London - Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Madame Tussaud's famous waxworks exhibition was originally established in Paris in 1770, moved to London in 1802 and transferred to its present site in 1884. The collection of figures of the famous and infamous of the past and present is kept constantly up to date, and in 1979 a new Chamber of Horrors was opened to satisfy the public appetite for ever more gruesome exhibits and displays. The visitor will encounter Henry VIII and his six wives, the present Queen (who, like most of the contemporary figures represented here, gave special sittings to the waxworks artists) and royal family, leading figures of the French Revolution such as Robespierre and Marat (modeled from their severed heads by Madame Tussaud immediately after their execution), 20th century statesmen including Churchill, Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, television and sporting personalities. Jack the Ripper and other notorious criminals have their place in the Chamber of Horrors. The Battle of Trafalgar is re-fought in a striking tableau, and Nelson dies on the "Victory" amid the thunder and smoke of cannon. In 1993 a new attraction opened, the "Spirit of London", an audio-animatronic journey through London from medieval times to the present day; witness the Plague, Great Fire, the last World War and the "swinging sixties".