Windsor Castle: tickets, tours from London and how to plan a visit

A fortress that became a palace

William the Conqueror built the original castle in the 11th century after the Norman invasion, as a motte-and-bailey with three wards around a central chalk mound. Its job was to project Norman dominance over a strategic stretch of the River Thames west of London. Monarchs have used it continuously since Henry I, which makes it the longest-occupied palace in Europe.

That long life is the reason the architecture is a layered mix rather than a single style. The castle withstood a prolonged siege in the First Barons' War, Henry III added a luxurious palace inside the walls, and Edward III rebuilt it in what became the most expensive secular building project of the entire Middle Ages in England.

Why a working palace changes your visit

This is not a museum shell. The royal family uses the castle, state visits happen here, and the whole castle or the State Apartments can close at short notice. Check closure dates before booking anything.

The practical consequences: visits run Thursday to Monday only, St George's Chapel shuts to visitors on Sundays, and one ticket can be converted into a 1-Year Pass for free re-admission, which matters if a closure hits your day. If your dates are fixed midweek, a Tuesday or Wednesday visit simply cannot happen, so pick another day or another castle such as Warwick Castle or Leeds Castle.

The Middle Ward and the Round Tower

Enter and you climb towards the Middle Ward, built around the motte, a 15 m artificial hill of chalk dug from the surrounding ditch. On top stands the Round Tower, based on a 12th-century building and extended upwards by about 9 m in the early 19th century to make the silhouette more imposing. It looks cylindrical but is not, because it follows the shape of the mound beneath.

This is the orientation stop. From here you see the whole plan of the castle at once, which helps everything that follows make sense.

The Upper Ward and the State Apartments

Through the Norman Gatehouse, a heavily vaulted 14th-century gate decorated with surviving medieval lion masks, you reach the Upper Ward. The State Apartments run along the north side, and the art historian Hugh Roberts described these 19th-century rooms as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste. Below the Round Tower sits a bronze statue of Charles II on horseback, cast in 1679 with plinth carvings by Grinling Gibbons.

Give the State Apartments the biggest share of your time. If they are closed on your day, the rest of the visit shrinks fast, which is a reason to check closures before booking tickets.

St George's Chapel in the Lower Ward

The 15th-century St George's Chapel is the Lower Ward's reason to exist. It is one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic, the chapel of the Order of the Garter, and since the 19th century the chosen burial place of the British royal family. Charles I, Henry VIII and Jane Seymour are buried in a vault in the centre of the choir.

Look up at the pinnacles before you go in. Seventy-six heraldic Royal Beasts stand on the roof, representing fourteen heraldic animals from the lion of England to the golden hind of Kent. The originals were removed in 1682 on the advice of Christopher Wren, and the present statues date from the 1925 restoration. The chapel closes at 16:00 and is closed to visitors on Sundays, so do it first if you arrive in the afternoon.

Opening days and last entry

The castle opens Thursday to Monday and closes every Tuesday and Wednesday. In the March to October season the hours are 10:00 to 17:15, with last admission at 16:00. St George's Chapel closes earlier, at 16:00, and admits no visitors at all on Sundays, though worshippers are welcome.

Because this is a working palace, closures can happen at short notice. Book the kind of ticket that survives a change, and note that the Windsor Castle Admission Ticket converts into a 1-Year Pass, so a disrupted visit does not cost you a second entry fee.

When it is quiet and what to wear

The calmest windows are first thing on Thursday and Friday mornings, our estimate, before the coach tours arrive and before weekend crowds build. Sunday afternoons are the worst combination of crowds and a closed chapel.

There is no formal dress code for visitors, but the chapel is a living place of worship and the Garter Service procession passes through the State Apartments every June, so modest dress is sensible. Remember that a royal residence can close rooms for events with little warning, and build slack into any plan that depends on a specific room.

Making your own way

The admission ticket option means you travel to Windsor yourself, about an hour from London. That independence buys you the one thing the coach days cannot give, which is control over how long you stay. Arrive for opening time and you can give the State Apartments a full, unhurried pass before the crowds.

The trade-off is logistics. You book your own transport, you carry the risk of delays, and the castle's Tuesday and Wednesday closure applies to you exactly as it does to everyone else. Check the closure calendar before you fix a travel day.

Coach days from Victoria

The Evan Evans day tours all start from Victoria Coach Station and fold Windsor into a bigger itinerary. The 9-hour Stonehenge and Windsor from London is the shortest, the 11-hour Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London adds the Roman city of Bath, and the Full-Day Windsor, Stonehenge, and Oxford Tour swaps Bath for Oxford. On all three, entries are only included on the option that includes them, so read the option you book.

Expect Windsor to be the first stop and the shortest. That is the honest price of combining three sights in a day, and it is exactly why our pick for castle-focused travellers is the standalone admission ticket.

Three routings, three budgets

The castle rewards time. Our estimate for a full visit that covers the State Apartments, the chapel and the Middle Ward is 2.5 to 3.5 hours. The table below sets out what fits into a short stop, a half day and a full day, so you can match the visit to the ticket you booked.

If a coach tour gives you only two hours, skip nothing in the chapel and accept a faster pass through the apartments.

If your time gets cut

Closures and time pressure both happen at a working palace. The priority order is St George's Chapel first if it is after midday, because of its 16:00 closing time, then the State Apartments, then the Middle Ward and terraces. Everything else is a bonus.

Travellers combining several royal and historic sites in Britain might also consider Edinburgh Castle or Stirling Castle, which run to a similar 2-hour core visit.

Read this before you go

Windsor rewards a little background more than most castles, because so much of what you walk past carries a story that is easy to miss. Each of these points comes from the historical record and each one has a practical payoff on site.

• The chalk motte under the Round Tower is 15 m high and was dug from the surrounding ditch by hand, so the centrepiece of the view is itself a Norman construction (Wikipedia, Windsor Castle).
• The Norman Gatehouse actually dates from the 14th century despite its name, and medieval lion masks, traditional symbols of majesty, still survive on its carvings (Wikipedia, Windsor Castle).
• Eight hundred enamelled Garter stall plates remain permanently affixed in the chapel choir, so the stalls carry the names of members across centuries (Wikipedia, St George's Chapel).
• Christopher Wren advised removing the original 16th-century Royal Beasts in 1682 because he criticised the Reigate Stone they were carved from, and the 76 statues you see today date from 1925 (Wikipedia, St George's Chapel).
• The East Terrace rose garden was tended during the Second World War as a victory garden, in part by Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, before opening to the public (Wikipedia, Windsor Castle).