London Drum

Tower Bridge: Scheduled lift times for the drawbridge

Tower Bridge lift times
Where? Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Road When? 4th October to 31st December 2024 Note: On average the roadway opens and closes two or three times every day, but not all of them are publicised in advance. The information on this page only includes the publicised ones Price? It's free to stand on the bank and watch the drawbridge go up and down, you'll have to pay to get inside the Tower Bridge exhibition itself · See towerbridge.org Usual entry cost: Adults £11.40; Children £5.70 (5-15); Infants free entry (under-5); Family ticket £19.38 Parking: Nearby car parks Buses: 15, 42, 78, 100, RV1 Bus fares Trains: The closest station is Tower Hill Circle District Other nearby stations: Tower Gateway Train fares

Tower Bridge opens around a thousand times a year, averaging out to about 2-3 times each day. During the summer months it’s not unusual for it to open as many as 7-8 times a day.

Boat owners are supposed to give at least 24 hours notice if they want to pass underneath the drawbridge but not all of them do, so Tower Bridge only publicises a relatively small number of them in advance. If your date doesn't appear in the list below then there’s still a chance you’ll get lucky and see the drawbridge being raised.

Tower BridgePhoto: londondrum.com
Tower Bridge, with the City of London's Square Mile behind

Scheduled lift times

Fri 4 Oct: 16:30, 17:15; Sat 5 Oct: 16:15, 18:00, 18:30; Sun 6 Oct: 08:00, 08:30, 09:00, 09:30, 16:30, 21:30; Mon 7 Oct: 09:20, 21:15, 22:10; Tue 8 Oct: 06:00, 16:45, 18:15; Wed 9 Oct: 16:30, 17:00, 18:30, 19:50, 20:50, 21:20; Fri 11 Oct: 14:15, 14:45, 22:05; Sat 12 Oct: 09:40, 19:50; Sun 13 Oct: 09:40, 19:50, 20:45; Sat 19 Oct: 14:30, 15:00; Fri 25 Oct: 17:30, 18:15, 21:30, 22:15; Sat 26 Oct: 10:30, 11:15, 15:30, 16:15; Thu 31 Oct: 16:00, 16:45; Sat 2 Nov: 20:15, 20:45, 23:45; Sun 3 Nov: 00:15; Thu 14 Nov: 18:15, 19:00, 22:15, 23:00; Sat 30 Nov: 23:45; Sun 1 Dec: 00:45; Sat 7 Dec: 18:45, 19:45, 22:45, 23:30; Sun 15 Dec: 13:45, 14:45, 19:45, 20:30; Tue 31 Dec: 19:15, 20:00

Note: The drawbridge will only be in the air for about a minute, but if you include the time it takes them to open and close the approach road then the whole process takes about 3-5 minutes.

Where's the best place to stand?

Tower Bridge from Butler's WharfPhoto: londondrum.com
Tower Bridge from Butler's Wharf

The most popular place to watch the bridge open is on the river walk by the Tower of London, but we think you actually get a better photo from the other side of the river, by the old City Hall building.

There's another nice view from the opposite side of the bridge, standing by the river on Butler's Wharf.

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