heads-up or two the older guides will not have. Prices are live tickadoo prices, verified in July 2026.

The Crown Jewels: go here first

The Jewel House in the Waterloo Block holds the working regalia of the British monarchy, and "working" is the operative word: the Imperial State Crown you file past is the one the King wears at the State Opening of Parliament, and St Edward's Crown, kept here between coronations, was last lifted onto a head in May 2023. The Sovereign's Sceptre carries Cullinan I, at over 530 carats still the largest top-quality cut white diamond on Earth, and the display gained a new addition in January 2026: the Norman Hartnell-era coronation dress worn by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, in 1953, on loan from her family.

Two practical truths about the Jewel House. First, photography is forbidden inside, no exceptions, so plan to look rather than film. Second, the viewing runs on moving walkways past the crowns, which keeps the room flowing but rewards timing: the queue is shortest in the first hour of opening and swells sharply from mid-morning as the tour groups land. The single best routing decision at the Tower is to walk to the Jewel House the moment you clear security and see everything else afterwards. If stairs and cobbles are a concern, it is also one of the most accessible corners of the fortress: the Jewel House has level access throughout, and staff will slow or stop the walkway on request.

Beefeaters, ravens and the living fortress

The Yeoman Warder tour is included free with every ticket, leaves regularly through the day (the last at 3:15pm), and is the best free hour in London tourism. Every Beefeater has served a minimum of 22 years in the armed forces to earn the post, every one of them lives inside the fortress, and the delivery has been polished on decades of crowds: equal parts military history, gallows humour and gossip about a thousand years of prisoners. If you want more than the group experience, the entry ticket with Beefeater meet and greet (from £56.44) buys conversation time no big tour allows.

Then there are the ravens. Legend holds that if they ever leave, the Tower and the kingdom fall, so the fortress keeps a minimum of six with insurance: the flock currently stands at eight, six established birds (Harris, Jubilee, Poppy, Edgar, Georgie and Chaos) plus Henry and Poe, chicks hatched in 2025. They are cared for by the Ravenmaster, a dedicated Yeoman Warder post held since 2024 by former Royal Marine Barney Chandler, and you will usually find them strutting the green near the White Tower with the confidence of birds who know they are load-bearing.

The Ceremony of the Keys and how to actually see it

At 9:53pm precisely, every night, the Chief Yeoman Warder walks out with a lantern and the King's Keys to lock the Tower's gates, challenged by a sentry with words ("Halt! Who comes there?") that have not changed in centuries. It is the oldest continuously performed military ceremony in the world, unbroken through plague, fire and the Blitz. The public can attend, but the small nightly allocation books out months ahead, which is why the evening tours have become the connoisseur's route in.

The after-hours VIP tour with the Ceremony of the Keys (from £145.70) is the fullest version of the Tower you can buy: a Yeoman Warder leads you through the fortress after the day crowds have gone, the Crown Jewels are viewed in something close to privacy, and the evening ends watching the Keys ceremony itself, certificate in hand. At the other end of the day, the early-access ticket with the Opening Ceremony (from £78.00) puts you at the gates as the Tower is ceremonially unlocked, first through the door and first to the Jewel House.

Every Tower of London ticket, compared

We sell the complete range, and the differences are real. These are the live prices on tickadoo as of July 2026:

Option	From	Best for
Tower entry with Crown Jewels	£33.52	The essential ticket at the lowest price
Entry with Crown Jewels exhibition	£37.00	Our most-booked Tower ticket, rated 4.7 from more than 4,000 reviews
Guided tour with skip-the-line access	£48.11	Expert storytelling and no ticket queue
Entry with Beefeater meet and greet	£56.44	Time with a Yeoman Warder beyond the group tour
Early access with Opening Ceremony	£78.00	First through the gates, Jewel House to yourself
Tower of London and Tower Bridge combined	£132.00	Both riverside icons handled in one booking
After-hours VIP tour with Ceremony of the Keys	£145.70	The fortress after dark and the 700-year ritual itself

For most first-time visitors the £37.00 exhibition entry is the right call; for a return visit, or a first visit you want to be unforgettable, the evening tour is in a class of its own. If you are booking several London experiences, tickadoo+ members unlock member pricing across experiences like these; see tickadoo+ membership for details.

Beyond the jewels: what not to miss inside the walls

The White Tower, begun for William the Conqueror around 1078, is the keep that gave the fortress its name, and it contains two things worth slowing down for: St John's Chapel, an almost perfectly preserved Norman chapel from the 1080s, and the Line of Kings, a parade of royal armour first shown to paying visitors in 1652 and with a fair claim to being the world's longest-running visitor attraction. The Medieval Palace reopened in 2025 after a full refurbishment, with the recreated chambers of Henry III soundtracked by crackling fires and Latin prayer, and the wall walk along the battlements delivers the Tower's best view: Tower Bridge framed between medieval stone and the City's glass towers.

