Madame Tussauds

What is it?

London’s legendary waxwork museum, home to lifelike creations of the planet’s biggest slebs. 

Madame Tussauds is named after a real woman. In 1884 Marie Tussaud moved into Marylebone Road. Having already made her waxwork debut in the capital in 1802 (32 years after she founded the show in Paris), Tussaud decided to lay down permanent roots and she’s been there ever since. While Marie Tussaud passed away in London in 1850, her legacy lives on.

Visitors to Madame Tussauds nowadays will find some 150 lifelike models that come from the worlds of music, movies, fashion, sports, royalty, politics, history and fiction. Major strars such as Harry Styles, Zendaya and Leonardo DiCaprio, come together with favourite characters from ‘Star Wars’, ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘ET’. The likes of Einstein, Dickens, Marilyn Monroe and Chaplin offer a blast from the past. Mary Earps, Mo Farah and Mbappé lead the sports personalities, while Beyoncé, David Bowie and Dua Lipa give off ultimate attitude in the music section. Elsewhere The King stands proudly with Will and Kate, and in 2024 Sadiq Khan was sealed in wax.

Why go?

You're sure to get a photo with your favourite celebrity – dead or alive — without having to hang around for hours outside concert venues, bring them back from beyond the grave, or follow them home. 

Don't miss:

The exhibition goes back as far as 400 years, in their ‘Spirit of London’ ride – a mocked up London taxi that takes you on a journey through the city’s history. Other rides include the floor drop (hold onto your stomachs) in the ‘Chamber of Horrors’, where you’ll find a history of crime and punishment over the last 500 years, with scary special effects and instruments of torture. It’s the experiences and rides like these that make Madame Tussauds much more than a museum of dummies. 

When to visit: 

10am-3pm daily

Ticket info: 

Early-bird standard tickets start at £27 and can be bought from the website.

Time Out tip: 

If you have a Merlin Pass (starting at £139 per year), access to Madame Tussauds is free all year round.