Counting the cost

Fifty years ago I climbed to the highest publicly accessible spot on St. Paul's Cathedral. This is only remembered by me as I struggled to carry my very young son up the 528 steps to reach the Golden Gallery. A memory I would often recall whilst driving my cab past London's greatest building.

St. Paul's dome that I climbed up carrying my son by Robert Scarth (CC BY-SA 2.0)

During my young son's life he had a procedure at Great Ormond Street Hospital which necessitated my taking him there for checkups. To occupy him we would go on to somewhere else, and a tall impressive building with a Whispering Gallery seemed a good choice.

I mention this rather prosaic event as I wouldn't have spent much, knowing at his tender age he soon would have become bored.

Today this little distraction lasting less than an hour would today cost £26, and if my son was over 6-years-old the charge, including a 'donation' would rise, so that I would receive only 40p in change from £40.

St. Paul's is one of the cheaper of the top London attractions: Westminster Abbey comes in at £31 per adult, while the Tower of London charges an eye-watering £35.80.

I've been a member of the National Trust for over 40 years, who have put up the membership fees by a quarter in the last three years to ask of me £168.60 to renew this year.

Is it any surprise that visitor numbers are way down on six years ago, despite soaring overseas visitors? As a pensioner, paying well over £100 for a day out is just prohibitive.

And what, apart from the location, do you get these days? First you have to run the gauntlet of salespeople trying to flog membership: "If you would care to shell out well over £100, the cost of today’s visit can be reclaimed".

Upon entry you have to ignore the temptation to pick up an expensively produced glossy marketing magazine and follow the marked route allowing yourself to be lectured by relentless 'anti-British' focus boards on the slave trade and colonialism undertaken by your ancestors. When you enter the tea room you get to hear how the food on offer is doing its bit to stop climate change.

If the attraction has a car park you were probably surprised to find they had the temerity to charge, unless, of course, you were riding a bike. But these extra addons help to pay for the slick social media videos, head office salaries and the plethora of research projects from trail hunting to rewilding.