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The London Dungeon
London Dungeon
28-34 Tooley Street,
London SE1 2SZ
Tel: 020 7403 7221
About London Dungeon
Celebrating life’s macabre side in its full gory glory – but always remaining within the boundaries of good taste – the London Dungeon is one of the capital’s most interesting and popular attractions. Located in Tooley Street and best accessed from London Bridge station, the venue offers the visitor several historically gory events in a way suitable for all the family (other than very young children). With an educational focus as well as an opportunity to shock and awe people, the Dungeon uses actors, special effects and fairground-style rides to deliver its message to the thousands of people who come through its doors every week in high season – so you’ll come away with a better understanding of city life through the centuries, as well as a sense of the grim standards of justice and punishment in those far-off eras.
The London Dungeon was opened in 1976 and has expanded since then to include several world-class features, including the excellent Labyrinth Of The Lost, the planet’s largest mirror maze. Based on the concept of the crypt of London’s All Hallows Church, the maze will confuse and enthrall the hapless visitor who has little idea what he or she will encounter around the next, perfectly reflective corner. With so many turnings to take and obstacles to negotiate, few entrants into the maze re-emerge without their heads spinning…
One of the great seismic events of London’s history was the Great Plague, which decimated the city in 1665. Visitors to the London Dungeon learn about the nature and ferocity of the disease and how it impacted on the city’s residents, and are taken on a stroll along a mock-up of a plague-ridden city street. They are then entertained by a plague doctor in his surgery, who informs them about the strange, and usually ineffective, treatments for this grisly disease. Although many centuries have passed since bubonic plague was a threat in Europe, this exhibition brings to life the various aspects of life under the yoke of the disease with great effectiveness.
On similar historical themes, the Newgate Prison attraction offers the visitor the chance to examine genuine instruments of torture and a fully-equipped torture chamber. Once caught inside the chamber, one of the visitors is chosen for the torturer (an actor whose job it is to demonstrate the subject in a slightly spooky but amusing manner) to work on with his instruments of torture. All of which makes the London Dungeon a bit different from the usual visitor’s attraction.
But it doesn’t stop there. The owners of the Dungeon have taken great care to address the history of British capital punishment, focusing on an era when over 200 everyday misdemeanours were classed as crimes worthy of death at the gallows. This show demonstrates just how low a price some of the judges of the day placed on human life, with courtroom scenes witnessing eccentric decisions from a magistrate and prisoners taken from the dock to await their doom. The penultimate stage in a condemned prisoner’s life is explored by the visitor with Traitor: Boat Ride To Hell, a dark, suspenseful boat journey which emulates the progress of a sentenced traitor through the Traitor’s Gate into the Tower Of London, there to await torture, imprisonment or death (fortunately, visitors to the Dungeon are spared all of these). The final destination of those sentenced to death can be experienced (in part!) at the new Extremis: Drop Ride To Doom ride (see News section), where the process of being hanged is combined with that of a theme park attraction – probably the first of its kind.
But never fear, something as insignificant as a mere execution doesn’t stop the fun to be had at the London Dungeon. Jumping forward a couple of centuries from the era of Elizabethan brutality to the supposed age of reason of the nineteenth century, the Dungeon takes the visitor to the barbershop of Sweeney Todd, the fictional murderous hairdresser who dispatched his clients with a razor blade after they had seated themselves in his shop. Shrouded in darkness and featuring animatronic chairs for the visitors to sit in – complete with a special effect which makes them feel as if the demon barber is standing immediately behind them – the shop is among the most unnerving items in the entire Dungeon.
On the subject of London’s more sinister denizens, the London Dungeon also devotes one of its most popular attractions to the story of Jack The Ripper, the serial killer who murdered several prostitutes in 1888. Watch as the bodies are discovered and the authorities begin the search for the killer. In fact, history reveals that the identity of the killer (or killers) of the victims never came to light, making the mystery even more compelling. A tragedy on a far larger scale, of course, was the Great Fire Of London, which wiped out a large portion of the older buildings of London (and, coming as it did the year after the Plague, helped remove many of the old, still-infectious dwellings) and which is examined in detail in an educational film. Visitors to this part of the Dungeon will learn all about the terrible conflagration, where it started, why it spread so rapidly and whether or not it was of long-term benefit to the health and hygiene of the city. This message is contained in a 17th-century-style courtyard, from which visitors have to find their way to safety as the blaze builds behind them. It’s a useful reminder of the history of the city, made all the more memorable by the experience of escaping the flames.
In total, the visitor to London will come away from the Dungeon with much more than a few shocks under their belt – the experience the Dungeon offers is also a chance to learn about the incredible history of England’s capital city via the medium of the macabre. However, as none of the displays will genuinely terrify anyone, you can be confident that a good time will be had by all in this most unusual of of the city’s major attractions.