#Piccadilly London

[thepiccadillywestend]

Instagram-worthy Photos With Your Favourite Stars | London’s Madame Tussauds

London has many unique and jaw dropping icons like Tower Bridge, The Gherkin and The London Dungeons just to name a few. 

But few have seen the sheer and staggering success that Madame Tussauds has experienced, not just in London but across the globe. Get up close and personal with incredibly lifelike depictions of the world’s most famous celebrities and icons. 

Make the most of your next trip to London by taking full advantage of one of the best discount hotels in West End London, The Piccadilly London West End Hotel. You’ll have full use of the amazing Piccadilly West End Hotel Spa and be perfectly situated to explore this amazing city, and the likes of Madame Tussauds amazing collection.   

Now let’s take a look at everything you need to know before visiting Madame Tussauds.

A Quick History

Waxwork museums are amongst the strangest attractions to have gained popularity over the last few decades, and none are as popular as Madame Tussauds. 

The original museum was opened in 1835 by Marie Tussaude on Baker Street in London, using a combination of her father's wax sculptures, and her own. It was an instant success and has since been turned into one of the world’s most successful franchises. 

Their museums actually span the breadth of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceana! 

The London museum alone is said to attract around 3 million visitors per year, and pretty much all of them leave with only good things to say.  

The Best Time to Visit

As you can probably imagine, it gets pretty busy. 

July and August are the busiest times to visit, and pretty much any weekend of the year you’ll find the place pretty packed. 

If you’re looking for a quieter visit then try midweek in a quiet month of the year.

Entrance Fees

The ticket prices are set throughout the seasons and there is a small discount for booking online. They are currently listed as starting at £33.50 for entry. 

There are plenty of ticket types including multi-attraction tickets, and things like the London Pass which allows you entry into a certain number of attractions in a set amount of days. 

There will also be certain exhibitions that require an extra ticket, and you can book group and family tickets for further discounts.

Getting There

Madame Tussauds is located at the southernmost tip of Regent’s Park on Marylebone Road. It’s extremely central so can be tied in with visits to other attractions in the city with relative ease. 

If you are catching the tube as most people probably will be, then you want to be aiming for Baker Street Station. From here you’ll find yourself with less than a five minute walk to the museum. 

From your gorgeous room at The Piccadilly London West End Hotel you’re an easy 10 minute drive door to door, or a delightful 20 minute walk through one of the most beautiful parts of the city. Failing that a quick jaunt on the Bakerloo Line will bring you right into Baker Street Station.  

Madame Tussauds

So there you have it, a quick rundown of everything you need to know before you explore this incredible museum. 

Make the most of your London West End stay package and snap some selfies with your favourite public figures!  

[vintagepromotions]

Cover of the menu at Lyons' Corner House, London (c. 1960).

[vintage-london-images]

Here we have a selection of colour photographs of Piccadilly Circus from the 1950s 60s and 70s.

Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly, a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Piccadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to Robert Baker, a tailor famous for selling piccadills or piccadillies, a term used for various kinds of popular collars of the time. The street was known as Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza, the queen consort of King Charles II but was known as Piccadilly by at least 1743. Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton, the intersection was then known as Regent Circus South (just as Oxford Circus was known as Regent Circus North) and it did not begin to be known officially as Piccadilly Circus until the mid 1880's with the rebuilding of the Regent Street Quadrant and the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. In the same period the circus lost its circular form.

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain or Eros at Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It was removed from the Circus twice and moved from the centre once. The first time was in the mid 1920s, so that Charles Holden's new tube station could be built directly below it. The fountain returned in 1931. During the Second World War, the fountain was removed for the second time and replaced by advertising hoardings. It was returned again in 1948. When the Circus underwent reconstruction work in the late 1980s, the entire fountain was moved from the centre of the junction at the beginning of Shaftesbury Avenue to its present position at the southwestern corner.

Piccadilly Circus tube station was opened on 10th March 1906, on the Bakerloo line, and on the Piccadilly line in December of that year. In 1928, the station was extensively rebuilt to handle an increase in traffic. The junction's first electric advertisements appeared in 1910, and from 1923 electric billboards were set up on the facade of the London Pavilion. Electric street lamps interestingly however did not replace the gas ones until 1932. The circus became a one-way roundabout on 19th July 1926 and traffic lights were first installed on 3rd August of that year.

[johbeil]

Piccadilly Circus

on an overcast day in August 1973. Leica M3 with 50 mm Summicron on Agfa color film, scanned from faded negative.

[thunderstruck9]

Dieter Roth (Swiss, 1930-1998), Piccadilly D, 1969-70. Print, 50 x 70 cm. Number 115/150

[archiveofaffinities]

Piccadilly Circus, London, England

[famousinuniverse]

Piccadilly Circus, London, United Kingdom: Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction. Wikipedia

[fawnvelveteen]

A young woman window shopping in London's Piccadilly neighborhood, 1953.

[webdiggerxxx]

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[vox-anglosphere]

Two teenage princesses slipped into the roaring crowd unnoticed. After six years of blackouts, it was a night of unsurpassed jubilation.

[juliakristeva]

Kodachrome of Piccadilly Circus, 1965.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

A kaleidoscope of colour. Cars and buses whirl through Piccadilly Circus in London, 1960s.

[haxanbroker]

Covent Garden Station. London, December 2023.

[vintage-london-images]

These atmospheric photographs snapped around Piccadilly were taken by Jean Paul Margnac with a Leica M4 camera in September, 1967.

[fascinatingeurope]

🇬🇧 Piccadilly Circus in London - a vintage photochrom print from the 1890s.

[leftoverlondoner]

Excellent 1960s photos of Piccadilly Circus taken by Roger Newark from the upper floors of the Swan & Edgar department store.