The end of September saw Heather and I enjoy a weekend break in the big city centre of London, where we got up to touristy things. More on the Sunday later, but the Saturday began with me heading into London (relatively) early in the morning laden with bags, and using the office as a storage point before going to watch the football in a pub (and then another pub when the first got to full of reserved tables), before Heather came and met me at London Bridge station for the start of the excitement.

Sometime in the past Heather and I sat in a little tearoom in Rochester and discussed our favourite steam locomotive ^{* Of course everyone has a favourite steam engine; Stepney for Heather and Mallard for me}, boat ^{* Cutty Sark and Turbinia respectively)}, castle ^{* Obviously everyone has a favourite castle too! Bodium for Heather, though I can’t remember what I said. Probably Newcastle or Richmond}, and bridge ^{* What do you mean nobody has a favourite bridge? Mine’s the High Level in Newcastle, Heather’s is the subject of this post}. Heather’s favourite bridge is Tower Bridge so it’s about time we actually visited it—which is what we eventually set off to do, walking along from the station and across the bridge to the tourist queues.

Once through the entrance at the base of the north tower one finds oneself going through the little door into the tower itself, and beginning to climb the gently curving staircase upwards. Here it is immediately apparent that the faux medieval stonework cladding the exterior is all for show (to fit in with the adjacent Tower of London), and actually the structure is a great steel frame hidden within. The stairs with those from the other (east) side at various landings, though the others are now closed off and used only in emergency. At some of the levels there are informative displays about the construction and history of the bridge. We were also slightly surprised to find toilet facilities up in the tower.

The attraction though is mainly the chance to pass across the walkways linking the two towers, high above the roadway below. Designed to allow pedestrian access over the river when the bridge opened a lot more frequently than today, they were never that popular and developed something of a reputation so were closed for most of the twentieth century until opened up again as part of the tourist attraction. Now they give very fine view out and up and down the Thames. They also, since about ten years ago, have a vertigo inducing glass floored section, allowing one to look down at the heads of people on the open topped tour buses crossing below.

The tour route actually ends up first crossing the eastern walkway, having started at the western side of the north tower, before allowing access to the west walkway from the south tower. This is possibly the more interesting side as it gives a clear view up river to the pool of London, with the towering buildings of the City on one side and the old warehouses and modern buildings on the other, with HMS Belfast docked against them. It was also on this side that we realised we’d serendipitously timed things such that the bridge was lifting below our feet, so we got to stand at the side of the glass floored section and watch the bascules rise towards us.

After that the descent down the south tower is much the same as going up the north, and we found ourselves by the riverside. Before heading for the rest of the tour, through the former engine rooms which also contain the shop, we realised we could hang around the bankside and watch the bridge raise again, giving a different perspective on what we’d seen from on high.

The engine rooms begin below the south approach to the bridge. Here some of the original boilers and steam engines which provided power to raise and lower the bridge have been preserved. It was interesting to see the remnants of the coal lifts and rails (there was once a rail to bring coal from the riverside to power the boilers), before heading around the preserved steam engines, beautiful and functional as such things always are from this era. Passing around it’s slightly difficult to keep one’s bearings, but the route passes through the base of the accumulator house by the side of the bridge (contemporary but in a much different, more straight forward and functional style) before rejoining the shop.

And so away we headed, to eventually collect bags and check into the hotel. And from there it was a short walk up the road for dinner in the restaurant of the George, which pleased with it’s historic surround but disappointed by basically being just another Green King in terms of food. And so to bed.