The darker stops earn their reputation. Traitors' Gate, the watergate built for Edward I in the 1270s, became the dreaded river entrance for Tudor prisoners; the Bloody Tower tells the story of the Princes in the Tower, the 12-year-old king and his brother who vanished here in 1483, alongside the rooms where Walter Raleigh spent 13 years. On Tower Green, the glass memorial marks the executions of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey, though here is a detail almost no guide mentions: the spot itself is traditional rather than exact, fixed in place after a Yeoman Warder confidently pointed it out to Queen Victoria. And dotted around the grounds you will meet Kendra Haste's wire menagerie sculptures, marking the three centuries when the Tower kept lions, baboons and a polar bear that fished the Thames on a long rope.

Planning your visit: timing, arrival and the 2026 details

Give the Tower a minimum of three hours; that is the fortress's own recommendation, and it assumes you are being efficient. The gates open at 9am Tuesday to Saturday and 10am on Sunday and Monday, with last entry at 4:30pm, and the official advice on crowds matches every regular's experience: arrive before 11am or come after 1pm, with midweek days comfortably calmer than weekends. Through summer 2026 two things are specific to this year: you enter across the Middle Drawbridge while the Middle Tower undergoes conservation until mid-August, and from 25 July to 14 August costumed performers stage "A Tudor To-Do", an Anne Boleyn story woven through the day and included with entry. The moat, meanwhile, remains the wildflower meadow it became after 2022's Superbloom, and if the fortress's newly filed plans come off, it will eventually hold water again for the first time since the 1840s. Today's visitors see the meadow; the wetland is a proposal, not yet a sight.

Arriving is half the pleasure if you do it by water. Tower Hill station (District and Circle lines) is five minutes' walk, but the Thames cruise from Westminster to the Tower (from £20.60) lands you at Tower Pier beside the entrance having seen the fortress the way a thousand years of arrivals did, from the river. Pack light and deliberately: bags larger than roughly 40x30x20cm are not allowed in, everyone passes airport-style screening, and there is no left-luggage inside the walls. If you are between hotels, luggage storage at the Tower of London (from £5.99) solves the problem a few steps from the entrance. Eating inside means the New Armouries cafe; eating memorably means holding out for St Katharine Docks, five minutes east.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tower Bridge included in a Tower of London ticket?

No. They are separate attractions run by different organisations, and a ticket to one does not admit you to the other. They are ten minutes' walk apart, so pairing them in one day works well; a combined Tower of London and Tower Bridge booking (from £132.00) handles both.

How long does the Tower of London take?

Plan for at least three hours. Ninety minutes covers the Crown Jewels and White Tower at a march; three hours adds the Yeoman Warder tour, the battlements and the prisoner stories at a civilised pace, and enthusiasts fill four or more.

What is the best time to visit the Tower of London?

At opening, or after 1pm. The official guidance is that the site is quietest before 11am and in the mid-afternoon, and midweek beats weekends. Whatever time you enter, see the Crown Jewels first, before the mid-morning tour groups reach the Jewel House.

Are the Beefeater tours free?

Yes. Yeoman Warder tours are included with every entry ticket, run through the day and last about an hour, with the final tour at 3:15pm. Arrive early enough to fit one in; it is consistently the highlight of first visits.

Can I see the Ceremony of the Keys?

Yes, and it happens every night at 9:53pm as it has for at least 700 years. The small public allocation books out months in advance, so the reliable route is the after-hours VIP tour, which combines an evening Yeoman Warder tour and Crown Jewels viewing with the ceremony itself.

Can you take photos of the Crown Jewels?

No. Photography is banned inside the Jewel House, and staff enforce it. Everywhere else in the fortress, including the White Tower and battlements, photography for personal use is fine.

Are the Tower of London ravens real?

Very. Eight ravens currently live at the Tower, cared for by the Ravenmaster, a dedicated Yeoman Warder. Legend says the kingdom falls if the ravens leave, so the fortress keeps more than the required six, including two hatched in 2025 named Henry and Poe.

What can I not bring into the Tower of London?

Suitcases, rolling luggage and bags larger than roughly 40x30x20cm are not permitted, and there is no bag storage inside. All visitors pass a security search. Nearby luggage storage at the Tower is available from £5.99.

Building out the rest of the trip? Everything bookable in the capital is at London on tickadoo, our one-day London itinerary shows where the Tower fits in a packed day, we have given the honest-review treatment to the London Eye, and the complete-guide series continues with the Vatican and the Acropolis.