The Smith Family love a day out in London, but with a 5 and 7 year old the challenge is finding somewhere that can contain them for longer than ten minutes. The Tower of London seemed like the perfect place, with lots of space (and walls), with Tower Escape showing that history can be fun. Tower Escape is a high energy half hour re-enactment of the escape of priest John Gerard. Elijah (5) was tugging on our sleeves asking for reassurance that they ‘were just pretending’ as the actors led us on a joyous romp meeting different characters from the Tower’s gruesome history, with a grand finale abseil down the palace wall.
Afterwards we headed to the White Tower where the kids loved the interactive games, shooting cannon balls and dressing a grumpy Henry VIII. Stella (7) was obsessed with the ravens, taking endless photos of them as they eyed us up from the Bloody Tower. The kids asked lots of detailed questions about decapitation and the rack, and were happy to munch on flapjacks from the café in the short queue to see the Crown Jewels. Their favourite ‘was the big diamond’ and the royal escalator that kept everyone moving along. We walked the battlements and Mrs Smith had a moment in the Chapel where her history favourite Lady Jane Grey lies. We all enjoyed the ancient graffiti, and Elijah had fun racing another little boy back and forth across the cobbles and marching behind the guards.
As it approached 5pm we were finally ready to call it a day, and made the most of the summer evening, heading across Tower Bridge for food.
#TowerEscape is on at the Tower of London from the 3-31 August. Historic Royal Palaces have a brilliant calendar of events for all ages and the Smith family highly recommend a visit.