I remember the first time I went to Madame Tussauds.
It was December 1999, the Spice Girls’ waxworks had just been unveiled and eight-year-old, celebrity-obsessed me simply couldn’t fathom how lifelike these figures looked.
It felt so magical. I was in awe of being surrounded (almost) by some of the biggest names in showbiz at the London attraction – and even Queen Elizabeth.
I quickly became a regular visitor, returning over the next few years with my little digital camera, snapping photos with Kylie Minogue, Beyonce – and Tony Blair.
In Year 5, aged 10, when asked to complete a project on someone deceased, I even chose to do mine on Marie Tussaud – the French artist who started it all – when almost all the other girls chose Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn.
I still had fun the last time I went, at the age of 19, grabbing photos with waxwork models of some of my biggest celeb crushes at the time, Robert Pattinson and, misguidedly, Russell Brand (in my defence, it was 2011).
Even then though, I remember thinking there seemed to be a lot more money-making opportunities than I’d remembered on previous visits.
The queues to get in were long, and then there were loads of points throughout the attraction you had to pay extra for – and queue for them too.
Somewhere along the way, the magic of Madame Tussauds seemed to have been replaced by queues, upsells and tired displays.
So when Merlin Entertainments revealed it had slashed the value of Madame Tussauds by £262million, amid ongoing struggles faced by the business, I wasn’t too surprised.
As a result of the news, I decided to take a trip down to my old stomping ground on a recent Wednesday afternoon to see what’s really going wrong for the attraction.
But the first eyebrow-raising moment came before even hopping on the Tube to Baker Street. It happened when booking my tickets online.
Despite the website clearly stating tickets start from £27 – a discount when you book online compared to £31 at the box office – it then said tickets start at £31 when I clicked through. Outrageously, they’re just £3 cheaper for children from the ages of two to 15.
On top of that, before I could actually pay for my tickets, I was offered an official souvenir programme for £5, and a £10 digital photo pass, which would give me access to unlimited photos during my experience.
I wondered, who would buy that, given everyone has their camera on their phone these days, but more on that later.
I declined both and went to pay for my £31 ticket, but, before I could do that, I was offered to pair my Madame Tussauds ticket with a ride on the London Eye from just £18.
Again, I declined (top tip: There are far better views of London than from the London Eye – and some are even free) and got my ticket guaranteeing me entry for between 1.30pm and 1.45pm on a Wednesday.
When I arrived at Madame Tussauds, I was pleasantly surprised to swiftly walk through the queue – although two different bewildered staff members assumed I was in a group of two before I even stepped through the door, which is slightly insulting to solo travellers.
The main entrance was very different from how I remembered too – now with a huge screen showcasing the attraction’s history as soon as you walk in.
And the start of the actual exhibition had changed drastically too.
In the lift down, visitors are told ‘You’re about to enter our star-studded awards party’. The doors then open out on to a long red carpet that wraps around the corner to a wall of ‘paps’ flashing cameras, which I imagine little me would have been obsessed with, posing like all her idols.
A red rope is then opened by staff taking you into a big room full of the biggest names in film, including Zendaya and Leonardo DiCaprio.
With an on-stage podium on which visitors can hold an ‘Oscar’ and make a speech while standing next to Dwayne Johnson, and a point where you can stand in between Lady Gaga and Timothée Chalamet in front of a red carpet board, it was very clear the creators had thought about what will work on Instagram and TikTok for the younger generation.
However, I found it slightly odd that Gaga is in the film star room rather than the music festival area, when she hasn’t featured in a film since the flop that was Joker: Folie à Deux in 2024.
And while the first part of the exhibition does feel like it’s been brought into the 2020s, with plenty of photo-ops, including London’s iconic red phone boxes dotted about, and some of Gen Z’s favourite celebs, including Harry Styles, there were plenty of other areas that had barely changed since I was here last.
In the ‘fashion show’ section, David and Victoria Beckham look stuck in the Noughties, during Victoria’s WAG heydays, while Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator and Steven Spielberg, sitting next to a director’s chair that visitors can sit in, have been there since the dawn of time too.
