London's Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussuads is said to be London's most famous visitor attraction-and I guess it would be hard to find someone who has not heard of the London Wax Museum. The most recent announcement is that the slightly mad London pop star Amy Winehouse will become a fixture at Madame Tussauds after she has been immortalised in wax. She will join just other modern favorites as Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt.

Millions and millions of people have flocked through the doors of London's Madame Tussauds since they first opened over 200 years ago and it remains just as popular as it ever was. There are many reasons for this enduring success, but at the heart of it all is good, old-fashioned curiosity. Today’s visitors are sent on a unique, emotionally-charged journey through the realms of the powerful and famous.

Some of Madame Tussauds’ original work and earliest relics are still on display in London, including the death masks she was forced to make during the French Revolution and the Guillotine that beheaded Marie Antoinette. Guests can also marvel at probably the earliest example of animatronics –‘Sleeping Beauty’, a breathing likeness of Louis XV’s sleeping mistress Madame du Barry sculpted in 1763, is the attraction’s oldest figure on display.

London's Madame Tussauds is full of interactive figures – Jennifer Lopez blushes, Britney Spears breathes and Kylie smells sweetly of her signature fragrance Darling. Meanwhile, Jamie
Oliver’s stomach rumbles, and Brit comedy stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas
wisecrack together.

A staggering 2,400lbs of wax is used in nearly 400 figures currently on show in the London
attraction. That’s roughly equivalent to 16,000 candles, even though the ‘Japan’ wax used
to create figures is incapable of melting.

500 precise body and facial measurements are taken over two hours at a standard sitting
session with the celebrity subject. This gives expert Madame Tussauds sculptors all the
information they need to create a strikingly realistic figure.

From initial sitting to press launch, a typical Madame Tussauds figure takes around four
months to make, utilises a team of around 20 skilled artists and costs £150,000.

Madame Tussauds- Adult £25.00, Child £21.00, Family £85.00