- Situated along the Thames in central London, the Tower of London is the most booked attraction in the UK, according to newly released data from TripAdvisor.
- A former prison and the site of numerous executions during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it’s also where the British royal family’s Crown Jewels are stored.
- Having only recently moved to the city, I had never been to the Tower of London, so decided to pay it a visit mid-morning on a Wednesday.
- The grounds were much bigger than I was expecting – and I was shocked to find out 150 people live there full-time today.
- I was also blown away by the lack of crowds and selfie-snappers considering how popular the attraction is each year.
- Despite the admission price of £24.70 ($32), I’d definitely go back.
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The most booked tourist attraction in the UK is the Tower of London, according to new data from TripAdvisor – and yet until last week, having only recently moved to London, I’d never been.
Formely home to a prison and the site of numerous executions during the Middle Ages and Renaissance (including the 16th century beheading of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII), it’s also where the British royal family’s Crown Jewels are stored.
I decided to go see what it was like for myself, and fully expected it to be slammed with tourists. However, I was surprised to find this was not the case at all – and the surprises didn’t end there.
I knew the place had a lot of history (about 1,000 years, in fact), but I didn’t know that about 150 people still live on the grounds full-time to this day.
Situated on the bank of the Thames, there was so much to see and experience - like interacting with the famed Beefeaters in their unique costumes, wandering the countless passageways, and checking out the surprising amount of wildlife moseying about the expansive grounds.
Here's what it's like to visit - and why the £24.70 ($32) admission was worthy every penny.
I visited mid-morning on a Wednesday, which was luckily a mostly rain-free winter day. Exiting the tube, I was expecting huge crowds.
It had been pouring down rain the days leading up to it, so I figured the people getting off at Tower Hill tube station would be making the most of the weather.
However, walking outside the Tower along the Thames, I was surprised I could actually move around without bumping into someone.
Sure, there were people around, but not an obscenely large number - even my morning commute from where I lived near Canary Wharf to the Insider office was usually more crowded.
There were the expected food stands and gift shops, but they didn't look terribly busy.
Rent along the Thames in central London isn't cheap, meaning all the restaurants, cafes, and gift shops surely have a lot of customers - but not today.
Even the ice skating rink next to the Tower wasn't as busy as I was anticipating.
You would think an ice skating rink with a backdrop as beautiful as the Tower of London would have a line stretching for miles. Instead, there was no line at all.
There wasn't even much of a line to actually go inside the Tower complex.
There was a massive square next to the Tower, so I assumed the line must get busy at times.
I had pre-purchased my ticket online, which allowed me access any time during my chosen day. Flashing my ticket at the small kiosk, followed by a quick waving of a wand by security, I was in.
It was about 10 seconds from the time the woman at the small kiosk checking tickets handed me my free map to when I passed the two security guards checking people's bags and waving metal-detecting wands. Efficient.
First, though, a bit of background. As most people know, the Tower of London is old — nearly 1,000 years old.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the oldest parts of the Tower of London date to the 11th century. In the years since, it's been steadily expanded - though today space is a bit harder to come by, as it's surrounded by the Thames and the skyscrapers of modern London.
Today it's the most-booked tourist attraction in the UK.
According to TripAdvisor, the Tower of London is the most booked attraction in the United Kingdom, beating out Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge, the London Eye, Loch Ness, and more.
Most people know it for holding some very famous prisoners — and executions — like Anne Boleyn.
From Anne Boleyn - the wife of Henry VIII who was infamously beheaded in the 16th century for not giving birth to a son - to high-ranking Nazi Rudolf Hess, a number of history's most famous (and infamous) people have been held in or executed at the Tower.
Many people believe it's terribly haunted.
Stories of hauntings at the Tower of London are numerous. For centuries, staff and visitors alike have claimed to have seen and heard all manner of ghosts and other supernatural spirits - some harmless, others downright malevolent.
In 2003, during three consecutive winter days, staff were called to close a fire door. On the first day, CCTV footage captured the doors being flung open for seemingly no reason. On the second day, the doors again were flung open at about the same time - only this time, the footage also captured a robed figure suddenly appearing to close the doors. The doors again were flung open on the third day - but there was no one to be seen to close them.
I did not have any supernatural encounters during my visit. But tales of ghosts at the Tower of London are so prevalent, there are now special ghost tours people can take.
One prisoner even wrote a famous book while being held within the Tower's walls.
Imprisoned by James I in the 17th century on charges of high treason for alleged involvement in the so-called Main Plot to remove the king, explorer and writer Sir Walter Raleigh spent more than a decade in the Tower of London. While there, he fathered a son, and wrote his most famous book, "The Historie (sic) of the World."
The site was a lot bigger than I had assumed it would be.
The Tower grounds themselves encompass about 12 acres - and contain many walls, battlements, and, of course, towers. In other words: the name "Tower of London" refers to a whole lot more than a single tower.
Living in an area of London that's very new, and having recently moved from the even newer Dubai, I was immediately awed by the old architecture.
