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A trip to the Dungeons

It could be said that most streets in London occasionally resemble freak shows but there's one street in particular which always looks like the circus is in town - the street featuring both the London Dungeons and the Tower of London.

We decided to visit one of them on a rainy afternoon and as we were walking out of the Underground we were met by a freakishly tall character (let's call him Gandalf) who was employed by the Tower of London to scare people into entering the attraction. With his completely grey hair, ghostly-white make-up and bloody gashes, Gandalf was really hamming it up. But the main feature making him freakish was his immense height. I was amazed at his ability to walk so smoothly on stilts especially since he was simultaenously bending down to slurp in our faces. He was very 'in character'.

There was a moment of confusion where we followed Gandalf to the entrance of the Tower of London despite having tickets for the London Dungeons and I was trying to make conversation with him that didn't go along the lines of 'how's the air up there?' So I asked him how he managed to walk down stairs on 'those things,' to which he said: 'what my legs?' and lifted up his trousers to reveal his REAL LEGS rather than the wooden stilts I was expecting to see. I was horrified with my faux pas and tried to cover it up by pretending I meant his huge shoes. It was so embarrassing. He was naturally tall and I was naturally mortified.

Luckily I've had this big mouth for many years and I got over it. We joined the London Dungeons' queue and waited for an hour, surrounded by creepy characters doing crowd control with their ghostly appearances, oozing scabs and glistening fake blood.

The Dungeons is definitely not your average tourist attraction and the faint-hearted travellers might want to opt for St Paul's Cathedral. But there's a lot of fun to be had in the dark of the Dungeons as visitors are taken on a spooky journey through the dark periods of London's history. Events like the Black Plague and the Jack the Ripper murders are retold by costumed actors surrounded by blood and guts, bodies and parts of bodies, live rats and scary sound effects.

There's a light-hearted side to the whole spectacle as the actors poke fun at the audience and there are amusing signs everywhere such as the ones in the toilets which say 'Let R.I.P'.

My friends and I left the London Dungeons with big smiles on our faces after a fun afternoon full of spooky twists and turns. Even with all the gags and gimmicks, I learned loads about London's history. But most importantly I learned that sometimes people really are that tall.

Find out about London.

Read more of Kelly's blogs.


 

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