London (Tilbury) in brief
Most guides to this port open with the Thames. Open with the mileage, not the river.
Capital Cruising, the cruise arm of the Port of Tilbury, holds four separate London facilities under one port name.
One of them is 25 miles out. The other three are in the middle of the city.
Tilbury is the one most passengers get, and it is a port of call, not a stop in London.
The London International Cruise Terminal sits on the Thames at Tilbury in Essex, behind 350 metres of floating quayside.
You berth alongside it at Tilbury, not against a tender line, and you walk off through a Grade II* listed terminal building with a passenger reception and a grand hall.
The operator puts the berth 22 nautical miles down the river from Tower Bridge, and calls it the only cruise terminal in the southeast that is on the River Thames itself.
Ambassador Cruise Line turns its ships round here. It says approximately 25 miles east of London.
Both are true. Neither is a walk.
What is at the gate is a car park.
No town, no shops, no station — the nearest built-up area is Tilbury town, about a mile away.
Tilbury Town railway station is about that same mile. Capital Cruising calls it approximately one mile and, on another of its own pages, a short walk; Ambassador puts it at approximately a 20-minute walk.
Nobody publishes a covered or signed pedestrian route — and nobody publishes a map of it either.
Carry a waterproof. There is no shelter on that mile.
The train at the far end of the walk is the good news, and it is genuinely good.
c2c runs direct from Tilbury Town to London Fenchurch Street — no change, and nothing to miss.
Its own route page gives an average journey of 40 minutes and a train every 23 minutes on average; Trainline has the fastest at 35 minutes and up to 134 a day.
Capital Cruising’s own page promises “right into the heart of London in 35 minutes” — the operator’s best case, not the railway’s own average, and we are printing both.
A standard day single was GBP 7.70 on 22 September 2026 — advance fares start at GBP 6.70.
Contactless pay as you go has worked at Tilbury Town since 2 February 2025, when c2c extended it to all 26 of its stations.
The clock makes this port hard, not the money. About GBP 15 return buys the rail leg, and what costs you is roughly an hour and a quarter door to door each way.
The three river moorings are the other half of this port, and hard size limits decide who gets one.
Greenwich Ship Tier lies 5 miles downstream of Tower Bridge and takes ships to 228 metres and 8.1 metres of draft.
The operator says vessels moored there are serviced through the world’s first floating cruise terminal — a pontoon, not a classic tender operation.
Ashore at Greenwich you are within walking distance of the Cutty Sark, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich Market and Greenwich Park.
Tower Bridge Upper Mooring is 300 metres from Tower Bridge, capped at 158 metres and 6 metres of draft. Forth Ports names Hanseatic Nature as an April 2026 arrival there.
George’s Stair Tier is 1.5 cables downstream of the bridge — roughly 280 metres — capped at 120 metres and 2 metres of draft, and the operator calls it perfect for small ships and super yachts.
Those caps are the whole story. A small ship can call in central London, not a large one — anything bigger goes to Tilbury.
One gap is worth naming, not filling.
Capital Cruising publishes positions and size limits for all three moorings, and says how passengers are served at Greenwich, not at the other two.
For Tower Bridge Upper and George’s Stair it does not say whether you come ashore by tender, lighter or pontoon — so we are not telling you either.
The season and the traffic, in the operator’s own figures.
Forth Ports announced 106 cruise calls in London for 2026 from 15 lines, a 10% increase on 2025, across Tilbury and both sets of river moorings.
It does not publish how those 106 split between the terminal and the moorings, and we are not going to estimate it.
The season runs April to October.
Which paid tour earns its price on a Tilbury day, and which one is a train ticket with a guide attached, is the job of our London (Tilbury) shore excursion guide.
On foot from the ship
Capital Cruising says approximately one mile; Ambassador Cruise Line, which turns ships round here, says approximately a 20-minute walk. No signed or covered route is published by either of them, and there is no shelter on the way. This is the leg that turns a cheap train into a long morning.
Direct on c2c, no change. The railway’s own route page gives an average of 40 minutes and a train every 23 minutes on average; Trainline has the fastest at 35 and up to 134 a day, first around 03:43 and last around 23:33. Capital Cruising’s own claim is 35 minutes, which is the best case rather than the average.
c2c’s own route page, read 22 September 2026, with advance fares from GBP 6.70 — so roughly GBP 15 return. Contactless pay as you go has worked here since 2 February 2025, with Monday-to-Sunday capping. The fare is not the reason to think twice about this port.
