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The museums, the machines and the men and women who worked it out: laboratories kept as they were, beam engines under steam, the tunnel, the barrier, the roofs, and the plaques on the houses where the ideas came.
Wren's column to the Great Fire, 311 steps up, and secretly a scientific instrument.
Engineering landmarksStatues & plaquesGo inside
Also in Monuments & Ruins.
Wren and Robert Hooke built it between 1671 and 1677, sixty-one metres high because that is the distance from its base to the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire began. It is the tallest freestanding stone column in the world and it was also designed to be a laboratory: the shaft is hollow so Hooke could hang a pendulum in it and use it as a zenith telescope, and there is a lab in the basement. Traffic vibration ruined that idea. The view from the cage at the top takes in the river and the whole City. A ticket is seven pounds.
| Monday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
| Saturday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
| Sunday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
Hours from the page that lists them, checked 4 September 2026.
Submit a correction for this listing.
Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.