The Baker Street Bazaar | The Legends of London The Legends of London The Baker Street Bazaar Madame Tussaud at 42 The famous exhibition of wax figures has a remarkable history. Madame Tussaud was taken, by her mother, to Bern in Switzerland from Strasbourg after the death of her father in the Seven Year War. Here she was employed by Dr Phillippe Curtius , a physician, who was well-known for his anatomical wax models. He moved to Paris and took his young apprentice with him (she was only 6 years old). Her very first wax model was of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1778 and she began showing a remarkable talent. By the time she was 17 she became the art tutor to King Louis XVI’s sister, Madame Elizabeth, at the Palace of Versailles.During the French Revolution she was imprisoned for 3 months awaiting execution, but was released due to the intervention of an influential friend. To show her allegiance to the Revolution Madame Tussaud was forced to make death masks of the aristocracy who had been guillotined (which included the King and Marie Antoinette).

The masks were put on spikes and placed in the Place de la Concorde for display.After the death of her mentor, who left her all his masks and waxworks, Tussaud decided to start a new life across the waters in England in the early 1800s. She spent the next 36 years taking her travelling show across the British Isles, seeking fame and glamour. The show gave ordinary folk the opportunity to see famous figures they had only heard about. In 1835 Madame Tussaud & Sons set up a permanent exhibition on Baker Street, called the Baker Street Bazaar. Visitors paid sixpence to see the waxworks, the famous Chamber of Horrors, artefacts from the French Revolution and the guillotine believed to have been the one used to execute Marie Antoinette. In 1884 the exhibition moved to its present location in Marylebone Road. A panel of senior executives consider requests and current events when deciding on wax models. They then put 30 sculptors and many specialist technicians to work out of the west London workshop.

The first sitting for a waxwork lasts at least 4 hours and over 200 hundred photographs are taken from every angle, and every conceivable measurement is taken. Hair samples and false eyes are taken to the sitting to get the colours as close as possible to the real thing. And even an impression of the famous person’s teeth and a plaster mould of their hands are made. The first model of the heads are made of clay and when the okay has been given to start on the actual wax work, translucent wax is used to make it look like human skin and many layers of oil paint is used to get the skin tone, veins and freckles absolutely right. Inserting over 10,000 individual hairs can take over 4 weeks. It’s the detail that makes the difference. The Diamond Jubilee waxwork After 4 months of hard work, Madam Tussauds has just unveiled their 23rd waxwork of the Queen for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations at a cost of over £150,000.

Her dress is decorated with over 53,000 Swarovski crystals and she is wearing a copy of the state diadem, created in 1820, and copies of jewels which belonged to Queen Victoria.Politicians, pop stars, actors, sports stars…famous people are still the draw of the museum. With branches across the globe, visitors from Las Vegas, Shanghai and Berlin, to Sydney, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and more, can keep Madame Tussaud’s dream of sensationalism and her dark tourism alive. Dawn Denton© MADAME MARIE TUSSAUDS WAX WORKS MUSEUM LONDON ENGLAND OVERVIEW Marie Tussaud (1761ï¿½1850), born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg, France, worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. In 1765, Curtius made a waxwork of Marie-Jeanne du Barry, Louis XV's mistress. A cast of that mould is the oldest work currently on display.

The first exhibition of Curtius' waxworks was shown in 1770, and attracted a large audience. The exhibition moved to the Palais Royal in Paris in 1776. He opened a second location on Boulevard du Temple in 1782, the "Caverne des Grands Voleurs", a precursor to the later Chamber of Horrors. Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous persons she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she made wax death masks of prominent victims. She would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of the citizens which the death masks were to depict. When Curtius died in 1794, he left his collection of waxworks to Marie. In 1802, she went to London. As a result of the Franco-English war, she was unable to return to France, so with her collection she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland. She established her first permanent exhibition on Baker Street in London in 1835 (on the "Baker Street Bazaar").

One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors. This part of the exhibition included some victims of the French Revolution and also newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name was given by a contributor to Punch in 1845. Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson , and Sir Walter Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Tussaud herself still exist. In 1842, she made a self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. The museum moved to its current location on Marylebone Road in 1884. In 1925 a fire destroyed many of the figures, but the moulds survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade. Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become a major tourist attraction in London, incorporating the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Las Vegas and New York City, with another scheduled to open in Hollywood. Today's wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers.