Thurrock Council states that from April 2024 the ferry will not operate until further notice, after the councils could not agree a contract extension; local reporting in March 2026 described a fresh viability investigation with no date. Capital Cruising’s own terminal page still lists a passenger ferry service from Kent. That page is out of date — do not plan around it.
Ensignbus route 99 serves the stop “Tilbury Ferry & LIC Terminal” and both entrances of Tilbury Town Station, and Capital Cruising says a bus runs every 30 minutes. It is a circular, so the scheduled run from the terminal to the station’s south entrance takes about 26 minutes. No Sunday service is shown, and the last departure is around 19:02. We found no current fare and are not quoting a 2021 one.
Tower Bridge Upper Mooring is 300 metres from the bridge and George’s Stair Tier about 280 metres downstream of it, so once you are ashore the City is immediate. At 158 and 120 metres LOA these are small-ship berths, and the operator does not publish how you get ashore at either.
What's nearby, broadly
Nothing on that list is near Tilbury except the first two — everything else is on the far end of a train ride, not a short walk, and that is the honest shape of this port. Tilbury Fort is the one real sight within reach of the terminal on foot or by short taxi — open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:30. From a Greenwich mooring the picture inverts completely: the Cutty Sark, the Old Royal Naval College, the market and the climb through Greenwich Park to the Observatory are all walkable from the gangway.
Commonly reached from
Tilbury is a turnaround port as much as a port of call — Ambassador Cruise Line is the resident line and runs return coaches to the terminal from ten UK cities, from GBP 70 return per person from Portsmouth to GBP 190 from Dundee, each including two suitcases. It has no London pick-up point at all — a regional link, not a city one — worth knowing before you assume a cheap official coach into the capital exists. A London call usually sits on a British Isles or Northern Europe loop alongside Edinburgh and Dublin, and the rest of that map is in our Northern Europe cruise guide. The ranked tour decision for this call lives in our London (Tilbury) shore excursion guide.
Planning your London (Tilbury) day
The specific picks — which paid excursion is actually worth it, what to skip, and why — already have their own dedicated guide, built and kept current on its own schedule. This page stays at the port-identity level on purpose; that one goes deep.
Booking a tour yourself? Our comparison of Shore Excursions Group and Viator covers which of the two suits which kind of port day — and when the ship’s own tour is still the better buy.
Best London (Tilbury) shore excursions
Tilbury is 25 miles from London and the train is cheap — this is the one port on the itinerary where the ship’s transfer can genuinely be the right buy.
See the full excursion guide →Practical notes
The coordinates on this page are an approximation, and we would rather say so.
Capital Cruising publishes positions for the three river moorings and none at all for the Tilbury landing stage.
The pin here is the Ferry Road landing stage area, and no more than that. It is close enough for a map — and not close enough to navigate by.
Money is the easy part of this port.
The currency is pounds sterling. Contactless cards and phones work essentially everywhere in London, on every bus, on the Underground and on c2c trains.
Cash is rarely needed. Some London buses have been cashless for years.
A London bus single is GBP 1.75 on contactless or Oyster, and TfL’s Hopper fare gives unlimited bus and tram journeys for that same GBP 1.75 within one hour of touching in.
We are not publishing a Tube fare or a daily cap. TfL’s own HTML pages carry no figures, and its adult-fares PDF could not be read reliably — the columns did not line up and produced values that are plainly wrong.
Quoting one of those would manufacture a precision we do not actually have, so we are not publishing one. Check your own fare in the TfL app on the day.
Restaurants add the tip for you, more often than not.
A discretionary service charge of around 10 to 12.5% is commonly added to a restaurant bill, and nothing further is expected when it is.
It is normal not to tip in a pub when you order at the bar — a general norm, not a figure we verified from a primary source.
The ferry everybody still lists does not exist.
Thurrock Council’s own page says that from April 2024 the Tilbury–Gravesend ferry will not operate until further notice, after the councils could not agree a contract extension.
Local reporting on 28 March 2026 described a new investigation into restoring it — with no date announced.
Capital Cruising’s own terminal page still advertises a passenger ferry service available from Kent. The port’s page is out of date, and this is the single most-repeated error about Tilbury.
The occasional river boat is not a transfer either.
