Visiting the Tower Bridge Experience, London
On our weekend in London a couple of weeks ago we took the children to the Tower Bridge Exhibition. Tower Bridge is one of the most iconic structures in London – if not the world – and so when we were given the opportunity to play tourists we just had to see it up close – and from the inside out too! It’s a great day out for the whole family even on a rainy day and definitely a fantastic London attraction to visit with children.
Tower Bridge has been one of London’s most iconic buildings since it was completed in 1894, taking eight years to build. It is now owned by a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. It’s known all over the world and visitors are treated to an amazing view of the City from one the two walkways that span the bridge over two hundred feet in the air above the Thames. The recent addition of glass floors on both walkways gives another unique perspective on the busy London life passing underneath.
Tower Bridge is able to open in the middle to allow larger ships to get further into London, whilst keeping disruption to pedestrians and traffic to a minimum which is a sight we even managed to see on our trip – something none of us had seen before.
Tower Bridge was originally designed to run on steam engines that are set beneath each side of the bridge and able to open in just sixty seconds. Nowadays, the engine rooms are very well looked after visitor attractions and form part of the whole Tower Bridge experience. The bridge still opens on average more than a thousand times a year and is well worth waiting for.
The children loved climbing up the stairs to the top of Tower Bridge, walking across the walkways and seeing London from a whole new perspective. They loved looking through the glass floors and investigating the engine rooms afterwards. It’s worth noting that this really isn’t a pushchair friendly experience – although we saw a lot of people struggling up stairs with them. The children did complain of the amount of steps once or twice but it was well worth the climb for the incredible view.
It’s not every day you get to go inside such an iconic building and the views from the top really were incredible. It was also great to learn more about such a huge part of the London skyline and the lengths it took to build it too. I know it’s an attraction the children will never forget experiencing.