Known as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are owned by a leisure company called The Tussauds Group. Chronology - France 1770-1802 Through talent and determination, a young girl named Marie Grosholz came to be numbered among the most famous of English institutions. 1761 - Marie Grosholz, later known as Madame Tussaud, is born in Strasbourg. 1770 - Marie's mother's employer, a doctor called Philippe Curtius, opens an exhibition of life-size wax figures at the Palais Royale in Paris. Marie learns the art of wax modelling from him. 1777 - Marie models the famous author and philosopher, Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire. 1780 - Marie becomes art tutor to King Louis XVI's sister and goes to live at the royal court in Versailles. 1789 - The outbreak of the French Revolution Marie returns to Paris, later helping Curtius to mould the heads of some of the guillotine's victims ï¿½ among them her Versailles acquaintances. 1794 - Marie Grosholz inherits Curtius's collection of figures.

1795 - She marries Franï¿½ois Tussaud, an engineer, but leaves him eight years later to bring the collection on a tour of the British Isles. ENGLAND - BAKER ST BAZAAR, 1835-84 For the next 33 years, she lives the exhausting and precarious life of a travelling showman, moving from town to town with her caravans, organising advertising, and encouraging newspaper anecdotes, or organising charity benefits to bring in useful patrons. She suffers shipwreck in the Irish Sea, and fire during the Bristol Riots of 1831. Yet, throughout the travelling years, new figures are constantly introduced. 1835 - Madame Tussauds settles into a permanent home in The Bazaar, Baker Street, London. "Visitors entering the Bazaar from Baker Street proceed to a saloon richly decorated with mirrored embellishments. Here sits an aged lady, with an accent which proclaims her Gallic origins. Were she motionless, you would take her for a piece of waxwork.

This is Madame Tussaud, a lady who is in herself an Exhibition." - from an 1842 guidebook 1846 - Punch Magazine coins the name "Chamber of Horrors" for Madame Tussauds separate room where gruesome relics of the French Revolution are displayed. 1850 - Madame Tussaud dies. In her old age, supported by two sons, she had achieved great success. She had resisted a U.S. buy-out, her memoirs had been published, and her portrait was painted by a court painter. She had been immortalised by Dickens (as Mrs Jarley) and caricatured by Cruikshank. MOVE TO MARYLEBONE ROAD 1884 - Madame Tussauds grandson, Joseph Randall, directs the move to the present site in Marylebone Road. FIRE & RE-BUILDING 1925-28 1925 - Fire guts the whole building, destroying not only almost all the wax figures and their costumes, but priceless furnishings, paintings and relics too.

Fortunately, many of the old head moulds were saved, and from these the Exhibition was rebuilt, opening 3 years later with the addition of a large Cinema and Restaurant. WAR BRINGS ABOUT PLANETARIUM 1940 - A German bomb destroys the Cinema. Ironically, the figure of Hitler is one of the few figures to survive unscathed. 1958 - Madame Tussauds opens the Commonwealth's first Planetarium on the site of the old cinema. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, London Tour 8 August. - YouTube Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, London Tour 8 August. Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Oct 19, 2011 Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, London Tour 8 August. A brief footage of one of the several videos shot at Madame Tussauds , Wax museum London. Lack of light and flash disrupted white balance. ( sorry about that).

Madame Tussauds is a major tourist attraction in London, displaying waxworks of historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars, musicians, Fashion celebrities, Politicians and famous people. Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud (Anna Maria Grosholtz (1761--1850) French). Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. Following the doctor's death in 1794, she inherited his vast collection of wax models and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. Her marriage to François Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show: Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she went to London having accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a magic lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, London.

As a result of the Franco-British war, she was unable to return to France, so she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. From 1831 she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street between Dorset Street and King Street). This became Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836. By 1835 Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London, and opened a museum. By 1883 the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson (Joseph Randall) to commission the building at its current location on Marylebone Road. The new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success. A limited company was formed in 1888 to attract fresh capital but had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders, and in February 1889 Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen led by Edwin Josiah Poyser. Thus over two centuries the attraction took vast changes in forms, art, location and ownerships. All rights reserved.

sirroke 2008, 2009, digieye 2009. Sirroke, digieye are registered trade mark / brand names, and the respective logos are registered logos. Other names/logos/marks/content of other entities may be for educational/ non-benefit purposes. All logos and trade/brand mark/names belongs solely of those companies/bodies/organisation/s. Madame Tussauds Telephone: +44 (0) 871 894 3000* Category Your guide to Madame Tussauds Your guide to Madame Tussauds Posted on by David Since 1835, people from all over have flocked to London to see the famous Madame Tussauds waxwork museum. Founded by Marie Tussaud, the museum has been a constant fixture on the to-do lists of many tourists visiting London for the weekend or longer. Everyone from Madonna to Tony Blair to David Beckham have been replicated in wax and put on display for the public to see. It is almost seen as a rite of passage for celebrities, whether they are deemed worthy of a waxwork.

