Ripley's In London - The Largest Collection Of Bizarre Artefacts In The World


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May 13th 2014
Published: May 13th 2014
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Whenever sightseeing is suggested as an outing to my family, it is often greeted by a chorus of complaints and protestations of boredom. However, I found out recently that there is one exception to this rule- Ripley's Believe It Or Not in London. We first discovered this self-branded 'odd-itorium' when visiting London for the day. We were walking through Piccadilly Circus, trying in vain to find the way to Covent Garden, when we were approached by a man dressed as Sherlock Holmes! He invited us to come and have a look inside. I was a bit sceptical but once the kids had caught a glimpse an enormous Transformer model in the entrance, saying no was no longer an option. Before I knew it we were entering the rest of the building, and ended up spending the rest of the day exploring its various exhibits (with the exception of the Dungeon zone because we were put off by the sign which said"certain exhibits that may be disturbing for young children or those of a sensitive nature").

I can easily say that this building is one of the weirdest places I have ever been to. There are quite a few exhibits where you find yourself asking- who would even think to make this? For example, I spent a good 10 minutes staring dumbfounded at the portrait of Princess Diana made entirely out of laundry lint ! I had a similar reaction to another exhibit which consisted of a grain of rice which had the image of the Last Supper painted onto it. Then again, I preferred these items to some of the more grotesque aspects which were on display. Although they were few and far between, there were a couple of items which seemed to be presented out of morbid curiosity rather than anything else, such as the two-headed calf and Amazonian shrunken heads.

Although I have to say, my favourite exhibits by far were the interactive ones. I was in stitches during the Black Hole experience, which is effectively a glorified spinning tunnel! Moreover, the Mirror maze is thoroughly confusing yet absolutely hysterical; you walk into a mirrored roomwhilst wearing disposablegloves (to avoid leaving any telltale fingerprint marks on the mirrors) and then proceed to try and escape out of the other end of the room. The most hilarious part is that as more and more people enter the maze, it becomes even more confusing! I was trapped in there for ages!

Each exhibit was entirely unexpected- sometimes this was a pleasant surprise and at other times grotesque. For example, I was amazed by the 4-metre model of Tower Bridge composed entirely of matchsticks (over 400,000 the signpost said) but thoroughly disgusted by the 20-something inch hairball which had been extracted from a cow's stomach. It was impressive to compare a
">life-sized knitted Ferrari to a Mini Cooper completely covered in half a million pounds worth of Swarovski crystals and there were also some artefacts of true historical and cultural significance, including a 545 poundmeteorite, a genuine moon rock, a mummified man,a 3,000pound piece of the Berlin Wall and some of Marilyn Monroe's wardrobe. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, and has gone along way towards convincing my family that 'sightseeing' does not equal boring!

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