The Tower of London has launched a Ravens Experience, its first-ever tours giving visitors close-up access to the fortress's famously ghoulish birds. Running at 8am on Wednesdays and Fridays, the 45-minute session is led by the Ravenmaster at the Middle Drawbridge, where you'll meet the current flock of eight ravens, learn their names and personalities, and watch as their cage is opened so they can roam the castle grounds for the day.
The birds are a big deal here. Legend has it, dating to Charles II's reign in the 1660s, that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, England will fall. To keep that from being tested, at least six birds are kept on site at all times, with wing feathers regularly trimmed to discourage any escape plans. Their diet is suitably macabre: mice, chicks, rats and raw meat twice daily, plus biscuits soaked in blood as a treat.
Tickets cost £90 for adults, £50 for kids aged 5-17, and £70 for students and seniors. That's steep, but it includes full-day Tower admission (normally £37 for adults on its own) plus a genuine perk: you'll be inside the walls a full hour before the gates open to everyone else at 9am. In peak season, the queue for the Crown Jewels can be enormous, so early access effectively doubles as a skip-the-line pass.
And there's plenty to see while you wait out the crowds. The Tower dates to 1078, when William the Conqueror built a stronghold designed to intimidate Londoners into submission. It later became the city's favoured spot for high-profile executions — the heads of political opponents were displayed on pikes at nearby Tower Hill for centuries. Today the complex houses the Crown Jewels, including Cullinan I, the largest colourless cut diamond in the world, and draws nearly three million visitors a year.
The history has its mysteries too. What became of the bodies of 12-year-old Edward V and his 9-year-old brother Richard, imprisoned by their usurping uncle in 1483? Was Henry VI really assassinated in the Wakefield Tower in 1471? And do staff genuinely keep spotting the ghosts of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII's beheaded wives? The ravens, with their taste for carrion, fit right into the atmosphere.
Worth knowing: booking is essential and must be done in advance through Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that also runs Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. If you're travelling with kids who like their history on the spooky side, or you simply want the Tower at its emptiest, this is one of the smarter ways to do it.