Situated on Marylebone Road, just a stone’s throw from Baker Street Underground station, Madame Tussauds is a great outing for couples and families alike. Marvel at the sheer skill that has gone into the lifelike models which you will be astounded to believe are not simply people standing incredibly still. You will also see which celebrities are still considered waxwork worthy. Singer Olly Murs became the latest to be reinvented in wax so who else will you see during your visit to this iconic London attraction? Here is our in-depth guide to visiting Madame Tussauds. History of Madame Tussauds Born in Strasbourg, France in 1761 Marie Tussaud was taught the art of wax modelling by Dr Philippe Curtius, himself a physician skilled in this discipline. Ms Tussaud created her first-ever wax sculpture, of the French writer Voltaire, in 1777, and never looked back. During her early years she created wax models of the likes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. Her talent knew no bounds and when Dr Curtius died in 1794 she inherited a collection of wax models.

She spent the next 33 years travelling across Europe showing her skills to the public. It was not until 1802 when she received a special invitation from magic lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer Paul Philidor that Ms Tussaud travelled to London. Mr Philidor wanted to showcase the French sculptor’s work alongside his own at a show at the Lyceum Theatre. The exhibition was a major hit and it resulted in Ms Tussaud making the English capital her home. In 1835, she had settled in the Baker Street area of London and had opened a museum – originally called The Baker Street Bazaar. In 1846, Punch Magazine coined the name Chamber of Horrors for the museum’s ‘Separate Room’ where the gruesome waxworks of the French Revolution are displayed, a section that is still used to this very day. Following Ms Tussaud’s death in 1850, her sons took over the museum and relocated to Marylebone Road in 1884. It has stayed there ever since and has survived fire in 1925 and also a bomb during World War II which destroyed 352 head moulds and the attached cinema.

During the 1990s it underwent significant renovations and held a number of special exhibitions including one of the wedding dresses made for royalty. The brand has spread across the globe with Madame Tussauds museums being opened in America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In the UK, there is the London venue and another in Blackpool, in the north-west of England. The likes of Las Vegas, San Francisco, Hollywood, Sydney, Berlin and Tokyo all have similar museums. Opening times and admission prices Like with the many tourist attractions around London , Madame Tussauds is subject to peak, off peak and super peak times of the year. Months such as July and August, the first two weeks of April, the last week of May, the last week of October and around Christmas are considered super peak due to the school holidays. The majority of weekends are classed as peak so if you want to visit this attraction when it is slightly quieter then going during the week is advisable. How to get to Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds is just a few minutes walk from Baker Street Underground station making it a breeze for anyone visiting.

The station is served by Bakerloo, Circle, Hammersmith, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines making it accessible no matter what part of London you are travelling from. If you are coming by train simply get off at London Marylebone station and then it is just a ten minute walk to the attraction. It has good connections with mainline stations such as Euston, St Pancras, Paddington, Victoria , Waterloo, King’s Cross and Charing Cross which are all within five stops on the Tube. Travelling by bus? No problem, use any of the 13, 18, 27, 30, 74, 82, 113, 139, 189, 205, 274 or 453 which pass by the museum. While it is advisable to leave the car at home and use the plethora of transport links in the city, if you are driving then there is secure parking available at 170 Marylebone Road.

Where to stay for visiting Madame Tussauds If you are basing your stay in London around a visit to Madame Tussauds you will need a hotel that is both within easy access of the attraction and provide the level of comfort and luxury you have come to expect. Luckily there are a number of five star hotels within walking distance of Madame Tussauds and a host of other attractions. We recommend The Marble Arch by Montcalm on Great Cumberland Place. At this boutique hotel you can enjoy the height of luxury in a small setting. Situated in a petite townhouse it offers all the chic decor and mod cons you would want from a high class hotel in the heart of central London. All rooms are beautifully designed and kitted out with LCD TVs with satellite channels as well as tea and coffee making facilities and much, much more. The best thing about it is that you are just a short stroll from Madame Tussauds. Across the road from The Marble Arch is another five-star hotel that provides good access to Madame Tussauds. The Montcalm on Great Cumberland Place is the quintessential five-star hotel for staying in London.

Everything you could wish for is on hand with 153 bedrooms and 14 lavish suites you can not go wrong. After a long day of sightseeing you can unwind with a gourmet meal at either the Sixtyone Restaurant or try more traditional fare at The Crescent Restaurant & Lounge. If you are celebrating you can enjoy a glass or two of bubbly. For real relaxation, why not head to the fitness centre and indulge in a sauna, steam or Jacuzzi. Like with The Marble Arch, The Montcalm is just a stone’s throw from Madame Tussauds. Retail therapy around Madame Tussauds Unless you plan on spending your entire day at Madame Tussauds you may want to indulge in a spot of retail therapy before or after visiting the museum. Luckily you are close to two prime shopping districts of London, Marylebone and Great Portland Street. Here you will be able to find all the latest brands and designer labels to be kitted out with serious threads when you next step foot in London. There are also plenty of bars and restaurants so you can properly make an evening of it once you have finished at the museum. Baker Street itself has a number of outlets you can browse around and even grab yourself a quick drink.

