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Tower of London

Medieval Palace

Included with Tower of London tickets

Timings

RECOMMENDED DURATION

3 hours

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Quick overview

  • Access: Included in all Tower of London tickets
  • Separate ticket: Not required
  • When you’ll see it: Midway through most self-planned Tower routes
  • Visit duration: 20–30 minutes self-guided/30–40 minutes with a guide or audio guide
  • Best time: First hour after opening on a weekday, before the Crown Jewels queues spread across the site
  • Restrictions: Photography is generally allowed. No food or drink inside buildings; large bags, tripods, and selfie sticks are not allowed
Tower of London with historic stone walls and turrets, United Kingdom.

The Medieval Palace is included with all Tower of London tickets. No separate ticket is needed. It sits on the south side of the fortress inside the paid complex, and most visitors reach it after the Crown Jewels or White Tower, though you can head there directly once inside. Book standard entry for flexibility, or choose a guided or early-entry option for fuller context and quieter rooms.

How to best experience the Medieval Palace

Best time to visit

Go in the first hour after opening on a weekday. The rooms stay quieter before Crown Jewels lines spill across the fortress, and the wall walk is easier to enjoy without stop-start crowding. If you arrive closer to noon, expect tighter doorways, slower movement, and less space to pause.

How long to spend

Allow 20–30 minutes self-guided, or 30–40 minutes with a guide or audio guide. That gives you enough time for the royal chambers, fireplaces, painted details, and river-facing walk. If you cut it to 10 minutes, it feels like a corridor between landmarks rather than a palace.

Where it fits in your itinerary

The Medieval Palace works best midway through your Tower visit, after the Crown Jewels or White Tower. Most visitors have already spent 45–90 minutes on-site by then, so take a short pause before entering. If you arrive tired, the recreated rooms are easy to skim and easier to forget.

Crowd patterns

Crowds build from 11am, especially when guided groups move between the Jewel House and White Tower. In the palace rooms, narrow passages clog before the larger spaces do, so the pinch points come fast. If the site feels hectic, return after 3pm, when movement usually loosens up.

What to prioritize if time is short

If you only have 10–15 minutes, focus on St Thomas’s Tower, the Wakefield Tower chamber, and the wall-walk views over the Thames. Together, they show the palace as a gatehouse, a royal apartment, and a defended residence. Skip slower detours elsewhere in the fortress, not these rooms.

Common mistakes to avoid

Don’t treat it as a pass-through between bigger headline stops. Look closely at fireplaces, beds, wall colours, and window views, because those details explain how the Tower functioned as a residence. Also, keep strollers light here — narrow passages and steps slow you down faster than open courtyards.

Best tickets to experience the Medieval Palace

Ticket typeWhy choose it

Standard entry

Best if you want full access and the freedom to fit the palace around the Crown Jewels and White Tower.

Guided tour

Best if you want the palace rooms explained within the wider story of kings, prisoners, and royal ceremony.

Early access or Beefeater meet & greet

Best if you want quieter grounds first and reach the palace before the fortress feels congested.

Why it’s worth seeing

What makes the Medieval Palace worth your time is that it shows the Tower as a lived-in royal residence, not just a prison or treasury. Most first-time visitors don’t realise these rooms are staged to recover daily court life through furniture, colour, and domestic details, not just stone walls. The spaces below make most sense when you follow them as a sequence — from guarded river entrance to royal chambers.

St Thomas’s Tower

This is where the palace meets the river, and the defensive story becomes personal. Look first at the gate passage below, then at the furnished upper rooms above it. The contrast matters: the same structure controlled who entered by water and housed members of the royal household just overhead.

Wakefield Tower

This is the room that most clearly shifts the Tower from fortress to residence. Look for the throne arrangement, chapel references, and hearths that made long stays possible. It matters because it shows kings receiving guests, holding court, and living inside walls that most visitors associate only with imprisonment.

Lanthorn Tower and the wall walk

Continue toward the more private rooms and then out to the river-facing walk. This stretch links bedchamber-style interiors with open defensive views, showing how closely royal comfort sat beside military watchfulness. Pause at the windows toward the Thames — the palace’s prestige and strategic value become obvious from there.

Historical and cultural significance

Long before the Tower became shorthand for imprisonment, these chambers were developed in the 13th century under Henry III and Edward I for royal living. The Medieval Palace turned a fortress into a working court, with halls, private apartments, and ceremonial rooms inside the walls. Today, the reconstructed interiors matter because they restore that lost role and show the Tower as a residence, not only a place of confinement.

👉 Explore the full history of the Tower of London

Notable figures

Henry III | King and rebuilder

Expanded the Tower into a more comfortable royal residence in the 13th century.

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Eleanor of Provence | Queen consort

Helped shape the courtly world these royal apartments were built to support.

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Edward I | King and fortifier

Extended the Tower’s defences and completed palace elements that visitors still trace today.

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Know before you go

  • Open: Tuesday–Saturday, 9am–5:30pm; Sunday–Monday, 10am–5:30pm
  • Last entry: 3:30pm
  • Closed: December 24–26, and January 1
  • Timed entry: Arrive within 30 minutes of your selected Tower entry slot

​Detailed timings

Address: Tower of London, London EC3N 4AB, United Kingdom

  • Nearest metro: Tower Hill station, about a 3-minute walk to the main entrance
  • Entry point: Use the main visitor entrance from the Tower Hill side, not a separate Medieval Palace entrance
  • Time to reach it: Allow about 10–15 minutes from the gate if you walk there directly inside the fortress
  • Route note: You can visit it independently once inside, but it is only accessible as part of the full Tower complex

​Get directions

  • Wheelchair access: Partial; the wider Tower site has accessible areas, but not every Medieval Palace section is step-free
  • Prams and strollers: Partial; open courtyards are easier than the palace rooms and wall-walk sections
  • Guide dogs: Welcome at the Tower of London
  • Companion tickets: Complimentary carer tickets are available on the day with valid supporting documents at the Ticket Office
  • On-site help: Ask staff on arrival for the most accessible route through the Tower grounds before heading to the palace rooms

​Plan your visit

  • Photography: Generally allowed in the Medieval Palace; the main Tower no-photo zones are the Jewel House and Chapel of St John
  • Food and drink: Not allowed inside Tower buildings
  • Large items: Luggage, large bags, tripods, selfie sticks, and similar recording equipment are not allowed
  • Smoking: Not allowed inside buildings
  • Re-entry: Your Tower ticket is valid for one entry only; once you leave, you can’t re-enter

​Plan your visit

  • Stairs: Expect steps, thresholds, and some narrow medieval staircases
  • Surfaces: Floors can be uneven, and passageways are tighter than in the main courtyards
  • Standing time: Plan on 20–30 minutes with mostly continuous walking and standing
  • Difficulty: Moderate; manageable for many visitors, but less comfortable if stairs or tight spaces are difficult for you
  • Alternative approach: If needed, focus on the more accessible ground-level parts of the Tower and skip tighter upper sections

​Plan your visit

Frequently asked questions about the Medieval Palace

Yes. Entry to the Medieval Palace is included with every valid Tower of London ticket. No separate ticket exists.

More reads

Tower of London tickets, highlights, and planning guide

Crown Jewels guide: what to see inside first

White Tower highlights, armor rooms, and key stories