Neither Arnie or Spielberg are getting a look in either, what with being in the same room as Paddington (very cute) and the stand where you can get a wax model of your hand made.
Both have long queues – but, while photos with everyone’s favourite marmalade fan are free, the wax hands are not.
They start at £20 each, are £29 for a wax hand that lights up in a colour, or, bewilderingly, £35 for the light-up wax hand, guide book and ‘bag for life’. I assume these are Madame Tussauds-branded tote bags rather than the sturdy carrier bags you find in Tesco.
This is by no means the first money-making scheme I spotted throughout Madame Tussauds.
In fact, you couldn’t even get near One Direction or the Royal Family – minus Harry and Meghan (who didn’t appear to be drawing much of a crowd) – without queuing up and paying £12 for a professional photo (or £20 for two). This is when I wish I’d bought that digital photo pass.
None of the royals appeared to have been updated in a very long time either. While King Charles and the Queen Consort look very young and wrinkle-free, Prince William doesn’t look remotely like himself.
Another celeb who I imagine would feel insulted by her waxwork is Ariana Grande. Her appearance may have changed drastically in the last 10 years, but the figure of her on show at Madame Tussauds is a far cry from how she’s ever looked.
The dress she’s wearing looks so cheap as well – like she’s just been shoved in Shein. I couldn’t help but think how easily she could have been updated for Wicked, and been placed next to a Cynthia Erivo waxwork at the start of the exhibition.
Not everyone I spoke to at Madame Tussauds felt the same, however.
Daria Demkova, a Ukranian living in London, was visiting the attraction with her father, Oleksandr Demkov, mother and brother, having been to many of the Tussauds around the world.
She told me Ariana was her favourite model in the whole exhibition, and both confirmed the London Tussauds is the ‘best in the world’.
But others were less convinced.
Wendi Jacobs, 60, from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, was visiting with her son Sam, 32, and said she thought the experience was overpriced – particularly when it came to photos.
She admitted she’d tried to sneak a quick picture on her phone with the Royal Family display, only to be told off by staff after stepping over the rope.
‘I just wanted one photo,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise you had to pay for it.’
Having been a long-time fan, she, like me, couldn’t believe the Taxi Ride – which visitors hop on at the end of the exhibition to watch London’s history unfold – hadn’t changed one bit since it opened in 1996.
That was my biggest surprise too. So much has happened to London – and it’s changed so much – in the past 23 years, that it seems silly that no new additions have been made.
It was how I felt with the Chamber of Horrors too – the part of the exhibition that has always housed notorious serial killers and used to terrify me as a kid. Think Jack the Ripper, Dennis Nielsen and, controversially, Adolf Hitler until the Chamber first closed in 2016.
Despite the fact it reopened in 2022, after six years, it felt exactly the same. One of the waxworks jolted its head in a very creepy, robotic fashion, which I’m sure would’ve frightened me at one point – but surely there’s so much more they can do.
One of the prison cells – where Hawley Harvey Crippen usually stands – was empty as well.
Another big thing that hasn’t changed in Madame Tussauds is the clapper board photo frames on offer in the gift shop at the end.
I had one on my windowsill growing up, with a picture of me with ‘the Spice Girls’ from that first visit in 1999. I imagine the frame was cheaper back then, compared to today’s price of £9.
And I’m certain my mum wouldn’t have forked out £16 for a Grammy replica available in the shop either. Who’s buying these, may I ask?
As I left Madame Tussauds, I couldn’t help but think back to that first visit in 1999 – when everything felt new, exciting and just a little bit magical.
More than two decades on, some of the celebrities may have changed, but much of the experience hasn’t – and in a world where fame moves faster than ever, that’s starting to show.
Between the queues, the extra charges and the figures that feel frozen in time, the experience no longer feels quite as special as it did.
For an attraction built on keeping up with celebrity culture, that may be its biggest challenge of all.
