Things to do in Tower Hill, London

Tower Hill is (understandably) best known for the mighty Tower Bridge and Tower of London, but there are plenty more historic attractions to explore in the area. We’re talking ancient Roman ramparts, atmospheric docks and the world’s oldest music hall, to mention but a few. Join us on a voyage of discovery as we reveal the best things to do in Tower Hill, London – and beyond!

By <a href="#author-bio">Stuart Bak</a>
By Stuart Bak
Published: March 13, 2025
London Bridge in spring

Things to do in Tower Hill: The Essentials

Group of friends taking a selfie near Tower Bridge

Tower Hill’s iron grip on the tourist dollar can be attributed to just two London attractions. But, boy, are they biggies. Here’s the lowdown on Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

Tower Bridge

Perhaps *the* most photographed landmark in London, Tower Bridge is instantly recognisable from its graceful suspension cables, soaring Gothic Revival turrets and glass-floored elevated walkway. One of the best ways to experience this feat of Victorian engineering is by grabbing breakfast in Borough Market (by London Bridge station) and strolling the South Bank, where hordes of selfie takers preen, pose and pout for their close-ups, using London’s best Tower Bridge views as the stunning backdrop.

Want to get closer? Pedestrian walkways mean you can walk from one side of the bridge to the other (you’ll need a head for heights when the bascules are raised though!). But if you fancy (ahem) elevating your experience further still, it’s the viewing platform you want, with sweeping vistas downriver to St Paul’s Cathedral, The Shard and beyond. The gallery’s floor is made of glass, so you can look straight down beneath your feet at the pedestrians, boats and buses far below. Entry also includes a peep at the old Victorian engine rooms.

The Tower of London

Person walking their dog at the Tower of London

What can be said about the Tower of London that hasn’t been said before? Not much, that’s what. But among the quirkier facts relating to this 11th-century fortress are the following…

  1. It contained a menagerie for more than 600 years, with beasts including monkeys, lions, a polar bear and an African elephant among the medieval inhabitants.
  2. The most famous non-human residents today are the Tower’s six ravens – a centuries-old superstition has it that the kingdom will fall if they ever make a flap for freedom. 
  3. Among the many people executed here were gouty serial monogamist Henry VIII’s second and fifth wives. Anne Boleyn’s ghost is said to haunt the Tower to this day (Catherine Howard is busy elsewhere, spooking visitors to Hampton Court Palace).

Whether you’re here to catch a ghost or simply to ogle the eye-popping Crown Jewels, The London Pass® is your friend. Check out our complete guide to visiting the Tower of London, then choose your pass for maximum savings. Pro-tip: The London Pass® also includes entry to Tower Bridge and dozens more top London attractions.

Things to do in Tower Hill: Beyond the Tower

St Katharine Docks in London

There are plenty more things to do in and around Tower Hill that involve neither bascules nor beheadings. Here are just a few of our faves…

  • St Katharine Docks. Just east of Tower Bridge on the north bank of the Thames, this urban marina has a rich history as one of London’s busiest commercial ports. Commerce is still king here, but in a far more refined way: think indie boutiques and chichi coffee houses. There are also frequent outdoor exhibitions, a fountain paying tribute to British tennis icon Virgina Wade and, of course, those permanently swoonsome views of the boats passing beneath Tower Bridge. Check out what’s on at the Docks here.
  • All Hallows-by-the-Tower. Only the oldest church in the City of London, All Hallows has survived Great Fires, blitzes (just) and diarist Samuel Pepys climbing its tower. Inside, you can ogle treasures including medieval fonts, statues and brass rubbings, as well as an excavated section of Roman pavement in the crypt museum.
  • London Wall. Roman ruins tickle your pickle? Good news: there are more nearby. Mosey over to Tower Hill Tube station, outside which you can find one of the most impressive remaining sections of the great Roman wall that once encircled the city of Londinium.
  • Wilton’s Music Hall. Ok, so technically this one’s just over county lines in Shadwell, but who’s counting? Head north from St Katharine Dock for a peek into the world of Victorian music halls. Not just any old music hall, but the oldest in the world, Wilton’s boasts original features including ornate balconies and cast-iron pillars, and continues to thrive as an eclectic arts venue to this day. Find out what’s on here.

