Tower of London arrival time

Well, for myself I find I wake up really early after having gone to sleep too early!!

The early time helps with getting in the Crown Jewels but if you don’t think you guys can get going, how about 10A. You could plan to leave your lodging by 9:15 ir so depending on where you’re staying.

Hello I find that my wake up time is unpredictable on my first full day after arriving from the states—I might be up at 6 or oversleep until 930. So it’s your guess with multiple people in your group! To be on the safe side you might consider visiting on Monday, your second full day.

(Edited to add: working in your favor is that opening time is later on Sundays and Mondays in June, 10 AM compared to 9 AM on other days, so like Pam said if you can manage to leave your lodging by 915 AM you still should be able to take advantage of the advice below.)

Standard advice is to pre-book your admission ticket for right when the Tower opens. Go straight to the Crown Jewels before a queue forms. Then circle back to the entrance and join a free Yeoman Warder tour. I would add to visit the White Tower right after the Crown Jewels because it should be pretty quiet—don’t miss the evocative Norman Chapel of St John the Evangelist on one of the upper floors of the White Tower.

If you do visit on a Sunday, I think the main chapel on the grounds, St Peter ad Vincula, will be closed to visiting until morning services are concluded. You are of course welcome to attend a service.

One can spend an entire day at the Tower but half a day is great too. Make sure you go up and walk part of the walls!

Be there when it opens. You will be glad you did.

My husband and I had tickets to the Yeoman Tours at 10:00 a.m. (I hope you'll take that tour) and then went inside the Tower of London. Seeing the Crown Jewels was no problem as the line was short. This was last June, so there were plenty of tourists. This wasn't our first day in England, though, so we had no jet lag at that point. Our first full day in England was in Oxford. We had 9:30 a.m. tickets for Bodleian Library which was too early for us to feel rested.

When I was there in 2019, we followed Rick's advice to a T - line up before the Tower opens, buy ticket(s) and immediately go to the Crown Jewels. I spent maybe 15 minutes in line and then a little bit of time actually looking at the jewels (they have a people mover in parts to move folks along, but i rode it multiple times because there were no other folks in that spot at that time).
When I came out? Yeah, the line for just the Crown was outside of the building and getting bigger, easily a half hour+++ at that point and it was only 10, 1030am.

Go at opening time. Head straight for the Crown Jewels. Suspect all used at the May 6 coronation will be back in place. Then see the rest of the exhibitions.

Leave there and walk up to Leadenhall Market ( last glass covered market in London.) Enjoy the dichotomy of the architecture between it and The Gherkin. Have breakfast. If good weather visit the near by Sky Garden for a view of London. Great way to start your Sunday!

Thank you all so much for the suggestions! We’ll go ahead and plan for the opening time arrival. Big coffee morning for me and we’ll be good to go I hope!

We will be in London in mid-July. I recently purchased our tickets for the Tower and there was no requirement to book a specific time. We are planning on going our first full day in London at opening time just as other suggested. I just double checked on their website and it said your ticket is good any time other than on select days such as holidays where they still do timed slots. Though I agree early is best (based on my last visit), it seems you should be fine if you find yourself dragging a bit before the caffeine kicks in and you are not there first thing.
Happy Travels!

I recently bought Tower tickets for Tuesday August 1 and had to select an entry time. It says on my ticket that I must arrive between 9am - 9:29am.

I bought our tickets last night - so exciting- and they also were for all day entry rather than a specific time. The only date in June that had the time selection boxes was June 1. At first I thought it was a site glitch, but it seems to be intentional on their part. We’re planning on getting there at the opening and hopefully there won’t be too long of a line.

Get there as it opens so you can get ahead of the line for the crown jewels. This line forms quickly. One thing about seeing the crown jewels is its primarily a one way route through the displays.