St. Katharine Pier is located just on the other side of Tower Bridge, offering tourist river cruise services including the "hop-on, hop-off" circular service operated by Crown River Cruises.
In 2002 the RNLI's Thames lifeboat service was introduced to the River Thames following the Marchioness disaster, and Tower Pier was initially used as a base for the lifeboat service. In 2006 the RNLI station moved up-river to a new base, the former Waterloo Police Pier on Victoria Embankment next to Waterloo Bridge, which took the name Tower Lifeboat Station.[4]