Things to do near Tower Hill, London

Jack the Ripper-style figure wandering dark and gloomy streets

Tower Hill is also a fine jumping-off point for many more top London attractions, not least because you can simply hop on a boat at Tower Pier for destinations including Westminster and Greenwich, both of which contain more London Pass highlights than you can shake a very large stick at. What else? Oh yes…

  • Whitechapel. Go for the Jack the Ripper tours and old-school Victorian vibes; stay for artisan crafts at Spitalfields Market, contemporary art exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, and some of the best bagels (and street art) in town along the storied cobbles of Brick Lane.
  • Sky Garden. The highest public garden in London – way up top of the Fenchurch Building (aka ‘the Walkie-Talkie’) – is free to enter. Expect colourful hothouse plants including the African Lily and Bird of Paradise, not to mention blooming fantastic views of the City of London.
  • HMS Belfast. Militaria mavens will find much to enjoy at this hulking vessel, a decommissioned Naval warship that’s now a permanent museum. You’ll find it (actually, you can’t really miss it) moored in the middle of the Thames within view of Tower Bridge.
  • Monument. It’s hard to believe that this Monument to the Great Fire of London was briefly the tallest structure in the city, following its completion in 1677. Now somewhat dwarfed by the glass-and-steel jungle that's sprung up all around it, the OG still packs a fair old punch, not least for those who brave the narrow 311-step internal staircase up to its lofty viewing platform. The reward? Splendid skyline views… and a certificate to prove that your little legs made it all the way to the top.
Monument to the Great Fire of London

Looking for more things to do in Tower Hill and elsewhere around London? The London Pass® includes savings on entry to nearly 100 top attractions, tours and activities. Click to find out more and choose your pass.

Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Freelance travel writer

Stu caught the travel bug at an early age, thanks to childhood road trips to the south of France squeezed into the back of a Ford Cortina with two brothers and a Sony Walkman. Now a freelance writer living on the Norfolk coast, Stu has produced content for travel giants including Frommer’s, British Airways, Expedia, Mr & Mrs Smith, and now Go City. His most memorable travel experiences include drinking kava with the locals in Fiji and pranging a taxi driver’s car in the Honduran capital.

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The Royal Naval College in Greenwich, South London.
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South London Attractions

