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Madame Tussauds London
Right now, behind these grand Neo-Classical columns, technicians are touching up celebrity faces with dental tools and heated spatulas... just like Marie Tussaud did 190 years ago when she fled the French Revolution with a suitcase of severed heads. This imposing limestone building on Marylebone Road replaced her cramped Baker Street shop in 1884 when her grandson realized they needed serious space for what locals called "the most gruesome show in London." The architect John Thomas Wimperis designed these soaring galleries specifically to house the infamous Chamber of Horrors, featuring actual death masks Tussaud made of guillotined French royalty. That entrance you're walking through? It's the exact spot where Victorian ladies would faint at the sight of Robespierre's wax head, complete with blood-stained collar. Inside, you'll discover Britain's first celebrity wax museum still thrilling visitors in its original home.
Did You Know?
- The original Madame Tussauds in London opened in 1835 at the Baker Street Bazaar, and its infamous Chamber of Horrors—displaying death masks of executed French nobles and notorious criminals—was so popular that it became one of the city’s first true 'must-see' attractions, even before the term was coined; the Chamber was advertised as early as 1843, and its macabre appeal drew Victorian Londoners in droves.
- Madame Tussaud herself, Marie Tussaud, learned her craft by making death masks of executed French royalty during the Revolution, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette—a chilling blend of art and history that she later brought to London, making her museum a unique, living 'newspaper' where visitors could come face-to-face with figures from world events and headlines.
- The museum’s move to its current Marylebone Road location in 1884 was a major architectural and cultural event, with the new building designed to house larger crowds and more elaborate displays; this move marked Madame Tussauds’ transition from a local curiosity to a global brand, and today, families can still see original 19th-century wax figures alongside modern celebrities, blending centuries of history and pop culture under one roof.