Review: Tower of London

Discover the UK’s history under guidance of a Beefeater

Review by Vincent Alblas

Some people might say that visiting the Tower of London is as standard and unoriginal as visiting the Eiffel Tower when you’re in Paris or making a canal tour when you’re in Amsterdam. To be honest, I totally agree with those people. However, so I thought, there must be a reason why 2.5 million people visit this centuries-old Royal Palace (they’re even prepared to pay £17 for an entrance ticket – quite unbelievable for me as a cheap Dutchman). Anyway, with pain in my heart I moved my feet from tube station Tower Hill to the entrance of the Royal Palace and emptied my pockets in front of the lady behind the ticket counter. And then, I entered through the gate (insert trumpets and horns).

My experience

All right, I can give you the long story or the short story, but in order to save time and to spare you from getting eye diseases from staring at your monitor too long, I will give you the short one (knowing myself I will end up with a 50 page review anyway).

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, I entered through the gate. No wait, I didn’t. I first waited 20 minutes near the ticket counter, because I wanted to get on a free guided tour. Finally, at 1 o’clock Kevin showed up. Kevin who? Kevin the Beefeater of course. If you don’t know who the Beefeaters are, they are the guys in carnival outfit who protect the queen and all her possessions with swords and cannons. Yes, they are kind of traditional looking, but Kevin the Beefeater really made my day. With a great sense of humor he showed us (me and a few hundred other foreigners) the medieval car park, told us about the most favorite hobby in the middle-ages (decapitating and hanging people), and he claimed that the only reason why historians know that the Middle Tower is called Middle Tower is because it says so on the plastic tourist sign that hangs on the tower’s façade.

In one hour with guide Kevin I got a quick update on the UK’s history and the Tower of London’s history in particular. We saw the Crown’s Jewels (nice bling-bling) and literally walked over dead people in one of the chapels. Because I’m really interested in history, I even visited the tourist shop, and I almost got tempted to buy a history book ― until I suddenly realized that Wikipedia is much cheaper.

Directions

Walk from the hostel to King’s Cross / St Pancras tube station and take the Circle line to Tower Hill station. The Tower of London is right next to it.

Hot tip

Do the guided tour! As I described, the tour guides are funny and have a great knowledge of the Tower of London. Plus the guided tour doesn’t cost extra, which is always good.

More info

Entrance fee: £17 for adults, £14,50 for students – guided tour: free, audio tour: £4,00, additional entrance fee for the Royal Fusiliers Museum: £5,00.

London review pages.