South London is the catch-all term employed for much of the area ‘sarf’ of the River Thames, a mystical zone where West End cabbies fear to tread and where the cool kids hang out at trendy Peckham and Brixton cocktail bars. It’s also where you’ll find fab London landmarks like the Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs, Brockwell Lido, and the fascinating Horniman Museum with its famously overstuffed walrus mascot. Read on for our pick of the South London attractions you should go out of your way to see. Greenwich There are a great many attractions to tempt day trippers to ultra-hip Greenwich, the historic village that sits on a sharp bend of the Thames’s south bank. Chief among these are the Cutty Sark, Royal Museums and Royal Observatory, but there’s loads more to enjoy here. Shop the cute Greenwich Market (and sample some of the wonderful street food here while you’re at it); take in fine city views from Greenwich Park; and check out the latest contemporary art, fashion and photography from local artists at the NOW Gallery. But, most of all, don’t miss the chance to take a stroll beneath the Thames itself, via the awesome Greenwich Foot Tunnel. This marvel of early 20th-century engineering is 1,215 feet of cast-iron, concrete and white-glazed tiles, set 50 feet beneath the surface of the river. Emerge at the southern tip of the Isle of Dogs for spellbinding views back across the Thames to the Royal Observatory. The Crystal Palace Park Dinosaurs Named for the huge glass structure that was relocated here from Hyde Park following the Great Exhibition in 1851 (but sadly now long gone), Crystal Palace Park is a typical Victorian pleasure garden that retains many of its playful original features and quirks. Case in point: the much-loved crumbling dinosaur sculptures that bask in and around the lake. What these beautiful beasts lack in realism they more than make up for in charm, with the high camp of the megalosaurus proving a particular highlight. Fill your boots with fun selfies then stroll the park’s curvaceous lanes, taking in replica sphinxes, haunted statues, a cool maze, and Crystal Palace Bowl, the legendary outdoor venue where Bob Marley played his last ever UK gig. Horniman Museum and Gardens It’s a truth universally acknowledged that London’s smaller museums are often its most interesting. The Horniman proves the theory by way of a fascinating collection of some 350,000 anthropological artifacts that includes Asian puppets, European wind instruments, Navajo textiles and more. Equally eye-popping is the natural history section, where the menagerie of taxidermy beasts of yore includes the overstuffed walrus that is the museum’s emblem. He’s been around since 1901– that's as long as the museum itself. Look out too for the ‘Horniman merman’ – truly the stuff of nightmares. Brockwell Lido Swimming outdoors at all times of year is a peculiar pastime of South Londoners, with the hardiest of swimmers frequenting the iconic Brockwell Lido right through the depths of winter. Let’s be clear: this art-deco South London landmark is a) open-air and b) unheated, so you might want to consider visiting in the somewhat sultrier summer months, rather than during a January blizzard. Though, boy, nothing will earn you the right to that post-dip hot chocolate (with extra marshmallows) faster than a 40°F dip in your smalls. Brixton Village Brixton’s bright lights and eye-candy street art will have your camera popping the second you step off the Tube. Pay homage at the shrine to Brixton boy David Bowie, then follow the huge neon sign down Electric Avenue to Brixton Village, humming the classic Eddy Grant hit as you go. Inside this covered foodie mecca, trains thunder overhead and the heady aromas of jerk chicken and freshly roasted coffee intermingle. Roll the dice and take your pick from – deep breath – artisan pizza, belly-busting burritos, dirty burgers, Vietnamese street food and more. But the smart money here goes on colorful modern Caribbean cuisine: curried mutton roti, cod fish fritters, fried plantain and spicy rice for the win. Dulwich Picture Gallery Housed in a Grade II-listed early 19th-century building designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane, Dulwich Picture Gallery packs a quite extraordinary punch for its relatively diminutive size. For inside this South London gem is where you’ll find one of the country’s finest collections of Old Masters, some 600 pieces with a focus on French, Italian and Spanish Baroque art and British portraits from the Tudor era to the 19th Century. Rembrandt, Canaletto, Gainsborough, Rubens and Constable provide some of the best wow moments. Nunhead Cemetery The second-largest and arguably most impressive of London’s Magnificent Seven Victorian cemeteries, Nunhead promises 52 acres of haunting landscape for tombstone tourists to explore. Think grand, vine-clad memorials to the great and good of 19th and 20th Century London, including inventors, engineers, MPs and music hall legends of the Victorian era. As woodland has encroached on the cemetery over the years, so too has the native wildlife. Arrive at just the right twilight hour for spooky sightings of tawny owls, pipistrelle bats and urban foxes. Maltby Street Market One of London’s cooler but lesser-known markets, Bermondsey’s Maltby Street is the kind of place to arrive hungry and leave with a great big sourdough cheese toastie-induced smile across your face. There are cool street food stalls galore at this weekend market, which takes place beneath soaring Victorian railway arches, providing the perfect backdrop to your next set of IG food shots. Try waffles with fried buttermilk chicken, Venezuelan rainbow arepas and black pudding scotch eggs for the win, then hit up Bermondsey’s nearby ‘beer mile’ to sample some of the coolest craft ales in town, fresh from the brewery taprooms. Streatham Rookery South London attractions don’t come much more manicured than Streatham Rookery. Set within Streatham Common, this hidden gem is one of the city’s finest formal gardens, its cascading terraces crammed with ornamental hedges, lily-covered ponds, stone sundials and vibrant beds of wildflowers and herbaceous plants. Grab a mini picnic from the café and find yourself a quiet nook to watch the birds, bees and butterflies flitting among the plants and trees. You might even be lucky enough to catch an open-air theatrical performance here in summer. Save on Activities and Attractions in London Save on admission to London attractions with The London Pass. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Cambridge Henry VIII
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Amazing Historical Facts About Henry VIII

