Watch a huge cruise ship squeeze through Tower Bridge

The ship has 296 guests with 222 crew

(Press Association)

This is the moment a 16,800 ton cruise ship squeezed under Tower Bridge over the weekend as London braces itself for a possible future as a number one destination for even larger cruises.

SilverSea's Silver Cloud cruise passed under the famous London landmark on its way to the Kiel canal, Copenhagen, Visby, Stockholm, Hellsinki, St Petersburg and Tallinn, before heading back to London via Warnemunde and Amsterdam.

The ship has 296 guests with 222 crew and will take 15 days. Fares start at £6,650 per person.

London may soon even larger cruise ships pass along the Thames, though the video shows that they will not be able to go that far along given the restrictions of bridges such as Tower Bridge.

There are plans to make the mooring at Enderby Wharf the first large cruise ship terminal in the capital since the closing of the Royal Docks in 1981.