Glorious medieval dayout: Tower of London with kids

Robin Hood has been a recent obsession of our 3 years old. No doubt the stories we read and the cartoons we watched tickled his imagination. So if the little man is already into archery and Knights tales – why not trying an outing to the Tower of London with kids?

The queues on the day were not that friendly. The waiting we reckoned about 30 minutes – this is after all a prime tourist attraction. We luckily had tickets again courtesy of Cass Business School, so no waiting for us at all. We had a quick chat with Welcome centre ladies, friendly but announcing quite sternly there’s not much for under 5 years olds.

Having spent over 2 hours touring around with our eldest, though, I have to disagree. Lots of towers and stairs to keep an active boy busy.

Few historical characters, all dressed in period clothes, entertained the audience, kids included: a young man describing the coins and the measures; a lady describing epoch habits; a 2 men band playing 13th century French tunes.

Our son received a coin – back then representing a 240th part of one pound. We also spent some time stamping various brochures within the Fusilier museum and staring at medals and costumes.

The White Tower must have been our favourite part – lots of stories, some entertaining, some interesting, and some that I’ll keep for his later years. Most of them pure proof of how uncivilised the history has been – after all everywhere, even in England.

The Royal menagerie tales are particularly fascinating and odd; the Kings used to receive living gifts from exotic countries and mistreated them most of the time not having a clue about their habitat or habits. Ostriches fed nails, zebra drank beer, the lions were asked to fight dogs. The polar bear must have been the luckiest with his long leash and menagerie personnel allowing him to swim and fish the river. I tweaked the tales quite a bit for my son – hopefully age appropriate.

The Armoury in Action room must have been the highlight of our son’s visit. Firing canons and arrows on the upper floor of the White Tower kept him happy and busy for quite a while. Tower of London shop area also turned out fascinating, our young man playing with figurine Knights, Kings, horses and so as well as trying on armours and swords.

 We left the Crown Jewels for another day – queues were long and I wasn’t that impressed with my son the other week at Kensington palace when we walked around dresses and accessories.

A very nice day out, with some more entertaining by St Katharine’s docks – boats, bridges, canals and cute restaurants. Sun out also a bonus though quite chilli given the time of the year. Would I recommend to parents with boys 3/4 years old? Yes, definitely.

PS: Admission tickets courtesy of Cass Alumni Office. Pics, impressions on Tower of London with kids and cheeky 3 years old entirely ours.