Picture this. It’s was winter Sunday morning, cold and grey outside and I had booked tickets to the back stage tour at Tower Bridge. The tour started early and I needed to be there for a 9am start. I was in two minds of cancelling. Thank God I didn’t. Lesson 1. Don’t cancel last minute anything related to London 😅
Going to Tower Bridge is always a treat, but going inside and behind the scenes is something else. Once I passed security checks, we waited for our guide.
The two-hour tour gave us in-depth access to areas unseen by many visitors. A warm welcome awaited each guest at every touchpoint, from the staff standing outside to the team inside.
We had Shodukul or ‘Bob’, as he called himself, who was so upbeat for a Sunday that we all forgot it was a Sunday morning. There were 11 early birds in my group, and off we went trudging up the 100 steps.
As we got to the first stage, we learnt about the design and the structure. It is an engineering marvel considering that it is over 130 years old, and they didn't have access to the technology we have today.
They had to install the bridge columns at the bottom of the river bed, and the men would have to take it in turns to go down into the river and lay the foundation.
Once we got to the West Bascule, we took the photos and led to the East Bascule, off-limits to other guests. So we were told that A bridge lift was imminent and got a bird's eye view of the process.
Bob informed us that we would see two bridge lifts. First, we would see one from the top and one from the ground floor. We were excited to see the meticulous preparation for the bridge lift. But, first, the Bridge had to be cleared of all visitors.
The Bridge is raised to 45 degrees enough for a ship with a sail to go through. However, the only person it fully opens for (at 83 degrees) is Maj. The main reason is that the Bridge is old and too much wear could cause irreparable damage. Pre Covid, there were over 1000 bridge lifts a year. Now there are over 200.
After completing the tour above, it was time to go down and see the mechanics. First, we went to the cabin where we saw the old levers used to raise the Bridge in Victorian times.
We went down to the Bascule Chamber, a massive cavern underneath the Bridge in which the counterweights swing to operate the Bridge. It was hard to visualise, but we were under the Thames River.
As Charles the Engineer was running behind schedule, he said we could watch him in his cabin operate the second Bridge Lift. Again, the Bridge got cleared, and six lucky people got to see the inside operations with him. Charles was very generous and allowed one person to open the Bridge. I got the opportunity to close the Bridge. It was a fantastic experience, which will stay with me forever.
Quick Facts
✳️It took eight years, five major contractors and the relentless labour of 432 construction workers each day to build Tower Bridge.
✳️The power required to rotate the cogs was initially supplied by steam and then, post-1976, by electricity.
✳️The bascules, weighing over 1,000 tons each, are counterbalanced to minimise the force required and allow raising in five minutes.
✳️In 2019, the Bridge opened 725 times, however in 1894, Tower Bridge's opening year, its bascules were lifted 6,194 times. An average of 17 times per day!
As a born and bred Londoner, I grew up with Tower Bridge as a beautiful and silent icon. As children, my parents would take us to Tower Bridge and kids being kids we would be in awe of the icon. I still am.
Have you experienced being on ‘Cloud Nine’? I found out exactly what that felt like after my Tower Bridge experience. It’s a wonderful feeling where everything around me blended away in the background. I thought it best to sit down for a little while until I came back to earth. I had a spring in my step as I walked back to Liverpool Street Station.
I would recommend the behind the scenes tour, but I can't promise you whether you would get to open or close the Bridge as this has never happened at a scheduled tour.