Catching a film At the end of a long day you may simply want to just chill out and catch a film. You are in luck as just down the road from Madame Tussauds is the Everyman Cinema on Baker Street. Here you can watch either a Hollywood blockbuster or an arthouse production from the very best in European cinema. Why not grab a bite to eat while you’re there as the Everyman Cinema has a selection of food from its menu. You can enjoy some hummus and flatbread or an antipasti platter while watching an engrossingÂ film. Share the post "Your guide to Madame Tussauds" The Stories behind London's Streets: BAKER STREET The Stories behind London's Streets Friday, 17 June 2011 BAKER STREET Robert Rowland was an amateur radio ham who lived in Wimpole Street, which is about half a mile away from Baker Street.

The time was 11.00 pm on Saturday, 11th September 1971 and Rowland was trying to contact a fellow ham in Australia, but every time he touched the very sensitive dial, between the whistling noises and crackling, he kept hearing other voices coming through much louder and clearer. He didn’t take any notice at first, of what was being said, as his main interest was to bypass them and get a clear contact with his Australian friend. The voices however, were not quite so easy to bypass as he first thought, as they were coming through on a wavelength only used by walkie-talkies, and were undoubtedly coming from a source within a one to two mile radius of his own location. Rowland had experienced problems like this on other occasions, and while he did find it annoying, there were ways around it, even if somewhat time consuming. What Rowland suddenly heard however, was one man’s voice talking in hushed tones, telling his accomplice on the other end of the line, to switch off all equipment and stop hammering, as the ‘old Bill’ (criminal slang for police) had just pulled up, and were parked very close by.

At first Rowland thought it might be someone having a joke, but as he listened in more, he heard more expletive laced references to digging and the ‘old Bill’, as well as the rooftop where the first man was seemingly located. After a few minutes, the conversation continued again, the police had apparently left the location, and the next thing he picked up was a man with a strong South London accent declaring that they now had about 400,000, and would let him know when they were coming out. The man then asked if he was being heard OK, to which his accomplice replied that he could hear him loud and clear, and wanted to know how much longer they would be in there. Rowland was pretty certain by this time that he was listening in to a robbery taking place somewhere within his immediate vicinity, and with the reference to 400,000, he thought the most likely outcome would be a tobacconist shop with 400,000 cigarettes being the most likely theft.

Rowland phoned the police and reported his suspicions to them, but for one reason or another they did not act immediately upon his call, probably assuming that he was just ‘another of those crazy radio hams’. It was at this point that Rowland began to record the radio exchanges, while still trying desperately to get through to someone else within the police, who would take him seriously. Shortly after midnight, the conversation between the man on the roof and his accomplices was still continuing. The voice of a man who identified himself as Steve came through, telling the rooftop lookout that he wanted him to switch off his walkie-talkie and stay on the roof all night, and then come back on the air with both radios at six o'clock in the morning. The lookout however was very worried about the plan for him to remain in place while the gang left for the night, but Steve argued with him, telling him that the place was filled with fumes and if security came in and smelled them they would have to beat a hasty retreat, which would mean leaving with nothing, whereas this way they would have 300 grand to cut up.

At this point another gang member chipped in, telling the lookout that he wasn’t prepared to go at this point as they were almost there. There was a series of heated exchanges between the lookout and various members of the gang, including one voice, which was definitely that of a woman. At one point the lookout shouted ‘Money may be your god, but it's not mine, and I'm f***ing off.’ After a few more minutes and a further intervention by the female member of the gang, the lookout relented, and agreed to remain on the rooftop overnight before signing off. Rowland meanwhile had made several more phone calls to the police, and finally one to Scotland Yard, who allegedly stated that the uniform branch didn’t know what they were doing and that they would send two Scotland Yard officers over immediately. The Scotland Yard officers were joined by two other officers from the Met, and between them they listened to the tapes that Rowland had recorded, and then stayed there all night until 9am on Sunday morning when gang member, Steve came back on air again and told the lookout that they were going to finish off in here.

It was at this point, that he actually mentioned the word, bank, and said that they would be coming out early that afternoon. He went onto tell the lookout that he would have to bluff his way straight down off the roof. At long last it seemed that the police had started to take things seriously, admitted that a bank robbery was taking place somewhere in the immediate area. They called in radio detector vans in an attempt to trace the transmissions, but unfortunately, by the time Post Office engineers could be brought in from weekend leave; the walkie-talkie conversations had ceased. Police officers then checked on 750 banks in the inner London area, paying special attention to the 150 banks within a mile of Wimpole Street. On Sunday afternoon, they visited Lloyd's Bank on the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road, but found no signs of a forced entry; the 15-inch thick doors of the vault were intact and secured by a time lock. What they did not know at this point, was that the raiders were just over 12 inches away from them, still inside the vault. It was not until Monday morning when the bank opened for business after the weekend, that the robbery was discovered.

