Madame Tussaud’s is one of the most famous wax museums in the world and sometimes it’s even used as a synonym for wax museum.
It is present in many cities worldwide: London, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles but the one in London is perhaps the most popular of them all because it was the first one to open to the public.
The museum is also one of the most visited attractions in the city of London each year and both tourists and local families like to visit it at least once.
Some Londoners even use it ‘to pay tribute’ to their favourite singer or actor on their birthday or to celebrate kids’ birthdays as the venue is available for private parties as well.
In 1802, the French lady Marie Tussaud moved from Paris to England bringing with her the collection of wax statues she had inherited from a skilled Swiss physician who shaped anatomical parts in wax for his profession.
It seems that Marie lived in the doctor's house, where her mother worked as housekeeper.
Since she was a child she had learnt how to shape wax, creating the first masterpieces with the help of the Swiss doctor himself.
In Paris, the doctor had organised his first wax sculpture exhibition and success came immediately.
At the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in London you can also see the wax statue of the founder herself, the little Madame Tussaud statue is placed next to her first creation, the statue of Madame du Barry, lover of Louis XV, beheaded during the French revolution.
This is the first statue realized by Marie Tussaud when she was still living in France, at the end of the 18th century, later followed by the statues of Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin.
Marie attended the noble circles in Paris and in particular taught art to the sister of King Louis XVI during a period she was a guest at Versailles.
Because of her friendships with the noble families she was condemned to death but, at the last moment, she was saved by her art, since the revolutionaries needed someone able to create the wax portraits of the nobles who were beheaded, many of whom were Marie’s friends.
Marie moved at the beginning of the 19th century to London with her youngest son and, after several traveling exhibitions in London and the rest of England, Marie Tussaud organised her first permanent exhibition at Baker street and founded the largest wax museum in the world.
In the museum of London, you can admire famous people from the past and the present. You can meet Henry VIII with his six wives, protagonists of the French Revolution as Robespierre (which Madame Tussaud portrayed immediately after the killing), Hitler and politicians from the twentieth century, such as Churchill, Gandhi, Miss Thatcher and George W. Bush.
Beatles in wax version
You can also admire many stars of the cinema and television, famous football champions and many other important people from different fields.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
At Madame Tussaud's wax museum there are other spectacular attractions such as the Planetarium, where it is possible to simulate a three-dimensional journey in space, and the chamber of horrors played by real actors, where you can find all the most famous British serial killers.
There is also a beautiful scene of the death of Marat in the bathtub and the guillotine that cut off Marie Antoinette's head: a truly fascinating place for horror lovers.
Queen Elizabeth II is the character who has the most representations and she had more than one statue made.
Queen Elizabeth and her husband
You can also have your picture taken by a professional photographer and there is also the broadcast of a short film in English in 4D on the Marvel heroes in a small cinema. There is also a whole story about the Star Wars saga and its characters in wax version.
