London Dungeons - An amazing experience for most ages. (London Dungeon)

Member Name: katykicker

Product:	London Dungeon
Date:	26/07/09 (344 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic experiences, reasonably priced if booked in advance, small queues in am or late pm.

Disadvantages: Can feel like you are forced around in little herds.

London Dungeon is somewhere that I have visited twice now and the most recent one was last year as a celebration for my 20th birthday.

London Dungeon is located on Tooley Street and with London Bridge being the nearest railway station and is very accessible from most areas of London.

Tickets are available for around £15.00 per adult and this is dependant on whether you book in advance and whether you buy your ticket along with tickets to other attractions such as Madame Tussauds and the London Eye and this is what we did on our last visit making a saving of around 40% on the "on the day" ticket prices and we literally booked the evening before our trip and just collected all of the tickets from the London Eye ticket office.

London Dungeons have been open since 1976 and although initially opened as a museum of "horrible history" it has now become an actor-led, interactive experience that is a popular London tourist attraction. The Dungeon is operated by Merlin Entertainments who also own the London Eye and Madame Tussauds (hence the heavily discounted ticket prices).

The London Dungeons experience will begin as soon as you arrive to either queue or use the priority booking entrance and there will be actors there who may well be a little bit cheeky or even down right rude but this is really just in jest and although I found some of their comments a tad inoffensive I only had to wait around 2 minutes to enter and then when we left the one actor I disliked had left his post.

Upon entering the Dungeons you will walk around a small roped off queue area and this is designed to make you walk around a certain way so that you may be sprayed with a small squirt of water which immediately made me jumpy and then we handed in our tickets and the experience began! You can choose to pose with your head in stocks and your friends/family holding axes etc and you will be given a raffle ticket to collect a photograph at the end (which you have to pay for of course).

Most of the tour of the Dungeons is guided and you will be sent through different sections to learn miscellaneous facts about Jack the Ripper and such goings on in London years ago.

At the beginning you will see lots of models that are in various states of decomposing and death such as ones with guts pulled out and ones who have been pushed down on spears etc. These are obviously fake but its good fun anyway to take some photographs here and have a little muck around.

You will then go through to the first actor-led experience which is called 'Labyrinth Of The Lost' after you have a brief talk with one of the actors there about general safety and how it works (i.e. just work your way around, don't go back and if you have any problems or illnesses tell one of the actors). This area is a large mirror maze which you have to work your way around and as you are generally going around with a few other tourists or visitors this can become quite funny and takes a fair few minutes to work around. I found this to be relatively easy but some people suffered as they just didn't seem able to follow the maze around.

'The Great Plague' is the next area which is set in 1655 when London was riddled with the plague. You will hear lots of noises and shouting and there is an unpleasant smell in this area supposed to represent just how bad it was back in those days. It's going to be extremely hard to make a smell like that and it's not disgustingly overpowering so was bearable while we stood and listened to the actor telling us some facts. This area is going to be changing in 2009 and I understand that this is going to show an old fashioned operating theatre and how they used to operate on people with some comical effects.

'Traitor: Boat Ride To Hell' is the next experience and here you will be sentenced to death in a court room and then led out to the boat (where you will receive safety tips and the odd cheeky comment - ours was 'keep your hands to yourselves love birds!). I am quite scared of water even though I'm a fantastic swimmer and we took our seats in the boat in almost darkness and then once we left the boarding station it got pitch black and there are lots of sound effects to make it all the more scarier. On the first visit I was really upset and did not like it at all, whereas on the second visit I knew that it was nothing to be scared of and therefore rode it with a smile on my face and knowing roughly what was coming. This is one of my favourite parts of the Dungeon experience as it feels like you've gone really far but it's barely anywhere and not actually scary when you ignore the sound effects!

'Sweeney Todd' is shown in almost darkness and we walked past Mrs. Lovett's Pie Shop before being greeted by the lady herself (an actor of course) who took us in to Sweeney Todd's barber shop where we saw a model who appeared to have had their throat cut and then we learnt some history about the fictional Sweeney Todd and how he murdered victims in his barbers shop and then Mrs. Lovett used them as fillings in her pies. Some people may be picked out from the crowd to experience a 'close shave' and then their chair will tip back making them think they are going to fall in to the cellar.

