FRIDAY FUNDAY: MERLIN ATTRACTIONS LONDON
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Hey there
Earthlings, Alternatives and Trollers. Put down that mouse and lend
an ear. Welcome to The Bandersnatch blog where we talk weird, wacky
and wondrous. I'm Mama Ogre and I have no idea what I'm doing.
Random
blog day boo yah. As you should know Fridays is random blog day were
we talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's
blog is on Merlin attractions in London.
Merlin
Entertainments PLC is a British based entertainments company with its
Headquarters in Poole, Dorset that was founded in December of 1998
when Nick Varney, Andrew Carter and the senior management team at
Vardon Attractions bought out the company to form Merlin
Entertainments group LTD. The company had the backing of Apax
Partners before being sold to the financial investor Hermes Private
Equity in 2004. In 2005 the company went to the Blackstone group and
under their control started expansion, eventually gaining control of
several attractions across the world including Sea-life Aquariums,
The Dungeons and the Legoland parks. In June 2019 the company's board
has agreed to recommend a takeover offer of £4.8 Billion from
Kirkbi, CPP Investment board and the Blackstone Group.
THE LONDON
DUNGEON
Opened up
in 1974 the London Dungeon was originally a wax exhibition free flow
walk through of gory and macabre history under the Tooley Street
arches in London Bridge. It expanded during the 80's and 90's with
several attractions including the great fire of London and jack the
ripper. By the 2000's the dungeons had expanded to include a mirror
maze and the “great plague”. The last Tooley street tour took
place on January 31st 2013 and contained The Labyrinth of
the lost, the great plague, Surgery: blood and guts, The Torture
Chamber, The Courtroom; Bedlam, Traitor boat ride to hell, Sweeney
Todd, Vengeance 5D, Jack the Ripper, Bloody Mary killer queen and
Extremis Drop ride to doom. The dungeons moved to County Hall after
that joining the other Merlin owned attractions there. The London
Dungeons is one of six Dungeons across the UK the other five are The
Blackpool Tower Dungeon, The castle dungeon at Warwick Castle, The
Edinburgh Dungeon, The York Dungeon and the Alton Towers Dungeon.
I've gone
to the London Dungeons (at both locations) several times over the
years and its been different every time, there's been several trips
in each “season” (The London Dungeon changes a few things every
2-3 months). I go to The London Dungeon because I Love history as
I've probably mentioned in other Blogs and I love participating in
history type events that the London dungeon does. I highly recommend
going to The London Dungeon if you love interaction of history,
definitely an attraction for all adults and children from the ages of
eight, I give the attraction a 10/10.
SEA-LIFE
LONDON
Sea-life
London opened up in march of 1997 as the London Aquarium on the
ground floor of County Hall, situated on the well known south bank of
the River Thames almost directly across from Westminster and Big Ben.
In 2005 the aquarium displayed three robotic fish created by the
computer science Dept.' of the University of Essex and in 2008 Merlin
Entertainments took control and refurbed the entire place and renamed
it Sea-life London when it was completed by April 2009. in 2011
Gentoo penguins took up residence in the new penguin exhibit having
transferred from Edinburgh Zoo and in 2015 the whole Aquarium shifted
to a new location in County Hall thanks to the opening of Shrek's
adventure! London.
Ive only
been to two or three Sea-life centres in my life but Sea-life London
is one of the best of them in my opinion and I live ten minutes away
from one which is pretty decent. My favourite part of Sea-life London
are the Jellyfish 'cause they are their awesome medusozoa, the
turtles because they are awesome reptiles and the penguins because
their clever and cute. Out of all the fish and mammals in the ocean
those three are my favourites. Sea-life London has a variety of
activities for younger kids on top of the animals they look after and
as such Sea-life London is perfect for families and people of all
ages. I give it a 10/10.
SHREK'S
ADVENTURE!
Opened up
in 2015 under the name Dreamworks tours: Shrek's Adventure! (often
shortened to just Shrek's Adventure!) In County Hall next to the
Sea-Life London. The premise of the attraction is an interactive walk
through based on a visit to far far away which has been taken over by
Rumpelstiltskin and his witches. You spend a good chunk of the tour
saving Far Far away from Rumpelstiltskin with the help of the
Characters (and villains) from Shrek.
I've only
been to Shrek's adventure maybe twice and as such I don't really have
much to say about it apart from the attraction being vaguely fun and
really great for children. To be honest I had more fun in the gift
shop, as such I do recommend Shrek's adventure to families with
younger children and if you're a BIG fan of both Dreamworks and Shrek
itself...himself?. I give the attraction 7/10.
MADAME
TUSSAUDS
Madame
Tussauds waxworks started in 1777 when Marie Tussaud Nee Grosholtz
created her first waxwork sculpture of Voltaire at the age of
seventeen. She became the art tutor of Madame Elizabeth the sister of
French king Louis 16th at Versailles. During the French
revolution she was imprisoned for three months before being released
after a friends intervention. During the revolution she created many
models of the prominent victims. Tussauds inherited a vast collection
of wax models from Philippe Curtis and toured it across the western
world. By 1795 she'd gotten married and changed the name of her show
as she did her own surname. Tussaud settled in Britain and held her
show alongside Paul Philidir's magic lantern and phantasmagoria show
at the Lyceum theatre, by 1835 Madame Tussaud had settled on Baker
street with her collection and opened a museum (she was unable to
return to France due to the nepolionic wars). Madame Tussauds died in
her sleep on April 16th 1850 and the museum passed form
owner to owner until the late 90's/early 2000's when Merlin took up
ownership.
I like
Madame Tussauds because of it's history and how accurate the waxworks
can be. Ive been there several times and my favourite part of the
attraction however has been both the Sherlock Holmes Experience and
the Tales from the chamber. I seriously recommend Tussauds to
everyone and thinks you should go at least once in your lifetime, I
give Madame Tussauds 9/10 (there are a lot of stairs).
THE
WEBSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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THE BANDERSNATCH, I'M MAMA OGRE AND REMEMBER STAY WEIRD, STAY WACKY,
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