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?

The London Dudgeon

"You have been found guilty of desertion and doing a Reginald Perrin into the Sea." I was told by the Judge, who was wearing a large powder wig and flowing red robes. The Wife and I laughed at this, as we were both familar with the British comedy The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, in which he strips naked and runs into the ocean as the open credits roll. None of the other Americas in a our group of about fifteen got the joke. The rest of the group was found guilty of cowardice in the face of the enemy. We were all being sent to the London Dungeon.

A short walk from Tower Bridge, in one of the many lovely warehouse districts of London, is an unassuming building that houses the wax museum/house of horrors that is The London Dungeon. It has been a few years since last I was there, judging by the website they have added a lot more action to the place, it was mainly a wax museum when we were there. But it was a fun wax museum, was a lot of people in period costumes wandering about. The museum had two main parts, a self-guiding walk through London During the Plague and then a guided tour where your are Judged and Sentenced and sent to the Guillotine.

During the self guided part of the London Dungeon the rooms were dim and partly lit by candle light. Real candle light, supplied by very large candles with four or five inch open flames. These tapers were just sitting around and burning merrily away-the kind of thing you would never see in an American museum of any kind. But it seemed perfectly normal here.

New since we where there is an exhibit featuring the demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd, Extremis: Drop Ride to Doom!, and Traitor! Boat Ride to Hell! They are fond of exclamation points at the London Dungeon. It will take about an hour and half to see all there is to see in The London Dungeon. Prices for London Dungeon : Adult: £19.95 / Child: £13.95 / Student: £14.95 / Disabled Adult: £17.95 / Disabled Child: £9.95 /OAP (60+ yrs): £14.95

Just remember when you are in front of the Judge to call him, Your Honor. He'll still sentence you to be hanged, but he will be nicer about it.