Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors: Wounded Spectators, Perverse Appetites and Gothic History

Abstract

On the Marylebone Road in London, a short distance from Regent’s Park and Baker Street, is Madame Tussaud’s.1 Tussaud’s today is an international phenomenon, with branches from Blackpool to Beijing, San Francisco to Sydney. It is one of the most famous, and one of tourist attractions in the world — and the London branch is the original Madame Tussaud’s. It arrived at its present location in 1884, but had been based round the corner, at the Baker Street Bazaar, for almost 50 years before that. Its history extends even further back. Before it became a fixed-site tourist attraction in London, it had been a touring exhibition since 1803. And the touring show that Marie Tussaud brought to London in 1802, had its origins in a French exhibition that dated from the late 1760s.