The Tower of London has outstripped its rivals St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey as a top tourist attraction.

The Tower of London has outstripped its rivals St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey as a top tourist attraction.

It is seventh most popular venue with almost 2.9 million visitors a year, compared to St Paul’s in ninth place with 1.3m and the Abbey at 10 with 2m, latest figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions reveals.

But Tower Bridge didn’t even make the Top 10, settling in 47th place with half-a-million tourists, while Bethnal Green’s V&A Museum of Childhood was 58th most popular with 443,500 and HMS Belfast, moored opposite The Tower, 75th with 332,342.

Top spot was the British Museum with 6.7 million visitors, followed by the other big London museums – the National Gallery with 6m, Natural History with 5.3m, Tate Modern with 4.8m, Science with 3.3m and Victoria and Albert with 3.2m. The Tower just beat the Somerset House in 2013 by half-a-million tourists.

The top ten attractions, amassing more than 34 million visits, are:

London’s attractions had a 12 per cent rise in tourists, totalling 39 million in just 12 months.

Top 10 tourist hotspots in Britain during 2013 were:

1. British Museum – 6,701,036

2. National Gallery – 6,031,574

3. Natural History Museum – 5,356,884

4. Tate Modern – 4,884,939

5. Science Museum – 3,316,00

6. V & A – 3,290,500

7. Tower of London – 2,894,698

8. Somerset House Trust – 2,398,066

9. St Paul’s Cathedral – 2,138,130

10. Westminster Abbey – 2,020,637