Halloween is just around the corner and Madame Tussauds has popped up with a history tour like no other, Tales from the Chamber. Only question is are you brave enough to adventure through back in time and discover the learn about gruesome crimes?
I and Steve another member of Love Pop Ups London community were invited down on a complimentary experience by Madame Tussauds to take our brave souls through Tales from the Chambers before it opens to the public on 19 October.
Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds London was founded by Marie Tussaud who let’s guests step into the spotlight of the home of the famous. Star in immersive experiences like Alien: Escape, Marvel Superheroes 4D and Star Wars and get up close and personal with more than 250 lifelike figures of your favourite celebrities! So what are you waiting for?
More about Marie Tussauds?
Marie Tussaud who was born as Marie Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked for Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling beginning when she was a child.
He moved to Paris and took his young apprentice, then only 6 years old, with him. Grosholtz created her first wax sculpture in 1777 of Voltaire. At the age of 17, she became the art tutor to Madame Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI of France, at the Palace of Versailles. During the French Revolution, she was imprisoned for three months and awaiting execution, but was released after the intervention of an influential friend. Other famous people whom she modelled included Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the Revolution, she made models of many prominent victims. For 33 years she travelled around Europe with a touring show from the collection. She married Francois Tussaud in 1795 and took his surname. She renamed her show as Madame Tussaud’s. In 1802, she accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She did not fare particularly well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits. She then went on to travel throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. From 1831, she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of Baker Street Bazaar (on the west side of Baker Street, Dorset Street, and King Street). This became Tussaud’s first permanent home in 1836.
Tales from the Chamber
This Halloween, for two weeks only from 19 October till 3 November, take a chilling trip through some of the darkest, most gruesome true crime stories from the original Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds London.
Guests will be transported into the stories of real murders which were once featured in the original Chamber of Horrors.
Braving the Tales from the Chambers
Tales from the Chamber gives guests a unique experience leading those brave enough on a tour full of criminals and screams. Be warned though as it is not all figurines as there are real life actors lurking within the darkness, so there will be a few scares along the way!
Walking through this immersive walk-through which takes place on the site of the old Chamber of Horrors, set within the basement of Madame Tussauds we learned about some of the most notorious true crimes from history, which were once depicted in the Chamber. There are four stories each of them with real crime artefacts from The Madame Tussauds archives.
Upon being greeted by a very strange character we were led through the chambers, starting with the early days of Marie Tussaud to giving us an insight into her background.
It was then onto a tour of crime and terror as we learned about many crimes from murder to graveyard robbery.
Four ghastly crimes
Dr. Harvey Crippen was hung for murder. Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopath, ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser. He killed his wife Cora Henrietta Crippen back in 1910 and hung at Pentonville Prison in London. Spectacles which Dr. Crippens once wore are featured within this scene. Watch out though for Dr. Crippin who lurks amongst the corners as you might just be his next victim.
George Joseph Smith back in 1915 was an English serial killer and bigamist. He was convicted and subsequently hanged for the murders of three women, the case becoming known as the Brides in the Bath Murders. Why as the deaths of three women, were all found in bath tubs. Dare you take a bath after learning more about his notorious crime?
The Burke and Hare murders committed a series of 16 killings over a period of about ten months back in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who then sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Don’t die or you could be their next victim and end up in a pickled jar for science.
Mary Pearcey was an English woman who was convicted of murdering her lover’s wife, Mrs. Phoebe Hogg, and child, Tiggy, on 24 October 1890 and hanged for the crime on 23 December of the same year. The crime is sometimes mentioned in connection with Jack the Ripper, and Pearcey has been posited as a Ripper candidate. What lurks within inside the Victorian pram are you brave enough to look inside?
Remember that some of the objects are real pieces of history, so keep an eye out not just for those criminals but for those ancient artefacts.
Are you brave enough to walk through Tales from the Chambers?
After surviving the Tales from the Chambers we then learned about ghostly going on’s which take place to this day within Madame Tussauds. Stories of things moving, strange noises and people just feeling uneasy in certain areas within and around Madame Tussauds. No surprise really as the building is 130 years old and some of the objects within are 250 years old, so there is a long history and the stories keep coming. One of the stories which intrigued me was the one of a night guard back in the 1950s, who was found after a night shift in the Chamber of Horrors, shaking and inconsolable.
We survived to tell the tale
Tale from the Chambers was a chilling experience with scares around every corner. With the dark eerie corridors and smog which creeps across the floor makes this tour an intense but yet interesting one.
The crime stories which are told are some of the most notorious and well known stories from history making each interesting whilst being told by a curious yet strange tour guide who makes things even spookier by holding a light under his face whilst telling the stories. It made me feel like I was a teenager sitting around a campfire being told spooky stories.
I loved how ancient artefacts can be viewed from Dr. Crippens glasses to an old spooky Victorian pram. The spookiness of the dimly lit atmosphere within the chambers adds to the tension. However what really made this scare attraction even more tense and really scary was not all was what it seemed, is that a figurine? or is that an actor? or perhaps even a real criminal which is lurking within the darkness of the chambers?
Adventuring further through Madame Tussauds
After surviving the Tales from the Chambers we ventured through Madame Tussauds and took on some more scares.
Plus we also met some celebs, politicians and super heroes.
Can you name them all?
I also bumped into Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock, swoon.
I even had tea with Her Majesty the Queen within Madame Tussauds new Royal Tea cafe located half way through the attraction. Within this Royal Garden Party it really felt like I was sitting within the grounds of Buckingham Palace with the immersive sounds and effects.
Enjoy a leisurely afternoon tea or choose from a range of hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, cakes and pastries. Click here for more information.
Who would you love to meet?
Plus within Madame Tussauds you can take a black cab ride called Spirit of London and travel through the decades from the Great London of Fire, swinging 60’s right through to the present day.
For those that love the movies and Marvel then you’ll love the 4D screening. Take a seat in the 360-degree, 4D cinema attraction, complete with high impact special effects and join a crack team of Super Heroes including Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Iron Man in a battle against one of Marvel’s most villainous baddies Doctor Doom.
Book
Madame Tussauds
Marylebone Road
London
NW15LR
Tickets into Madame Tussauds start from £25
Tales from the Chamber 19 October to 3 November) costs £6 (in addition to entry)
To book your experience, visit www.madametussauds.com/london
For more information about Tales from the Chambers visit www.madametussauds.com/tales
Thank you to Madame Tussauds for inviting us down to get a sneak peek of Tales from the Chambers.
Click below to be redirected to read the other write from the community member who joined me on the night. Their views are of their own honest opinions.
“I love going out discovering new and existing restaurants, theatres, immersive experiences and so much more but I also love staying in and discovering new gadgets, gaming and cooking.