'Jack The Ripper' is a fantastic experience in which we learnt about the killings by Jack The Ripper in 1888. First we were taken to Buck's Row where we learnt about the first three murders complete with 'witness accounts' then we were taken through a corridor complete with models of the dead prostitutes with their intestines pulled out and their throats cut. We then went on to learn about the last two murders and saw animations (which looked very old fashioned - brilliant!). Eventually we end up in the Ten Bells pub in Spitalfields which is set in 1898 and we are talked to about the Ripper by the barmaid (or barman!) and then the lantern on the bar seemed to move by itself, the lights flickered, went out and then an air blast went off near the ceiling and made a Ripper come out completely with a knife and because my fiancé is tall (6'2" he had his head right near the blast of air but thankfully he knew it was coming before we went in otherwise he would have had such a fright!).

'Great Fire Of London' is one of the last exhibitions and this one is set in 1666 with an actor telling us information about the Great Fire Of London which started in Pudding Lane. We were then shown a small educational film narrated by Tom Baker before having to escape from the fire down a 'street' with lots of fake fire and hot air blowing around to add to the effect. We then walked through a revolving tunnel of red and yellow lights which is designed to make you think you are in a fire but neither time has it made me feel like this.
'Drop Ride To Doom' is the final part of the experience and this is where you are treated as a criminal who has been sent to hang at a Prison and then you will be taken from your cell to a seat in a small ride which makes you have a small drop as if you are being hung and then a photograph is taken (yes, something else to spend money on!). You are told before the start of the ride that you can opt out if you suffer from back problems or are pregnant and because I'm scared of everything and anything I chickened out and just said to the actor 'I can't do it' and was shown through a different way ready to see the pictures.

We spent a couple of hours in the Dungeons and were very pleased for the price that we paid. The experiences are fantastic and well acted throughout with some people always trying to catch them out or come up with a smart question but the actors seem to be infallible! The only disappointment for me was the fact that we could not receive our picture (the one from the beginning with the axe and the stocks) because they had given us the wrong raffle ticket and although they searched through many pictures and we pointed out the people before us in the queue they just could not find our picture and this was a real disappointment to us as we were already decided that we would buy it for the novelty factor and unfortunately we didn't get many opportunities to take photographs whilst travelling around the Dungeons.

I would definitely visit again and every year or two they seem to update exhibits and bring in entire new areas and they have lots of room left to expand so I'm sure this is going to continue for years to come.

The London Dungeons are definitely worth a visit and is fun for the whole family although you may want to avoid taking very young children as this can be a little scary for them but it is mostly atmosphere more than anything scary actually happening. Be prepared to be called out of your group to demonstrate things or to try stuff out but always remember that they are very health and safety conscious so there is really nothing to be afraid of.

The experience at the Dungeons is one that I won't forget for a long time and even though it's been over a year since we went I can still vividly remember walking around and waiting at the start for more people to join us. It is fun going around in a group (it was just Tom, my fiancé, and I) and we were with lots of foreign tourists who were jabbering away in their native language but were quiet at all the appropriate times. If you speak lots during the live actor parts you may well receive a few sharp words but just remember that they are actually employed to do this and not just being rude!

There are other experiences around the world including Hamburg & a new one in Amsterdam which I believe are quiet similar so it may be worth checking these out if on holiday and you can find out more information about the Dungeons, including opening times, at www.thedungeons.com

Also, I must mention that you will be herded around and there isn't really any indication of how long it takes and you won't get time to dawdle and look at things for long as you are pushed through to the next experience area.

I am going to rate this experience 5/5 as I think for the price we paid (around £12.00 each) it really can't be beaten and was a fantastic end to a brilliant tourist based day out in London. We visited the London Eye, London Zoo and London Dungeons for around £80.00 for 2 people and this was by purchasing our tickets the day before.

Summary: A fantastic experience for many ages that's reasonably priced and lasts a few hours.