London Dungeon, London

The London Dungeons is a 90 minute tour of London's history, mostly the dark history such as The Plague, The fire of London, Jack the ripper and Sweeney Todd although I believe the tour does change slightly each year. You are guided round the tour by a spooky actor and you will meet other spooky characters along the way who will teach you little bits of history.

The Dungeons is imensely popular so it is best to go early in the morning when it just opens. I have been stood in a queue for over an hour to get in, in the past.

It is also much cheaper to purchase the tickets in advance online rather than paying at the door and if you do buy online then generally you can get in quicker as during busy periods they sometimes split the queues up so people who have already pre-bought tickets queue seperately from the others.

I visited the London Dungeon in 2001. I would imagine the attraction has changed over the years. When I went I experienced Jack The Ripper, Judgement Day, The great Fire of London and, finally, An Orgy of Grisly Entertainment.

Please look on the website for further information.

The London Dugeon is a as museum of horror from history, recalling events of atrocities from the past. You can journey back to the darker side of European history.
The museum has a wide variety of attractions.

A much better alternative than the Madame Toussaud museum .Although not for those easily scared!Amid the dark, dank festering maze that is the dungeon are dark, dank vaults displaying gruesome waxworks of medieval torture, plague, murder and execution. You will also be judged in the mock courtroom, and chased by Jack the Ripper.

My husband and me visited the Dungeons towards the end of our trip so we were quite tired already and our feet ached. Although we had bought our tickets beforehand as part of a package (with Madame Tussaud and London Eye - cheaper on the net) we still had to wait in line - which took about 30-45mins. Once inside we waited a bit more in a dark room till everyone got their picture taken (trying to kill each other - which was quite cool....we bought it)....and then moved into another dark room where we had to wait a bit more....

Once it actually got started we got more into it. You basically move from room to room where one of the staff will be dressed up and relates once macabre story after another - desperately trying to scare everyone obviously.

Although the settings where very good, and the stories very interesting and we enjoyed ourselves, I couldn't help but think after our visit that it is actually a bit sad that the experience in the London Dungeons almost turned into an amusing entertainment - where one leaves laughing rather than perhaps thinking about the horrible things that happened in the past.

Perhaps they do it so as not to impress the kids too much or they prefer giving people frights and making sure they go out smiling...however it didn't seem the right attitude.

All in all however, it's a great visit and I do recommend it...not if you're tired though as you'll be standing for a long time with nowhere to sit or rest (or any toilet breaks).

There are also 2 fun rides included one in the water and another 'drop' at the end. However, when we got to the drop we were informed that there was a fault and it was getting fixed so we had to miss that.

(P.S. Flash photography & video is not allowed because of the 'actors'....and its too dark to take anything without a flash anyway).

Typical as it doesn't really have anything that can make you jump. ( I prefer SCREAM of Madama Tussauds).

It's worth the experience if you have kids, it had a very informative presentation about Jack the Ripper.

One hour walk through the dark history of London..Need to say that the actors (guides) are great, effects are also great to see, but I expected more of the place. After some times it gets boring a bit..The highlight of the place is a "drop" ride at the end and it is total fun! Ticket for London Dungeon is 20 Pounds.

I must admit that even I can be wrong sometimes. I had previously placed a tip on the London Dungeons in the ‘Tourist trap’ section after a visit a few years back. I will give Merlin entertainments, the owners, their due. It is still expensive for what it is, but they have significantly improved the 90-minute ‘visitor experience’ at this flagship location. The whole ‘your’ take about an hour and a half through various mock-ups of London’s past. The jails, jack the ripper and Sweeney Todd are all there among all piles of Halloween tat.

The scenes are supplemented with a number of actors who I must admit do a terrific job, considering the fact that they must deliver their lines every five minutes. We were amongst the first group in the day we visited, and this must have helped. Most lines are delivered in a kind of smutty ‘Carry-on film’ meets B-movie screamer way. Screaming wenchs jump out from behind doors and mad axe-men appear from nowhere all the time. I was especially impressed with the smuttiness of one actress at the ‘mock trial’ who after her section had finished invited me (for I was pushing a pram and nearing steps) to ‘Come up my back passage if you like sir, it’s a bit tight, but I’m sure you’ll manage’. I was giggling at her saucy line, but I don’t think any of the other nationalities in the group of 30 or so understood a word of her double- entendre.

The experience now ends with a ‘trauma tower’ that is supposed to simulate a hanging. This was somewhat tame. It’s seems a pity that they couldn’t incorporate a real noose into the ride and a black hood for added effect.

If you can stomach the prices, then enjoy it as a piece of kitsch theatre, or just use it as we did to scare the bejesus out of our three-year-old. That will be last time that he says to use “I like scary stuff”. Not any more you don’t.

Be prepared to be terriffed and spooked as you enter the London Dungeon which displays some of Britain's most gruesome blood thirsty events.

You'll encounter Druids performing a human sacrafic at Stonehenge, a room full of people who die with agony from the plague, and other displays of torture, witchcraft and murder...

More a childrens sight but there might be those of you interested in medieval torture and the like. I have never been to the one in London (and get there early to avoid the queues you see in this picture!) but the same people own the York Dungeon which I've been to. What you get is a selection of medieval and other torture chambers and a lot of it is based on torture which actually happened. I remember one in York which included a rat in a cage on the victim's chest. The rat could of course only get out through digging its way through the man...who comes up with things like that???