Sure, there are surprisingly old parts of Dubai, but they're few and far between. This is obviously not the case in London, where history is all around. It's one thing to see pictures of old things - it leaves a much more lasting impression to physically be there.
I was also surprised not to see hordes of selfie-snappers.
The Tower seemed to have been built for Instagram. I was baffled. Had I unknowingly stumbled into a parallel universe where selfie sticks did not exist?
There were still crowds in places, though, especially anywhere a Beefeater was.
The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary - better known as Beefeaters - are the first thing many people think of when they think of the Tower, or medieval London.
Originally guards for prisoners and the crown jewels, today they are mostly tour guides - but, partially due to the fact they still wear the same distinctive dark, red-trimmed uniforms they have for centuries, they are very popular ones.
While parts of the Tower have obviously been refurbished over time, even the bathrooms didn't seem too out of place.
Everything at the Tower at least looked old. That included the bathrooms, housed inside buildings that likely didn't have indoor plumbing when they were first built.
The Tower's location, dwarfed by modern skyscrapers all around, made it feel like I was inside a snowglobe.
Surrounded by the likes of the Shard on one side of the Thames, and on the other, the distinctive Gherkin, the Leadenhall Building, and the other skyscrapers of central London, being inside the Tower of London felt like being in a bubble. The feeling was only intensified as, every few minutes, modern jet planes would roar overhead.
Signs had all sorts of interesting facts, like how much the Tower's famed ravens eat.
Apparently the ravens that live at the Tower of London eat about 170 grams of raw meat a day - plus "bird biscuits" that are soaked in blood. Grim, but fascinating.
There was also graffiti left behind by prisoners.
What struck me about the graffiti - preserved behind glass and with plaques describing who likely created them and what they were about - was how intricate they were. Instead of simple scratchings saying something like "Jane was here," many were highly detailed carvings.
There were numerous sculptures of the actual animals once kept there, like bears, elephants, and lions.
The Tower of London once hosted live lions, bears, baboons, elephants, and more. Now, visitors can see life-size sculptures made from galvanized chicken wire mesh. The sculptures were created by British artist Kendra Haste.
Other sculptures portrayed soldiers from the Middle Ages.
The site of countless battles over the centuries, along many of the battlements were large metal sculptures of what appeared to be soldiers in medieval armor, brandishing weapons that would've been used back then.
There were also modern soldiers standing guard — real ones this time.
There were British Navy sailors and Army soldiers, only pacing back and forth ceremoniously every now and again, and twirling their rifles so fast they were almost a blur.
They stood as still as statues.
As people crowded around them to take photos, I had no idea how the soldiers did it - even their eyes hardly moved at all.
A few of the soldiers were guarding the entrance to the Jewel House, where the British royal family's Crown Jewels are kept.
The public can see the Crown Jewels. I'll remember their glint - I'll have to, since photos weren't allowed inside.
Just as shiny and beautiful as I imagined they would be, there wasn't much time to look at the Crown Jewels, unfortunately: on both sides, people movers kept visitors constantly moving along. And forget about even sneaking a photo: as soon as someone even looked like they were reaching into their pocket, one of the many guards would yell at them not to.
At the center of the whole complex was the White Tower.
Built in the 11th century, the White Tower was whitewashed (hence the name) in the 13th century. The rest of the Tower of London complex is built around it, and it's the tallest part, too.
The most fortified part of the Tower, the White Tower contains armories, a chapel, and is where queens, kings, and other high officials would usually stay. What amazed me most, though, was how well-preserved it was. It looked more like the set from a movie than a real castle keep.
With so many visitors, I feared staff wouldn't be friendly, but I found this couldn't be further from the truth.
You would imagine that, with people asking for pictures with you all the time and asking the same questions over and over again, Beefeaters might be a bit standoffish. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Seemingly permanently smiling, even their walks seemed to have a happy spring to them.
But like my recent experience at the famed department store Harrods, it was the friendliness of the people living and working there that made the visit to the Tower of London truly memorable.
I was amazed to learn that around 150 people actually call the Tower of London home.
One of the Beefeaters said they make up an entire community, and a whole section of the complex's southwest corner seemed to be set aside for homes.
There was a lot more wildlife than I was expecting, like birds and squirrels – but few of the Tower ravens.
The Tower is famous for its large ravens, but I only saw one of them flapping about while I was there. I did see hundreds upon hundreds of seagulls, though.
About three hours after I first arrived, it was time to leave — which was even easier than going in.
The website had suggested I would need three hours inside, and I found this to be pretty spon on. "Way out" signs all around, I walked slowly through the archways and across the bridge near the Traitors' Gate toward the Thames.
For what I got for my £24.70 ($32) ticket, the Tower of London was a great value. Even if it is a bit tourist-y, it's still a fun thing to do in London.
I don't know what the experience would be like with more people around, but with the crowds relatively sparse midweek, a trip to the Tower of London was a lot of fun - and is definitely something I'd do again with friends and family who come to visit.
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