Uber Boat by Thames Clippers runs a handful of special leisure sailings from Tilbury Pier to North Greenwich and London Bridge City, departing at 10:00 and returning at 18:15, and says the boat takes just an hour to reach London.
The advertised dates were four summer weekend days — four, in a season that runs April to October. Tickets are sold online in advance, not on the day, and are not interchangeable with the regular river bus.
If your call happens to fall on one, it is a lovely way in. Plan on it and you will be standing on an empty pier.
Fenchurch Street is not a Tube station, and we could not confirm what is.
London Fenchurch Street sits outside the Underground network itself, and our research could not verify the nearest Tube interchange or the walking time to it.
So do not assume a step-across change. Check it for yourself before you build a schedule on it.
If you are driving to the terminal, two charges catch people.
Long-stay parking at the terminal must be pre-booked, at GBP 11.00 per night including VAT, and overflow parking with a shuttle is used when demand is high.
The M25 is 7 miles away. If you use the Dartford Crossing you must pay the charge within 24 hours, online or by phone on 0300 300 0120.
Season, daylight and weather.
The London cruise season runs April to October on Forth Ports’ own figures, with 106 calls scheduled for 2026 from 15 lines.
Midsummer gives very long evenings — an early-October call is dark before 19:00.
The weather is temperate and unpredictable, and rain is possible in any month. The rail service runs late either way, so daylight only constrains you if you want it to.
The line that catches more people than all of the above.
The terminal is 25 miles from London, not in it.
Decide before you sail whether you are going into the city at all — because the round trip costs about two and a half hours of your port day before you have seen anything.
Sources: Capital Cruising’s own London pages, including the London Cruise Terminal, London moorings and how-to-find-us pages (capitalcruising.co.uk), Forth Ports’ Tilbury London page and its 2026 Capital Cruising season announcement (forthports.co.uk), Ambassador Cruise Line’s Tilbury port information and regional coach transfer pages (ambassadorcruiseline.com), c2c’s own Tilbury Town to London Fenchurch Street route page and its contactless launch release (c2c-online.co.uk), Trainline (thetrainline.com), Thurrock Council’s ferry pages (thurrock.gov.uk), Your Thurrock (yourthurrock.com, 28 March 2026), bustimes.org for the registered route 99 timetable, Transport for London’s bus and tram fares page (tfl.gov.uk), Uber Boat by Thames Clippers (thamesclippers.com) and English Heritage’s Tilbury Fort pages (english-heritage.org.uk) — all consulted 22 September 2026 — all consulted September 22, 2026.
Planning a London (Tilbury) port day?
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London (Tilbury) FAQ
Where exactly do cruise ships dock in London?
At one of four facilities, and they are not interchangeable. The London International Cruise Terminal at Tilbury is 22 nautical miles down the Thames from Tower Bridge, which Ambassador Cruise Line describes as approximately 25 miles east of London.
The other three are river moorings in the city. Greenwich Ship Tier is 5 miles downstream of Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Upper Mooring is 300 metres from it, and George’s Stair Tier about 280 metres downstream of it.
Ship length decides which you get. Greenwich caps at 228 metres, Tower Bridge Upper at 158 and George’s Stair at 120 — anything bigger goes to Tilbury.
How far is Tilbury cruise terminal from central London?
22 nautical miles down the river from Tower Bridge on the operator’s own figure, and approximately 25 miles east of London by road on Ambassador Cruise Line’s.
The rail journey from Tilbury Town to London Fenchurch Street covers about 19 miles.
None of those numbers is a walk. Nothing about stepping off at Tilbury puts you anywhere near London.
Do you dock or tender at Tilbury?
You dock. The London International Cruise Terminal has 350 metres of floating quayside and ships berth alongside it — there is no tendering at Tilbury at all.
The river moorings are a different question. Greenwich Ship Tier is explicitly served by what the operator calls the world’s first floating cruise terminal, which is a pontoon, not a conventional tender operation.
For Tower Bridge Upper Mooring and George’s Stair Tier, Capital Cruising publishes positions and size limits, not how passengers get ashore. We are not filling that gap for it.
How do I get from Tilbury cruise terminal to London, and what does it cost?
Walk about a mile — roughly 20 minutes on Ambassador’s figure — to Tilbury Town station, then take a direct c2c train to London Fenchurch Street.
c2c’s own route page gives an average journey of 40 minutes with trains every 23 minutes on average. Trainline has the fastest at 35 minutes and up to 134 a day, first around 03:43 and last around 23:33.
