Man climbing Tower Bridge with hood up brings London visitors to standstill

A climber wearing a hood has been pictured scaling Tower Bridge in London, with the bridge closing as a result.

Pictures shared by witnesses on Twitter show the man perched on the bridge wearing a grey hoodie and dark trousers. Meanwhile an emergency boat can be seen in the water below, with fire and ambulance service vehicles appearing at the end of Tower Bridge in central London.

Writing on X, someone said: “This dude just chilling on Tower Bridge right now. Traffic and boats all disrupted.” Another person shared photos of the man, writing: “Still there sitting up Tower Bridge. No flag. Hope the dude is okay!”

According to traffic monitoring service Inrix, the A100 Tower Bridge is currently closed in both directions, affecting the stretch between A1203 East Smithfield (Tower Hill) and Queen Elizabeth Street.

As a result, congestion is building up, with tailbacks reaching Limehouse along The Highway, the one-way system back to Aldgate, and northbound through Bermondsey to the A2.

Motorists are experiencing “long delays” due to the closure, which has been in place since 10:40 am.

City Of London Police said: “Tower Bridge is closed to traffic and pedestrians due to a person who has scaled the railings. Please avoid the area where possible.”

A London Fire Brigade “cherry picker” has been spotted on the scene.

This is the same method emergency crews used when attempting to bring down safely a man on Elizabeth Tower at the weekend.

It comes as a bloke decided to scale Big Ben with no shoes on Saturday morning (March 8). The man was spotted climbing the towering Elizabeth Tower, brandishing a Palestinian flag and gripping onto the building’s edge.

On his Instagram, the man popped on some videos where he’s heard saying: “Democracy is dead. We’re being imprisoned for peaceful protest, civil disobedience. We’re seeing climate activists receiving four to five years in prison.

“Now Palestine activists are being imprisoned for doing what our government should be doing, and stopping arms to the terrorist state of Israel.”