London Dungeon and The London Bridge Experience

One of my favorite bits of silliness in London is the London Dungeon. This is a wax museum/haunted house kind of London attraction. We went to The London Dungeon after we visited the Tower of London. It was a fairly short walk across the Tower Bridge to get there. Now it seems that The London Bridge Experience has decided to open a haunted house right across the street from the London Dungeon and London Dungeon is not happy about it. The case is heading to court over what Merlin Entertainments-London Dungeon's Parent Co.-see as an attraction which is transparently designed to mirror the London Dungeon’s concept and marketing positioning.

The Wife is a big fan of Haunted Houses and one of our favorite spots to head to around Halloween is Kansas City, as they have several haunted houses right next to each other. I can see that London Dungeon would not be happy about a very similar attraction setting up shop across the street, but as a tourist who likes this type of attraction, I have to ask why not? Of course, not everyone will want to spend the time or money to see both-so I guess it would depend on how much alike they are.

We have all kinds of odd laws in the U.S. about Adult Business not being close to other Adult Businesses or Churches or Schools or Night Clubs and so on and so forth. London is a big city and it would seem that it could have been easy enough to put this attraction somewhere else-even on the other end of the London Bridge would be better than right next to an already established business of the same type. But then, shops set up next to other shops and the West End is full of Theaters sitting side by side.

If The London Bridge Experience is successful, then will the entire neighborhood convert to nothing but Haunted Houses? And would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

London Festival of Architecture 2008

London Festival of Architecture-there is a lot of great architecture in London-so they are spending a full month talking about some of London's greatest buildings. I like all kinds of Festivals and you have to love one that wants everything to be Fresh. Like fresh food, events will include a continuous picnic through Bloomsbury, growing projects across London and demonstrations and exhibitions about urban agriculture at Cheapside Market.

The London Festival of Architecture invites people to Take a Fresh Look at London. The central theme of 'fresh' is reflected in series of events that cover all five Festival Hubs. The LFA Fresh Flower pavilion designed by Tonkin Liu Architects will serve as a mobile platform for Fresh Thinking talks; the National Architecture Student Festival showcases Fresh Talent from a dozen universities; a series of expert design workshops will take a Fresh Approach to some of London's lost quarters; our guided walks and cycle rides encourage people to explore the city in the Fresh Air; and talks about Fresh Food and urban agriculture accompany a series of urban allotment installations and a public picnic.

During the Festival month, the buzz of activity will move across five key areas or 'Hubs' of central London, with large-scale public events taking place in a different Hub each weekend. Each of the Hubs covers an area with a very different character - historic, present and future – and full of different institutions and activities.

All in all it looks like a lot of cool stuff going on. But then it is in London, so it has to be cool, right? The London Festival of Architecture things of interest:

Wallpaper magazine is hosting Hauswork, a series of talks on the 21st-century townhouse.

The French art collective Exyzt is transforming Southwark Lido into conceptual Roman baths.

Scott King, former art director at i-D magazine, is creating an installation on hoardings in SE1.

David Chipperfield is lecturing on the King's Cross masterplan.

Screening the City is a series of films celebrating architecture.