Tower of London: VIP After Hours Access & Ceremony of the Keys

Your tour begins outside the Tower of London, where a friendly tour host meets your group for check-in. Once the last daytime visitors have filed out, you are guided to the gates to meet your Beefeater guide.

With special after-hours access, your group steps through the gates after they have closed to the public. These rare tickets hand 900 years of fortress history over to your group in near-total quiet.

Stand before the famous watergate that once delivered prisoners directly from the Thames into the Tower. Your Beefeater shares the stories of those who passed through here and never returned.

The oldest and most iconic structure within the complex rises above you as your guide brings its history to life by lantern light. The Tower has served as a royal palace, prison, and fortress across nine centuries of English history.

Walk past one of the oldest chapels within the Tower walls, the burial site of Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, and other figures of English history. Your Beefeater provides the context that transforms the facade into a story.

Take your place at the Ceremony of the Keys, the nightly locking ritual that has run without interruption for 700 years. The Chief Yeoman Warder challenges the sentry, the bugler plays the Last Post, and the fortress is locked for the night — exactly as it always has been.

Your tour concludes inside the Tower of London grounds after the ceremony ends. You leave with the Last Post still echoing and a side of London most travelers will never see.