A friend recently gave me this Time Out London ‘City of London’ booklet that would have been given away with the magazine in 2010. While the history remains unchanged, I soon noticed the prices noted for attractions and thought this was an excellent reason to do some comparisons.
I have a fair amount of London books and have kept some travel guides from 2006 to 2016 so I could also check these for attraction prices.
2010
In the 2010 Time Out booklet I found:
| ATTRACTION | ADULT | CONCESSION | CHILD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tower of London | £17 | £14.50 | £9.50 under 5s free |
| St Paul's Cathedral | £12.50 | £9.50 | £4.50 under 6s free |
| Tower Bridge Exhibition | £7 | £5 | £3 under 5s free |
| Monument | £3 | £2 | £1 |
| Dr Johnson's House | £4.50 | £2 | £1 |
| Guildhall Roman Amphitheatre | £2.50 | £1 | Free |
2024
Comparing to today (March 2024):
| ATTRACTION | ADULT | CONCESSION | CHILD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tower of London | £34.80 | £27.70 | £17.40 under 5s free |
| St Paul's Cathedral | £25 | £22.50 | £10 under 6s free |
| Westminster Abbey | £29 | £26 | £13 under 5s free |
| London Eye | £33 | ? | 29 under 2s free |
| Tower Bridge Exhibition | £12.30 | £9.20 | £6.20 under 5s free |
| Monument | £6 | £4.50 | £3 |
| Dr Johnson's House | £9 | £8 | £4 |
| Guildhall Roman Amphitheatre | Free | Free | Free |
(Guildhall Roman Amphitheatre became free in 2011.)
I’ve added Westminster Abbey and London Eye prices as those are helpful for the following comparisons.
2006
In the 2006 travel guidebooks I found:
| ATTRACTION | ADULT | CONCESSION | CHILD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tower of London | £14 | £11 | £9 under 5s free |
| St Paul's Cathedral | £8 | £7 | £3.50 under 6s free |
| Westminster Abbey | £7.50 | £5 | £5 under 11s free |
| London Eye | £13 | £10 | £6.50 unders 5s free |
2007
Sticking with the same four higher-cost attractions, the prices in 2007 were noted as:
| ATTRACTION | ADULT | CONCESSION | CHILD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tower of London | £14.50 | £11 | £9.50 under 5s free |
| St Paul's Cathedral | £9 | £8 | £3.50 under 6s free |
| Westminster Abbey | £10 | £6 | under 11s free |
| London Eye | vary | vary | vary |
2016
By 2016, these were the prices:
| ATTRACTION | ADULT | CONCESSION | CHILD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tower of London | £24.50 | ? | ? |
| St Paul's Cathedral | £18 | ? | ? |
| Westminster Abbey | £20 | ? | ? |
| London Eye | £21.50 | ? | ? |
(Rick Steves guidebooks only note adult prices.)
Wayback Machine
Another way to check back on past prices is the Wayback Machine as most attractions keep the same or similar URL for their tickets page so it’s easy to look back.
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive that takes snapshots of web pages and keeps a record. You simply enter a URL in the search box and then check the dates on the results.
I chose the cheapest adult standard ticket each time. Often this was a ticket booked online rather than the ‘on the door’ price.
Tower of London
Firstly, let’s have a look at the ticket price increases for the Tower of London from 2015 to 2024.
| YEAR | ADULT |
|---|---|
| 2015 | £23.10 |
| 2016 | £23.10 |
| 2017 | £21.50 |
| 2018 | £22.70 |
| 2019 | £24.70 |
| 2020 | £25 |
| 2021 | £29.90 |
| 2022 | £29.90 |
| 2023 | £33.60 |
| 2024 | £34.80 |
There was some variety before the pandemic and then the classic price hike post-2020.
St Paul’s Cathedral
For St Paul’s Cathedral we have ticket prices from 2009 to 2024.
| YEAR | ADULT |
|---|---|
| 2009 | £11 |
| 2010 | £12.50 |
| 2011 | N/A |
| 2012 | £14.50 |
| 2013 | £16 |
| 2014 | £16.50 |
| 2015 | £18 |
| 2016 | £18 |
| 2017 | £18 |
| 2018 | £18 |
| 2019 | £20 |
| 2020 | £20 |
| 2021 | £17 |
| 2022 | £18 |
| 2023 | £20.50 |
| 2024 | £25 |
There’s the 2021 pandemic price dip but a hefty increase from last year.
Westminster Abbey
And onto the Westminster Abbey prices from 2009 to 2024.
| YEAR | ADULT |
|---|---|
| 2009 | £15 |
| 2010 | £15 |
| 2011 | £16 |
| 2012 | £16 |
| 2013 | £18 |
| 2014 | £18 |
| 2015 | £20 |
| 2016 | £20 |
| 2017 | £20 |
| 2018 | £20 |
| 2019 | £21 |
| 2020 | £18 |
| 2021 | £24 |
| 2022 | £27 |
| 2023 | £27 |
| 2024 | £29 |
London Eye
And finally, let’s look at the price increases for the London Eye from 2009 to 2024.
| YEAR | ADULT |
|---|---|
| 2009 | £17.88 |
| 2010 | £18.90 |
| 2011 | £17.01 |
| 2012 | £17.01 |
| 2013 | £17.28 |
| 2014 | £18.85 |
| 2015 | £19.35 |
| 2016 | £21.20 |
| 2017 | £23.45 |
| 2018 | £25.20 |
| 2019 | £27 |
| 2020 | £25.20 |
| 2021 | £27 |
| 2022 | £32.50 |
| 2023 | £25.50 |
| 2024 | £30 |
Notice the price reduction in 2020 which makes sense because of the pandemic. But there was another price reduction in 2023 and the current price is still not as high as in 2022.
Percentage Increase in the Last Decade
There’s a lot that could be done with this ‘data’ but let’s just see how much ticket prices have gone up in the last ten years.
50% Tower of London
39% St Paul’s Cathedral
45% Westminster Abbey
55% London Eye
This was some interesting research and I hope it helps show some London attraction ticket price trends.