The Tower of London with a Toddler

Published 28 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

A two-year-old gets in free, so the Tower costs two adults £37 each and nothing for the child. The rule that will decide your morning is not the price: it is that once you leave the site you cannot come back in on the same ticket. Plan the visit around that, and around the fact that a pushchair cannot reach three of the best bits.

The Tower of London is a fortress of cobbled lanes, spiral staircases, low doorways and a great many steps, none of which was designed with a buggy in mind. Historic Royal Palaces, which runs it, says as much in plain terms on its own accessibility page. It is still a good morning with a toddler, if you go early, accept that you will see about half of it, and know in advance which half.

Our general guide to London with a toddler covers fares, naps and the age thresholds across the city, and our full Tower of London page has the tickets and the history. This page is only about doing it with a two-year-old.

What a family with a toddler actually pays

Under-5s are admitted free, which makes the Tower cheaper for this age group than almost any other paid attraction in London. Two adults at £37 is £74, or £81.40 if you add the optional donation that Historic Royal Palaces builds into its headline price. There is no family ticket that beats it, because the child is already free.

Booking is not compulsory, though the Tower advises it at busy times, and the ticket office sells on the day. There is no separate on-the-day adult price published. If one of your party is aged five or over, the child rate of £18.50 applies from that birthday, which is a detail worth checking against your travel dates if the birthday is close.

The no-re-entry rule, and why it should shape the whole morning

Historic Royal Palaces does not allow re-entry to the site once you have exited, for security reasons. Read that twice if you are travelling with a small child.

It means that you cannot step out to the Wharf to calm a screaming toddler and come back. It means that a nappy emergency solved at the hotel is a £74 morning ended. And it means the café inside the walls is not a convenience but the only option: everything you need for the next two hours has to be inside the gates with you, or in the pushchair. Our page on how long the Tower of London takes works through what the same rule does to an adult visit.

Where a pushchair can go, and the three places it cannot

This is the part that is worth knowing before you plan a route rather than after. Historic Royal Palaces lists, explicitly, three places with no lift and no ramp access at all:

• The Battlements. The wall walk, reached by stairs at both ends.
• The Bloody Tower. Stairs, and narrow ones.
• The Imprisonment at the Tower exhibition. Also stairs.

The White Tower has a lift, but only between the entrance level and the shop in the basement, on the north side of the building opposite the entrance to the Crown Jewels. It does not take you up through the four floors of armour, which are reached by the original spiral staircases. With a toddler, the White Tower is a carry or it is nothing.

Ramps exist in two places: at the New Armouries Café and near the Raven shop. Outside those, the ground is cobbled and uneven in places, and there are many steps. A carrier solves more of this than a buggy does, and our guide to getting around London with a pushchair explains why we suggest carrying both and choosing at the gate.

The Jewel House is the one building that works

The Crown Jewels exhibition in the Jewel House has level access throughout, which makes it the single most toddler-friendly space inside the walls. It is warm, it is contained, and a two-year-old can be walked through it without being lifted once.

Two things to know. A moving walkway, which the Tower calls a travelator, runs alongside the cases holding the Crown Jewels, and staff will stop it on request. A pushchair and a moving walkway are a poor combination, so ask before you reach it. There is also a platform lift at the end of the walkway up to a raised viewing platform, which is where you go if you want to stand and look for longer than the walkway allows.

The Jewel House is also dark, for conservation reasons, and it has sound effects. So does Armoury in Action in the White Tower. Some toddlers find a dim room with recorded noise fascinating and some find it unbearable, and you will find out roughly ninety seconds in. Going before 11:00, when the Tower is quietest, at least means you can turn round and walk out again without fighting a crowd.

Toilets, nappies and the Changing Places

There are three sets of lavatories inside the walls, and only one of them has baby changing:

The Brick Tower is the one to note on the map, because it is behind the Jewel House and therefore close to the part of the visit a toddler will actually enjoy. For an older child who needs a proper bench, the New Armouries is the place, and the key has to be asked for rather than found.

Our guide to public toilets in London covers the ones outside the walls, which you should use on the way in.

Where to sit down, and where to feed them

Outdoor benches with backs and armrests are on Tower Green and outside the White Tower, opposite the New Armouries Café. Those two spots are the whole of the seating inside the fortress, and Tower Green is the better of them: open, grassy at the edges, and no traffic.