Scores of empty safety deposit boxes were found broken open and lying all over the floor of the vault, their contents had been looted in what was then Britain’s biggest ever robbery. News of the raid broke at 9am the next day, Monday, September 13th 1971. The gang had dug a 40-foot tunnel from the basement of Le Sac, a leather goods shop, which they had leased, two doors away from the bank. The robbers tunnelled under a Chicken Inn restaurant and then, using a Thermic Lance, through the 3ft of reinforced concrete which formed the floor of the vault. The floor was not wired to the alarm system, as it was thought to be impenetrable. Eight tons of rubble was excavated and left behind in the shop when the gang escaped with their haul consisting of the contents of 268 deposit boxes. The haul was estimated at the time to be in the region of £500,000. It has since been alleged that the haul was in fact in excess of £3million, which, in 1971, made it the largest ever bank robbery on British soil.

For the next four days, the story dominated the news, the national press were full of it, one headline screamed ‘The Moles of Baker Street’, while another exclaimed ‘Sewer Rats’, and then, as suddenly as it started, the story disappeared. The last reports ran on Thursday, September 16. This was followed by complete silence. One might be forgiven for wondering why such a big story as this was suddenly shelved after just three days. One might also wonder why when a reporter visited Mr Rowland on the morning the story broke, and asked about his involvement, he was immediately warned off by a detective. Mr Rowland’s tape recordings and his phone were also confiscated by the police, and not given back to him for six years, after the police discovered that a reporter was telling his editor about Rowland’s story. Mr Rowland also allegedly claimed that the police told the editor of a D-Notice on the story, banning publication. Mr Rowland stated that D-Notices are for security situations not bank robberies. He was told not to talk to any more Press. He seemed to think at the time that it was to hide the police incompetence, although the secrecy could also have come from MI5.

The police even threatened to prosecute Mr Rowland for listening to an unlicensed radio station, a blow softened by a £2,500 reward from Lloyds Bank. The Press embargo however, did not seem to stop the fresh allegations that were now starting to rise. A new theory was being bandied about, not just about a gang of bank robbers, or incompetent police officers, but about a member of the Royal Family. It was alleged that the police were very interested in the activities of a certain Michael X, who was a well-known Trinidadian activist and gangster operating here in Britain. Through underworld contacts, they found out that Michael X was holding compromising photos of Princess Margaret, which are said to have been taken on the Caribbean island of Mustique. They wanted to prosecute Michael X for a number of crimes, one of which was murder, but while he had the photos he was untouchable. It is further alleged that the robbery was then masterminded by MI5, who offered it out to a gang of well known villains, who were told they could keep all the valuables and money as long as they turned the photos over to the contact in MI5, who could then use them to neutralise Michael X's threat.

Shortly after the bank raid Michael X was tried in his native Trinidad for the murder of Joseph Skerritt, a member of his Black Liberation Army. Michael X was hanged in 1975. The photos of course have never been publicly shown, if indeed they ever existed in the first place, but rumours about Princess Margaret's 'colourful' life have long been bandied about. She was rumoured to have had affairs with lovers including Peter Sellers and a string other well known and some not so well known faces about town. One such character was the late tough-guy actor and gangster John Bindon, boyfriend of baronet's daughter Vicki Hodge, an actress and model. Bindon was definitely a regular visitor to Mustique, and did indeed meet and attend parties where Princess Margaret was present. It is alleged that she thought he was very amusing, and that he was a favourite of the princess, and that he often impressed her with his party trick of balancing five half-pint beer mugs on his manhood. A recent television documentary took this into account, while offering no real proof. A book also suggested that they conducted a six-month affair, which had the authorities so concerned that MI5 was brought in to keep it under wraps.

The real story behind the ‘walkie-talkie robbery’, as it became known, will probably never come to light. It is similar in one aspect to one solved by Baker Street resident Sherlock Holmes in The Red-Headed League. In this case, however, countless questions remain unanswered. In 1973 four men were convicted over the robbery, though most of the loot was never recovered. When the gang departed the scene of the crime, they left a parting message for police. Spray-painted on the inside of the vault was: ‘Let Sherlock Holmes try to solve this.’ The story has now been made into a film, The Bank Job, with Jason Statham. The reference the robbers made to Sherlock Holmes, was of course because the bank was located in the same street as the home of the great fictional detective and his assistant Doctor Watson. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, he also created a fictional address to go with him, which was 221B Baker Street. Baker Street was originally known as York Place and Upper Baker Street. Then in 1930 the entire length of the street was renamed Baker Street and the houses were renumbered.

