London Dungeon

Under the arches of the Tooley St railway bridge, the London Dungeon was supposedly developed after somebody’s kid didn’t find Madame Tussauds Chamber of Horrors frightening enough. Well, it failed in that endeavour but the place has been minting money ever since. It all starts with a stagger through a mirror maze (the Labyrinth of the Lost); followed by a waltz through Bedlam; a push through a torture chamber; a run ‘through’ the Great Fire of London (where wafting fabric makes up the ‘flames’); a close shave with Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet St; and an encounter with Jack the Ripper: the Victorian serial killer is shown with the five prostitutes he sliced and diced, their entrails hanging out in full gory display. A new attraction called Surgery: Blood & Guts takes its cue from the Old Operating Theatre Museum just around the corner. The best bits are the vaudevillian delights of being sentenced by a mad, bewigged judge on trumped-up charges, the fairground-ride boat to Traitor’s Gate and the Extremis Drop Ride to Doom that has you ‘plummeting’ to your death by hanging from the gallows. It’s a good idea to buy tickets online for this camped-up 90-minute gore-fest to avoid the mammoth queues. Depending on the time slot you choose the cost of tickets can drop to as low as £16.95/10.95/13.95 for adults/children 5–15 years/concessions. Hours vary according to season, check the website.