Tower Bridge

Facts and information

Address:: Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Road,
London SE1 2UP
England
Website:: www.towerbridge.org.uk
Opening times:: 9.30 AM to 6 PM (Mon–Sun, Oct–Mar), 10 AM to 6.30 PM (Mon–Sun, Apr–Sep); Last admission 1 hour before closing time
Cost:: Adults £8.00; Children £3.40 (5–15); Infants free (under-5); Family ticket £18.00; Note: Opening times and ticket costs can change at short notice. Opening times may not apply on public holidays.
Telephone:: Work +44 (0) 207 403 3761
Buses:: 15 25 42 47 78 189 343 381RV1
Trains:: Tower Gateway DLR, Tower Hill CR DSNote: The nearest station to Tower Bridge is Tower Hill. We can help plan your journey from Waterloo, King’s Cross and many other stations
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View of Tower Bridge from near the Tower of London

^{Tower Bridge, London} London Tower Bridge at dusk

^{Tower Bridge at dusk} Engine in the Tower Bridge Experience exhibition

^{The ‘Tower Bridge Experience’} Inside the Tower Bridge walkway

^{The Tower Bridge Walkway}

Photograph of Tower Bridge under construction, September 1892

^{Tower Bridge being built, c.1892}

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Tower Bridge is a familiar sight to millions – but it has only been part of London’s skyline for a little over a hundred years. Before that time the most easterly crossing in the capital was London Bridge – but the city’s rapid expansion had put a third of the population beyond it.

By the 1870s things were getting desperate, so a decision was taken to build another one in roughly the same place as the City limits.

Building Tower Bridge

A competition was launched amongst the nation’s engineers with a few tight provisos: 1) London’s docks were still in use, so any bridge had to allow access for tall-masted ships, and 2) it had to allow cars to cross the river.

The winning design came from Horace Jones in 1884. It consisted of a bridge and two towers, 200-feet tall. The central span was split into two so they could be lifted clear of the water by two huge engines. The engines were fed by six water tanks hidden in the towers. (These have now been replaced by electric motors, but have been preserved in the Tower Bridge museum.) The whole process took less than a minute.

Construction began in 1886, and was completed eight years later. It was opened by the future Edward VII in 1894.

Tower Bridge Experience

Entry to the two towers is through The Tower Bridge Experience – a museum exhibition filled with facts and information, with photos, films and holograms. You can read the history of the bridge, and see the original Victorian engines room.

The best reason for visiting the museum, though, is to get upon the tower top walkway – with splendid views across the River Thames.

Discuss Tower Bridge in the forum

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JerrySmith – “Tower Bridge is worth a morning of your time just for the views If I went again, then I would skip the exhibition, because if you're not into architecture or engineering which is most of us, I would imagine then it's quite boring…”
mike – “Although i found the exhibition bit a bit boring i'm not into stuff like that it was well worth it just for the view across the walkway at the top The Tower of London is just next door and you can literally look down into it You c…”

Drummerboy’s blog – Tower Bridge

Drummerboy – “The first bit of the tour is a sit-down movie which lasts about 5 minutes. It’s interesting enough if you like bridges I suppose, but a lot of people didn’t bother waiting for the end and strolled out. The walkways are the most disappointing bit because they are both closed off to the elements. So you’ve got the big steel girders and a further layer of glass behind them. And the little exhibitions are rubbish too. The first one is just a collection of famous bridges around the world. So you’ve got a big picture of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Sydney Harbour Bridge… all padded out with Top Trump facts like how long they are and when they were built… continued.”