Number 41 Upper Baker Street was redesignated as 221 Baker Street but later on that same year it was demolished to make way for Abbey House, which eventually occupied 215-229 Baker Street, serving as the offices of the Abbey National Building Society. There is, however, now such an address as 221b Baker Street, recognised even by the Post Office with a designated postcode. 221b Baker Street is now the official address of the Sherlock Holmes Museum. But just to confuse visitors perhaps and give them something of a somewhat Sherlock Holmes quandary to mull over, the site of 221B Baker Street is actually 239 Baker Street! Another very important, but perhaps not so well known address in Baker Street was number 64. In March 1938 with the threat of war with Germany looming ever closer, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Admiral Sinclair, had Major L.D. Grand seconded from the Army into MI6, and ordered him to form a new section within MI6, with a mission to devise and formulate plans which could adversely affect any possible enemy country’s actions against Great Britain. Thus section D of the Secret Intelligence Service came into being.

Number 64 Baker Street was chosen as the ideal location for this operation, as it was not part of any Government building, and blended in perfectly with the normal office building that surrounded it. By 1939 yet another secret department was in the process of being set up in the same building, by the Foreign Office. This was headed by Sir Collin Campbell-Stuart, an acknowledged media expert and former Managing Director of The London Times. Its brief was to devise and plan all forms of propaganda. A small research department based in the War Office specialising in all forms of irregular warfare, had already formulated its own plans for clandestine and covert warfare, later to be known as M.I.R. These three departments were eventually integrated into the one building in Baker Street and presided over by the Foreign Office. Upon the outbreak of war in 1939, the Foreign Office decided the need for secrecy of location was not so great, and by the July of the following year, the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) was formed and occupied most of the building. The S.O.E was soon after the fall of France, to foster resistance among the civil population in Nazi-occupied Europe and to promote sabotage and subversion.

Winston Churchill inspired the formation of S.O.E. and continued to support it until it was dissolved in 1946, its wartime task completed. Before it was dissolved in 1946, the S.O.E occupied virtually all of Baker Street and the surrounding streets. It employed over 14,000 people, of which 3,100 were active agents. The houses and offices in the surrounding streets were used mainly for interviews and for briefing agents. Number 64 however still had overall control of nationwide operations such as houses set in the countryside and suburbs, known as ‘stations’. Stations were used for training agents and for carrying out research, and manufacturing equipment and material for sabotage, such as derailing trains, while others manufactured false documents, identity cards, military passes and ration cards etc., while others packed and stored containers, packages and parachutes. Last but certainly not least in importance were the stations that exchanged wireless messages with our agents in Europe. Somewhere between number 64 and number 83 Baker Street, the exact location is unsure, is where Winston Churchill once held some of his most critical wartime meetings.

When visitors stand back and look at Baker Street today, it is difficult to imagine that so much went on here that played such a crucial roll in helping Britain win WWII. One of London’s most famous institutions is the famous waxworks exhibition, Madam Tussauds’, which is just around the corner to Baker Street, in Marylebone Road. Madam Tussauds however, did not start out in Marylebone Road. Madam Tussauds was born in Paris in the 1770s. She learned the art of wax modelling from her art teacher, Dr Philippe Curtius. So good was she at her art, that by the time she was just 17, she became art tutor to King Louis XVI’s sister at the Palace Of Versailles. During the French Revolution, she was forced to prove her allegiance to the then ruling party by making death masks of the executed aristocrats. Madame Tussauds wasn’t happy with being forced to do such work, and so decided to come to Britain in the early 19th century alongside a travelling exhibition, consisting of revolutionary relics and effigies of public heroes and villains.

Madame Tussauds’ exhibition was an instant success with the British public, touring the country and providing an insight into global events and bringing the ordinary public face-to-face with the people in the headlines. Priceless artefacts from the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars were brought vividly to life. Bearing in mind that at this time, newspapers were still in the infancy, so by the time the public got to hear of what was happening in Europe for instance, the story could be months old, and figures such as kings and queens were only names in most people’s eyes. Madame Tussauds didn’t just tell the stories that were in the news; she showed the stories to the people. She showed figures of leading statesmen set in replicas of their original surroundings; she also added another attraction called the Chamber of Horrors, where notorious villains who had previously been known only by their names, now had faces added to their names. So successful was Madame Tussauds’ touring exhibition, that in 1835, she established a permanent base in London in Baker Street, which became known as the Baker Street Bazaar.