A standard day single was GBP 7.70 on 22 September 2026, with advance fares from GBP 6.70 — call it about GBP 15 return. Contactless pay as you go has worked at Tilbury Town since 2 February 2025, with Monday-to-Sunday capping.
Is the ship’s transfer into London worth buying?
For a lot of people here, yes — and this is one of very few ports on a Northern Europe itinerary where we would say that.
The argument is time, not money. The rail leg is cheap and frequent, but the round trip runs about an hour and a quarter door to door each way, which is roughly two and a half hours of the day gone before you have seen anything. On a typical 08:00 to 18:00 call that leaves about four and a half hours in London.
The transfer removes the mile-long walk, the connection and the all-aboard risk in one purchase, and it is tied to the ship’s schedule. No line publishes a per-person price on the sources we checked, so price theirs against roughly GBP 15 return by rail plus your travel once you are in town.
Can I take the ferry from Tilbury to Gravesend?
No. Thurrock Council’s own page says that from April 2024 the Tilbury–Gravesend ferry will not operate until further notice, after the councils could not agree a contract extension.
Local reporting on 28 March 2026 described a fresh investigation into the viability of restoring it, with no date announced.
Capital Cruising’s own terminal page still lists a passenger ferry service available from Kent. That page is out of date, and it is the most-repeated error about this port.
Is there a bus from the cruise terminal to Tilbury Town station?
There is, and walking is usually faster. Ensignbus route 99 serves the stop “Tilbury Ferry & LIC Terminal” and both entrances of Tilbury Town Station, and Capital Cruising says a bus runs every 30 minutes.
It is a circular route, so the scheduled run from the terminal to the station’s south entrance takes about 26 minutes — against a walk of about 20.
No Sunday service is shown on the registered timetable and the last departure is around 19:02. We could find no current fare — the only chart that surfaced was dated April 2021, which is too old to quote.
Is there anything to do near Tilbury if I skip London?
Tilbury Fort, and it is a better answer than it sounds. English Heritage’s 17th-century bastioned artillery fortress on the Thames has a complete circuit of moats and outworks, Victorian tunnels and river views.
It is at Officers Block, Tilbury, Essex RM18 7NR, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:30. Allow an hour to an hour and a half.
English Heritage did not display admission prices on either its place page or its own prices-and-opening-times page when we checked, so we are not printing a figure. Booking online before midnight the day before saves 15%, and members go free.
What is a London mooring call actually like?
Completely different from Tilbury, and much better. From Greenwich Ship Tier you come ashore at Greenwich, within walking distance of the Cutty Sark, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich Market and Greenwich Park.
From Tower Bridge Upper Mooring or George’s Stair Tier you come ashore beside Tower Bridge, in the middle of the City.
At those moorings a ship transfer buys you nothing — you are already there. Everything on this page about getting into town can be ignored.
How busy is London as a cruise port, and when is the season?
Forth Ports announced 106 cruise calls in London for the 2026 season from 15 different cruise lines, a 10% increase on 2025, across the Tilbury terminal and the Tower Bridge and Greenwich moorings.
The season runs April to October.
How those calls split between Tilbury and the two sets of river moorings is not published, and neither is a passenger figure for London on its own. We would rather say that than estimate it.
What should I know if I am driving to Tilbury to embark?
Long-stay parking at the terminal has to be pre-booked, at GBP 11.00 per night including VAT, and overflow parking with a shuttle is used when demand is high.
The M25 is 7 miles away. If you use the Dartford Crossing you must pay the charge within 24 hours, online or by phone on 0300 300 0120 — that one catches people on the way home as much as on the way out.
Ambassador Cruise Line runs return coaches to Tilbury from ten UK cities, from GBP 70 from Portsmouth to GBP 190 from Dundee, each including two suitcases. It has no London pick-up point.
Is Fenchurch Street on the Underground?
Not itself, and we could not verify the nearest interchange or the walk to it.
The c2c station page we tried returned an error and we ran out of time before a National Rail or TfL page could be checked. Stating a Tube station and a walking time here would be a guess dressed as a fact.
So check it yourself before you build a tight schedule on a change at Fenchurch Street. A London bus single is GBP 1.75 on contactless, and the Hopper fare gives unlimited bus and tram journeys for the same GBP 1.75 within one hour of touching in.
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