There’s a chance next month to climb up a church tower that’s not usually open to the public. The church of St Mary’s is in Hampton, a short walk or bus ride from Hampton Court Palace, and is a classic early Victorian church with a tall square tower and belfry at one end.
Source: Google Street View
The journey to the top will take you past the inner workings of the tower, including the ringing chamber, the mechanical clock and the bells. Note that the tour involves some climbing of ladders and manoeuvring through confined spaces, which is half the fun of a church tower tour.
The church is close to the river and there are not a lot of tall buildings around, so the views, should be quite good from the top.
The tours take place on Friday and Saturday 13th/14th October and need to be booked in advance from here, and are free, but with a suggested donation of £10, or £20 if you want to attend the sunset or sunrise tours.
The church is a short walk from Hampton station or a bus ride from Hampton Court station (ideal if you fancy taking in a visit to the Hampton Court Palace on the same day) – both stations have trains roughly every half-hour. Currently, there’s no engineering work on the railways, so you shouldn’t have a problem travelling to the area.
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