Visitors paid ‘sixpence’ for the chance to come face to face with some of the biggest and sometimes infamous names of the day. Madame Tussauds died in 1850, and her grandsons took over the business. In 1884, after a very successful 49 years in Baker Street, the exhibition eventually moved to its present, and much larger site in Marylebone Road. Madame Tussaud | The Legends of London The Legends of London The Baker Street Bazaar Madame Tussaud at 42 The famous exhibition of wax figures has a remarkable history. Madame Tussaud was taken, by her mother, to Bern in Switzerland from Strasbourg after the death of her father in the Seven Year War. Here she was employed by Dr Phillippe Curtius , a physician, who was well-known for his anatomical wax models. He moved to Paris and took his young apprentice with him (she was only 6 years old). Her very first wax model was of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1778 and she began showing a remarkable talent.

By the time she was 17 she became the art tutor to King Louis XVI’s sister, Madame Elizabeth, at the Palace of Versailles.During the French Revolution she was imprisoned for 3 months awaiting execution, but was released due to the intervention of an influential friend. To show her allegiance to the Revolution Madame Tussaud was forced to make death masks of the aristocracy who had been guillotined (which included the King and Marie Antoinette). The masks were put on spikes and placed in the Place de la Concorde for display.After the death of her mentor, who left her all his masks and waxworks, Tussaud decided to start a new life across the waters in England in the early 1800s. She spent the next 36 years taking her travelling show across the British Isles, seeking fame and glamour. The show gave ordinary folk the opportunity to see famous figures they had only heard about. In 1835 Madame Tussaud & Sons set up a permanent exhibition on Baker Street, called the Baker Street Bazaar.

Visitors paid sixpence to see the waxworks, the famous Chamber of Horrors, artefacts from the French Revolution and the guillotine believed to have been the one used to execute Marie Antoinette. In 1884 the exhibition moved to its present location in Marylebone Road. A panel of senior executives consider requests and current events when deciding on wax models. They then put 30 sculptors and many specialist technicians to work out of the west London workshop. The first sitting for a waxwork lasts at least 4 hours and over 200 hundred photographs are taken from every angle, and every conceivable measurement is taken. Hair samples and false eyes are taken to the sitting to get the colours as close as possible to the real thing. And even an impression of the famous person’s teeth and a plaster mould of their hands are made. The first model of the heads are made of clay and when the okay has been given to start on the actual wax work, translucent wax is used to make it look like human skin and many layers of oil paint is used to get the skin tone, veins and freckles absolutely right. Inserting over 10,000 individual hairs can take over 4 weeks.

It’s the detail that makes the difference. The Diamond Jubilee waxwork After 4 months of hard work, Madam Tussauds has just unveiled their 23rd waxwork of the Queen for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations at a cost of over £150,000. Her dress is decorated with over 53,000 Swarovski crystals and she is wearing a copy of the state diadem, created in 1820, and copies of jewels which belonged to Queen Victoria.Politicians, pop stars, actors, sports stars…famous people are still the draw of the museum. With branches across the globe, visitors from Las Vegas, Shanghai and Berlin, to Sydney, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and more, can keep Madame Tussaud’s dream of sensationalism and her dark tourism alive. Dawn Denton© Madame Tussaud's New York Photo Gallery by Jeff at pbase.com Madame Tussaud's New York From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London, with branches in Amsterdam, Hong Kong (Victoria Peak), Las Vegas, New York City, Niagara Falls, Ontario and Shanghai (open soon).

It was set up by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. Madame Tussaud (1761�1850), born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg, worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling. In 1765, Curtius made a waxwork of Marie Jean du Barry, Louis XV's mistress. A cast of that mould is the oldest work currently on display. The first exhibition of Curtius' waxworks was shown in 1770, and attracted a large audience. The exhibition moved to the Palais Royal in Paris in 1776. He opened a second location on Boulevard du Temple in 1782, the "Caverne des Grands Voleurs", a precursor to the later Chamber of Horrors. Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous persons she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she made wax death masks of prominent victims.

She would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of the citizens which the death masks were to depict. When Curtius died in 1794, he left his collection of waxworks to Marie. In 1802, she went to London. As a result of the Franco-English war, she was unable to return to France, so with her collection she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland. She established her first permanent exhibition on Baker Street in London in 1835 (on the "Baker Street Bazaar"). One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors. This part of the exhibition included some victims of the French Revolution and also newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name was given by a contributor to Punch in 1845. Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson, and Sir Walter Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Tussaud herself still exist. In 1842, she made a self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. The museum moved to its current location on Marylebone Road in 1884.

In 1925 a fire destroyed many of the figures, but the moulds survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade. Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become a major tourist attraction in London, incorporating the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Hong Kong (Victoria Peak), Las Vegas, and New York City. Today's wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers. Known as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are owned by a leisure company called The Tussauds Group. Sam Jackson Madame Tussaud’s Museum London Better views to shoot for the stars! Madame Tussaud’s Museum London January 13, 2014 By Thrandur Arnthorsson A wonderful trip into another reality Me and my son saw the London display of the wax museum. The figurines looked so real and so lifelike. We had great fun posing beside them – just like thousands before us – I guess. Marie Tussaud began to mold wax sculptures in 1777.

