Royally good: Models of the Prince and Princess of Wales are among the attractions at Madame Tussauds
(Picture: Getty Images)The history of the real-life Madame Tussaud ought to have produced a tourist attraction along the gruesome lines of the London Dungeon rather than the world’s most famous celebrity waxworks. During the 1790s, Marie Tussaud was employed to make death masks and whole body casts of the most famous victims of the French Revolution, including Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Marat and Robespierre.
Following the Revolution, Madame Tussaud toured her ghoulish exhibition throughout the British Isles before settling on Marylebone Road as a permanent home, where it remains today. The current royal family rather than the guillotined French aristocracy are the star attraction these days but you’re still as likely to get a photo op with a waxwork of a dead celebrity (David Bowie) as a living one (Beyoncé).
