The Madame Tussauds

The Madame Tussauds is one of a kind museum that displays various famous and historical figures made of wax. Founded by wax sculptor Madame Tussaud in 1835, the museum is a major London tourist attraction. One of the most important advantages of visiting this place is the full permission to take pictures in all exhibitions.

Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussauds first exhibit was Voltaire sculpture made in 1777. After settling in, on Baker Street, one of the first exhibitions was the Chamber of Horrors, that mainly focused on the victims of the French revolution, which had a great impact on the life of the sculptor. Visitors are able to watch real characters, who have been closely related to British history. Among others you may get a closer look at Lord Nelson stand eye to eye with Sir Walter Scott. An interesting fact about Madame Toussauds is that when she moved to London she became an art tutor for Madame Elisabeth, sister of Louis XVI. During the revolution, she was even imprisoned for three months and awaited death sentence. The Madame Toussauds museum survived fire in 1925 and Nazi bombing during World War II in 1941.

 

Madame Tussauds today

Today, the collection consists of all kinds of personalities. From characters such as Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill to modern musicians and celebrities, for example, Amy Winehouse, Freddie Mercury, The Beatles. British Royal Family sculptures include Queen Elizabeth II, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. What is more, sportsmen also were honored in the museum. There are sculptures of David Beckham, Muhammad Ali or Cristiano Ronaldo. Worth mentioning are also the sculptures of icons, such as Sean Connery, Marilyn Monroe or Johnny Depp. Although it is a very specific type of sculpture, considered to be time consuming, some faces remain less recognizable than the others and lead to a discussion about the degree of similarity to the actual person, which makes the tour even more interesting. All in all, the quality of crafts are extraordinarily admirable and definitely worth seeing.

 

The most important facts according to Connect-Click:

• There was a total of ten different sculptures of Winston Churchill. The first one was presented in 1908.
• Madame Tussaud is featured in Assassin’s Creed Unity game as one of the side missions, where the player has to retrieve severed heads to make wax replicas from.
• In January 2016, the sculpture of Adolf Hitler was removed from the museum in response to a letter from a writer of The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Previously, the sculpture was frequently vandalized.

 

 

Address: Marylebone Rd, Marylebone, London NW1 5LR