Made of beeswax, these effigies can be cut and modeled either by casting moulds or cut and shaped at ordinary temperatures or by applying low amounts of heat. Beeswax mixes with any coloring matter and tints and textures easily. Her first wax figure was of writer and essayist, Fransois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, known only as Voltaire. She modeled a number of famous people including both Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and one of the members of the controversial Enlightenment or Age of Reason movement of the 17th century and Benjamin Franklin, writer and inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Tussaud’s made wax mouldings of famous peoples death masks during the French Revolution often scouring corpses looking for subjects to mould their decapitated heads. It was the famous in a macabre and somewhat grisly period history hence the Chamber of Horrors. Curtius, her friend and mentor, died in 1794, leaving Marie his wax models which she exhibited at the Lyceum Theatre moving on to become a permanent exhibition of the Baker Street Bazaar in London in 1835.

As life during those times where completely lacking in iPods, televisions and computers – it must have been really different. All they had was live minstrels and museums and the like for entertainment. Of all of the museums, I figured Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors had to be one of the best and well attended. The figures were so lifelike (or should I say “deathlike” ?). Many famous people were added to her museum of horrors beyond the famous victims of the French Revolution. The quality and “magic” of the London exhibition is real. Over the years Madame Tussau’s museum was expanded by adding branches in Hong Kong, New York, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C and Amsterdam. Such notables as the Queen of England, the 14th Dalai Lama, Winston Churchill, Emperor Akihito, Abraham Lincoln, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and infamous people like Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan, and those famous who are still among us like Britney Spears, Beyonce, Tony Blair, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, the Spice Girls, Steven Spielberg, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Each of the figurines I have seen have a uniqueness about them that makes each visit with them slightly different. I always get the feeling they’re alive in there somewhere. Madame Tussaud’s Wax museum chain is a major, tourist attraction the world over and is currently owned by Merlin Entertainments Group one of the largest attractions operators in Europe in second place only to Disney worldwide. Merlin Entertainments felt that Tussaud’s was famous and well-loved enough that they purchased it for 1Bn pounds in 2007. I know that I’ve always gotten a kick out of visiting, and for a while, we could put aside our real world challenges and just wander, awestruck into the past through the very lifelike wax figures that reach out from the past. It’s a wonderful trip into another reality well worth the price of admission.

Share this: Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum : Universal Studios Hollywood Ticket : DreamVacationBuilders.net Home > Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum Madame Tussauds Hollywood Wax Museum ***This Ticket is Valid for "Print at Home Only*** Madame Tussauds offers you the chance to truly learn its history and culture by offering visitors the opportunity to "meet" the famous and infamous. The education resource is based on the U.S. Department of Education National Standards for Social Studies, as well as regular visitors the National Council for Social Studies and the National Standards for Arts Education. Millions and millions of people have flocked through the doors of Madame Tussauds across the globe since they first opened over 200 years ago and it remains just as popular as it ever was. There are many reasons for this enduring success, but at the heart of it all is good, old-fashioned curiosity. Today�s visitors are sent on a unique, emotionally-charged journey through the realms of the powerful and famous.

The museum-style ropes and poles have gone so guests can truly get up, close and personal with A-list celebrities, sporting legends, political heavyweights and historical icons, reliving the times, events and moments that made the world talk about them... From France to Britain The attraction�s history is a rich and fascinating one, with roots dating back to the Paris of 1770. It was here that Madame Tussaud learnt to model wax likenesses under the tutelage of her mentor, Dr Philippe Curtius. At the age of 17, she became art tutor to King Louis XVI�s sister at the Palace Of Versailles and then, during the French Revolution, was hastily forced to prove her allegiance to the feudalistic nobles by making the death masks of executed aristocrats. Madame Tussaud came to Britain in the early 19th century alongside a travelling exhibition of revolutionary relics and effigies of public heroes and rogues Bringing The News to Life At a time when news was communicated largely by word of mouth, Madame Tussauds� exhibition was a kind of travelling newspaper, providing insight into global events and bringing the ordinary public face-to-face with the people in the headlines.

Priceless artefacts from the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars brought to life events in Europe which had a direct bearing on everyday lives. Figures of leading statesmen and, in the Chamber of Horrors, notorious villains put faces to the names on everyone�s lips and captured the public imagination. In 1835, Madame Tussauds� exhibition established a permanent base in London as the Baker Street Bazaar - visitors paid �sixpence� for the chance to meet the biggest names of the day. The attraction moved to its present site in Marylebone Road come 1884. Madame Tussauds is located right next to the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Address 6933 Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood, CA 90028

Question: Which famous London museum was established at the Baker Street Bazaar in 1835?
Answer: Madame Tussaud’s