Tower Bridge
A Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk London offline.
Ride to the walkways 44 m above the Thames, stand on the glass floor over passing traffic, then descend to the Victorian engine rooms where the original steam machinery that once raised the bridge still sits.
What to look for
- Glass floor panels added to the walkways in 2014 — look straight down as cars and pedestrians cross beneath your feet.
- The blue-and-white paint from the 2008–2010 refurbishment, replacing the red-white-and-blue the bridge had worn since the 1977 Silver Jubilee.
- Granite and Portland stone that's only cladding — the two Gothic towers are really a steel skeleton.
Bascules lift roughly 1,000 times a year on a schedule posted on the bridge's official website — time your visit to catch a raise.
Tower Bridge is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Palace of WestminsterA working parliament whose rules, by tradition, still assume MPs might draw swords on each other.