Way back when, on the 28th June 1491, one of England's most famous monarchs was born. King Henry VIII. Known for his six wives, desperation for a male heir, and desire to separate from the Catholic church, jolly old Henry continues to fascinate us even today. That's why we've put together some of our best historical facts about this rotund royal, so you can think about him all over again. It's exactly what he would want. So, here are our favourite facts about Henry VIII! 1. He was not expected to rule Henry was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. His elder brother, Arthur, was heir to the throne until he died from sweating sickness at 15. Yes, that's a thing. And yes, they were sorely lacking antiperspirant back in ye olden times. Then, when Henry was just 17 his father passed away. Once atop the throne, Henry VIII continued living a leisurely life for a monarch - preferring to sleep in. In fact, he only really got up to hunt, hawk, dance, gamble and play cards over his official duties.  2. He was a published author Before separating from the Catholic Church, Henry VIII wrote a 30,000-word response to Martin Luther's protestant Ninety-five Theses, praising the church in Rome. He was the first English king to publish a book and the Pope declared Henry VIII "Defender of the Faith". A declaration he would rescind years later when Henry VIII created the Church of England and separated from the Catholic Church, so he could get divorced. Classic Henry. 3. Paranoia and illness Henry was obsessed with sickness and death, specifically the sweating sickness and the plague. Which is fair enough, because living in a time before medicine, proper hygiene and the discovery of bacteria and viruses would have been terrifying. That, and by the age of 30 he'd already caught smallpox and malaria. Any time there was an outbreak, he would minimize his risk of infection by leaving London and limiting the number of ambassadors he saw. Even when Anne Boleyn caught the sweating sickness in 1528, Henry stayed far away until she got better. A true gentleman. 4. Weight issues Yes, some of the more well-known facts about Henry VIII are due to his enviable size. Despite being a tall, handsome and athletic young king (yes, really), older age was not kind to Henry VIII. When he died in 1547 after ruling for 30 years, he weighed nearly 400 pounds and had a 54-inch waist. This was partly due to some pretty severe jousting accidents and ulcers on his legs stopping him from his previous activities and partly because he loved a feast. 5. A merciless king In his later years, Henry grew more paranoid and ill-tempered. Crowds of prisoners were sent to the Tower of London at his orders. He sent more men and women to their deaths than any other English monarch. It's estimated 57,000 - 72,000 people were executed during his 37-year reign. 6. Multi-talented Not only could Henry speak Latin, French, Ancient Greek and Spanish, but he also played the lute and organ, sang, played tennis and jousted. Who knew that a life of luxury gave people time to do so much cool stuff?  7. Serial womaniser Henry VIII's womanising reputation has lasted throughout history thanks to his six infamous wives and mistresses. In spite of this reputation, we only know of three specific mistresses, one of which was Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. Not cool, King Henry. You should have kept playing tennis instead of playing the field. 8. Wife after wife There's a common belief that Henry married and discarded his six wives in quick succession, but that's not exactly true. He married his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon when he came to the throne at 17, and they remained married for nearly 24 years. That is - until he had their marriage annulled to marry Anne Boleyn. His shortest marriage was to Anne of Cleves, which lasted six months- she is buried in Westminster Abbey. 9. Belgium rule He is the only English monarch to have ruled Belgium. After capturing the significant town of Tournai in 1513, Henry eventually handed the territory to France in 1518. Truly a generous king. 10. Henry VIII's legacy In spite of his obsession with producing a male heir, Henry VIII had four children. Three were from his marriages. The other, who was named Henry Fitzroy (which means son of the king) was from his mistress Elizabeth Blount. His three "official" children went on to be kings and queens, with his youngest, Elizabeth I, becoming an iconic monarch in her own right. And those are our favourite facts about Henry VIII! Know any more tasty tidbits about the Tudor's best rapscallion? Let us know in the comments below. Oh, and while you're here, why not check out more of Britain's most famous figures throughout history? Or some fascinating facts about Henry's old home, Hampton Court Palace? And, if you want to see some of his old haunts up close, be sure to check out the very best London attractions the captial has to offer! Experience everything London has to offer with The London Pass® Planning your London trip? With The London Attraction Pass®, you can explore big-name landmarks, local hotspots and epic tours, all on one pass, all for one price. Not only that, but you'll enjoy savings of up to 50%, compared to buying individual attraction tickets. ✈️ Buy The London Pass® ✈️
Dom Bewley
London's Gaming party bus
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London’s Gaming Party Bus

Ahead of EGX, we're highlighting some of the best game-themed experiences around London. Read on to get involved in the capital's burgeoning gaming party bus scene.
Dom Bewley
The London Eye
Tower of London

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St Paul’s Cathedral