Included with Tower of London tickets
Timings
RECOMMENDED DURATION
3 hours
The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula is included with all Tower of London tickets. No separate ticket is needed. It sits inside the inner ward beside Tower Green, so you usually reach it midway through a self-guided visit or at the end of a Yeoman Warder tour. Book a guided tour or early-entry option if you want the Tudor burial stories explained before the wider Tower crowds build.
The chapel is calmest in the first hour after opening, before the Crown Jewels queue swells and guided groups bunch around Tower Green. Late afternoon is the other quieter window. Avoid late morning if you want time to read the memorials properly.
Allow 15–20 minutes on your own, or 20–30 minutes if you’re pairing it with guide commentary. That gives you enough time to study the burial markers and wall tablets. If you only peek in, the chapel can feel anonymous.
Most visitors reach the chapel after orienting themselves in the inner ward or after a Yeoman Warder talk. It works well after the Crown Jewels rush or a White Tower visit. Don’t leave it for the final minutes when your concentration is already fading.
Crowds are heaviest from around 11am–2pm, when Tower Green, Beefeater groups, and school parties overlap. Inside, that means slower movement and less room to pause near the chancel. Quieter windows make the chapel’s memorial details much easier to follow.
Go straight to the chancel and look down at the floor memorials linked to Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey. Then scan the wall tablets around the nave. If time is tight, skip general panels elsewhere, not this room.
Most visitors enter expecting a grand cathedral and leave in two minutes. This chapel is small, and the story is under your feet rather than overhead. Look down immediately, and don’t talk through it as if it were just another passageway.
| Ticket type | Why choose it |
|---|---|
Standard entry | Best if you want a flexible Tower visit and can pause in the chapel after the busiest Crown Jewels rush. |
Guided tour | Best for Tudor context; the chapel’s burials land harder once a guide connects them to Tower Green. |
Early access with Beefeater meet & greet | Best if you want a quieter start and sharper focus before the Tower’s main midday crowd builds. |
What makes this chapel irreplaceable within the Tower is that some of its most famous stories end here, beneath the floor rather than in a display case. Many visitors don’t realize Anne Boleyn’s remains were identified during 19th-century excavations and re-marked near the chancel. Once you know that, the room changes from a simple parish chapel into one of the Tower’s most charged spaces. These are the details worth finding once you step inside.
Walk toward the altar and look down in the chancel. This is the area most visitors come for, because it marks the burials associated with Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey. The drama of Tower history is literally underfoot here.
Pause along the side walls and read the tablets rather than moving straight back out. They widen the story beyond the famous queens, linking the chapel to other Tower prisoners and officials. This is where the room stops being a single-story Tudor site.
Stand halfway down the central aisle and turn slowly from the pews to the altar. From here, the chapel’s scale makes sense: it is smaller, plainer, and more intimate than most visitors expect. That restraint is part of why the burials feel so immediate.
For centuries, this small chapel has been the Tower’s parish church and the place where some of its most famous dead were buried or commemorated. It was built for worship, but it became inseparable from Tudor politics after figures such as Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, John Fisher, Thomas More, and Lady Jane Grey were linked to it. It still functions as a royal chapel today.
👉 Explore the full history of the Tower of London
Executed in 1536 and buried here beneath the chancel after a hurried, unmarked funeral.
Henry VIII’s fifth wife was executed in 1542 and buried here near Anne Boleyn.
Executed in 1554, her burial gives the chapel one of its most tragic associations.
Executed in 1535; later commemorated here among the Tower’s most prominent prisoners.
Executed in 1535 for resisting Henry VIII’s supremacy, and commemorated with the chapel’s Tudor dead.
Address: Tower of London, London EC3N 4AB, United Kingdom
Yes. Entry to the chapel is included with every valid Tower of London ticket. No separate ticket exists.
No. Any Tower of London ticket gets you in. Guided and early-entry options simply give you more context, or a quieter start.
No. The chapel has no independent entrance. You must enter through the Tower and reach it from the inner ward near Tower Green.
You’ll usually see it midway through your Tower visit. Allow about 10–15 minutes from the entrance if you walk there directly.
Allow 15–20 minutes self-guided, or 20–30 minutes with context from a guide. The burial slabs and memorials are easy to miss if you rush.
Yes. Many Tower guided tours and Yeoman Warder talks include the chapel’s Tudor burials and Tower Green stories.
No formal separate dress code is usually published. Dress respectfully, because this is still a working royal chapel.
Yes. Keep voices low and follow staff instructions. It’s a chapel first, so the atmosphere is quieter than the exhibition spaces nearby.
Partially. The wider Tower has uneven surfaces and step-heavy areas, but the chapel sits at ground level inside the inner ward.
Yes, but worship access is different from standard sightseeing. Check Historic Royal Palaces before planning your visit around a service.
What to bring
What’s not allowed
Accessibility
Additional information
Inclusions #
Entry to the Tower of London
Access to the Crown Jewels
Entry to the White Tower, Battlements, Bloody Tower, Torture at the Tower exhibition, Fusiliers Museum, and Royal Mint exhibition
Additional paid upgrades:
Access to Headout’s exclusive AI-powered audioguide app (English only, iPhone required)
Early access entry to the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels Collection
Escorted entry to the Tower of London
Guided tour of the Tower of London
Entry to Bloody Tower
Expert English-speaking tour guide
An English-speaking City Wonders tour leader
A private audience with a Beefeater for your group
Flexible Thames River cruise
Small group of max. 20-30 guests
Exclusions #
Gratuities
Food and drink
Hotel transfers
What to bring
Tower Bridge
What’s not allowed
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
Accessibility
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
Additional information
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
Inclusions #
Tower of London
Entry to the Tower of London
Access to The Crown Jewels
Tower Bridge
Entry tickets to Tower Bridge
Access to the Engine Rooms
Exclusions #
Tower of London + Tower Bridge
Food and drink
Hotel transfers
What’s not allowed
Accessibility
Additional information
Inclusions #
Skip-the-line access to the Tower of London
Access to the Crown Jewels
Guided tour of the Tower of London
English-speaking guide
Additional paid upgrades:
Early access to the Tower of London
15-min private meet and greet with a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater)
Access to the Opening Ceremony
Flexible Thames River cruise
Small group of max. 20 guests
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Gratuities
Hotel transfers
What to bring Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
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Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
Accessibility Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
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Tower of London
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Westminster Abbey
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Multimedia guide in Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Japanese, Italian, Hungarian, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, and English
Tower of London
Entry to the Tower of London
Access to the Crown Jewels
Entry to the White Tower, Battlements, Bloody Tower, Torture at the Tower exhibition, Fusiliers Museum, Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, Medieval Palace, Royal Mint exhibition
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Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
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Tower of London
London Eye
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Tower of London
London Eye
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Tower of London
London Eye
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Tower of London
Entry to the Tower of London
Access to the Crown Jewels
Entry to the White Tower, Battlements, Bloody Tower, Torture at the Tower exhibition, Fusiliers Museum, and Royal Mint exhibition
London Eye
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