Indoor seating is in the New Armouries Café, which is where you will end up. It holds a food hygiene rating of 5, inspected in August 2025, and it is the only warm room on site where a toddler can eat without being shushed. If the weather is against you, that café is your insurance policy, so do not leave it to the end of the visit.

If you would rather eat outside the walls before or after, our page on where to eat near the Tower of London has the streets to walk to, and remembers to warn you which way not to go.

The ninety-minute plan we would actually follow

Historic Royal Palaces publishes four different estimates of how long a visit takes, from "at least two hours" to "at least three hours, dependent on queues". With a two-year-old, ignore all four. Ninety minutes is the honest figure, and this is the order that makes it work.

1. Arrive at opening. 09:00 on a Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 on a Sunday or Monday. The Tower's own advice is that before 11:00 is quietest, and with a toddler the queue is the enemy, not the crowd inside.
2. Jewel House first, while everyone else is being photographed at the entrance. Level access, twenty minutes, and the one thing the child will remember.
3. Brick Tower for the nappy, which is thirty seconds away.
4. The ravens and Tower Green. Free-range time, birds at eye level, benches. This is the section that justifies the ticket for this age group.
5. New Armouries Café. Sit down, warm up, eat. Do this at about an hour in, not at the end.
6. The White Tower, maybe. If the toddler is still cheerful, carry them in and go as far up as your back allows. If not, walk out through the Wharf and count the morning a win.

A Yeoman Warder tour is included in the ticket and the last one leaves at 15:15, but they are long, they stand still, and they are told rather than shown. With a two-year-old we would skip it and read about the Ceremony of the Keys instead, which happens after the site closes and is a different sort of visit entirely.

What to skip without feeling bad about it

The Battlements, the Bloody Tower, Torture at the Tower and the upper floors of the White Tower. The first three are dark, the fourth is a staircase, and none of them is designed to be left in a hurry. If you come back without the child, an hour, two hours and a whole day each buy something different.

One more thing to watch for: on days with a gun salute, Tower Wharf and the main entrance are very busy, and the Wharf closes about forty-five minutes beforehand with everyone directed into a small area in front of the shop. That is an unpleasant place to be with a buggy. Our guide to gun salutes in London lists the dates they happen.

If it goes wrong, and it might

The Tower is not a place you can leave and return to, so the fallback has to be outside. Tower Hill station is five minutes away on the District and Circle lines and step-free from platform to street, and from there you are twenty minutes from three genuinely toddler-proof places: Coram's Fields in Bloomsbury, the free city farms, and the Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, which is further but is the best free hour in London for this age.

Closer still, the outside of Tower Bridge and the riverside walk beside it cost nothing, and a toddler who has just been carried round a fortress is often happiest looking at boats.

Frequently asked questions

Do toddlers pay to get into the Tower of London?

No. Children under 5 are admitted free, and the child rate of £18.50 starts at age 5. Two adults with a toddler therefore pay £74, or £81.40 if you include the optional 10 per cent donation that Historic Royal Palaces adds to its headline prices.

Can you take a pushchair into the Tower of London?

Into the grounds, yes, but three areas have no lift or ramp at all: the Battlements, the Bloody Tower and the Imprisonment at the Tower exhibition. The White Tower's lift only serves the basement shop. The Jewel House has level access throughout, so it is the one major building a pushchair can go through.

Is there baby changing at the Tower of London?

Yes, in the Brick Tower behind the Jewel House, alongside the male, female and accessible toilets there. A Changing Places toilet with a bench sits in the New Armouries lobby by the café, and the café staff hold the radar key for it.

Can you leave the Tower of London and come back in?

No. Re-entry is not allowed once you have exited the site, for security reasons, so a ticket covers one continuous visit. With a small child that is the single most important rule to plan around: use the lavatories and buy the snacks before you go through the gate.

How long does the Tower of London take with a two-year-old?

About ninety minutes in practice, against the two to three hours the Tower itself suggests for adults. That is enough for the Crown Jewels, the ravens, Tower Green and a sit-down in the café, which is the realistic half of the site for this age group.

Sources

• Historic Royal Palaces - Tower of London accessibility (checked September 2026)
• Historic Royal Palaces - Tower of London tickets and prices (checked September 2026)
• Historic Royal Palaces - Tower of London opening times (checked September 2026)
• Historic Royal Palaces - Tower of London frequently asked questions (checked September 2026)
• Food Standards Agency - food hygiene rating for New Armouries Cafe, Tower of London, Tower Hill EC3N 4AB (checked September 2026)
• Changing Places Consortium - find a Changing Places toilet (checked September 2026)