Included with Tower of London tickets
Timings
RECOMMENDED DURATION
3 hours
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
| Ticket type | Why 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. |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Expanded the Tower into a more comfortable royal residence in the 13th century.
Helped shape the courtly world these royal apartments were built to support.
Extended the Tower’s defences and completed palace elements that visitors still trace today.
Address: Tower of London, London EC3N 4AB, United Kingdom
Yes. Entry to the Medieval Palace is included with every valid Tower of London ticket. No separate ticket exists.
No. Any Tower of London ticket gets you in. Guided or early-entry options simply change how much context or quiet time you get.
No. The Medieval Palace has no separate entrance. You must enter the Tower of London first, then walk to the palace rooms inside the walls.
Usually midway through a self-planned visit. Allow about 45–90 minutes from the entrance if you start with the Crown Jewels or White Tower.
Plan 20–30 minutes self-guided, or 30–40 minutes with a guide or audio guide. The recreated rooms reward a slower look.
Yes. Guided tours include Tower entry, and you can visit the Medieval Palace during or after the guided portion.
Yes. Photography is generally allowed in the Medieval Palace. The main Tower no-photo zones are the Jewel House and Chapel of St John.
Partially. Some rooms and the wall walk involve stairs, narrow passages, and uneven surfaces, so not every section is step-free.
Yes, if you have time for one extra stop. It shows the Tower’s royal-living side in about 20–30 minutes.
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
Exclusions #
Gratuities
Hotel transfers
What to bring Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
What’s not allowed Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
Accessibility Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
Additional information Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
Inclusions #
Westminster Abbey
Entry to Westminster Abbey
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
Access to the children's activity trails and live historical re-enactments
Exclusions #
Westminster Abbey + Tower of London
Gratuities
Food and drink
Hotel transfers
What’s not allowed
Tower of London
London Eye
Accessibility
Tower of London
London Eye
Additional information
Tower of London
London Eye
Inclusions #
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
Entry to the London Eye
30-min ride on the London Eye
Additional paid upgrades:
London Eye
Exclusions #
Tower of London + London Eye
Food and drink
Transfers
