publication date: Jan 19, 2010
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author/source: Tim Walder
Robert Leroy Ripley (1894 to 1949) started life as a
cartoonist, drawing the bizarre under the by line “
believe it or not!”. The cartoon became a regular in
American papers in the early '20s. A
book followed (the annual is popular and still available), then
radio and TV shows and lecture tours. The first “
amusement museum-type” attraction opened in
Chicago in 1933 and there are now
30 museums worldwide.
Ripley became wealthy and was always
eccentric and travelled the globe seeking the
bizarre and extreme in nature,
humanity and technology. He was a collector for
William Randolph Hearst and the collection bears all the obsessive characteristics of the
Citizen Kane film. I was
expecting to find the sledge with the name
Rosebud at some point.
The
Odditorium makes a
fantastic afternoon out for boys aged about eight to about 14. Starting on the
fifth floor, you work your way down to the
third floor, exiting through the thankfully small and relatively
inexpensive gift shop. The
tickets we had included entry to the
Mirror Maze, which is better than the one at the
London Dungeon and completely and wonderfully
disorienting.
The collection includes items on the most
extreme human forms (smallest, tallest, fattest), the
largest and smallest of things (for example cars), the oldest things, the
tiniest models (a coronation scene made of
painted ants was a highlight) and the
grotesque. The style is somewhere between
excellent modern museum presentation (with good interactive things) and the
freak show at the Victorian circus, with accompanying
showmanship. There is a
lot to see and the place
flows really well, with
no possibility of getting lost and a welcome
film break in the middle (featuring people putting
nails and electric drills into their noses).
There is also a
chamber of horrors style section with a
macabre push the button and make the
electric chair man fry feature (this does come with a bad taste warning). We particularly enjoyed the
two way mirror where you get to see if you can
roll your tongue and then later (and hilariously)
get to watch others try through the mirror. It is
educational in a bitty and unthemed way: the only real theme is the
bizarre and extreme.
We had a
fantastic time. Our boys, who are 10 and 12, said it was “sick” which pretty much summed it up. My only
caveat was that it is
quite expensive. Adults are £21.90, children £17.90 and a family of two adults and two children £69.80 (this includes a
10 per cent discount for buying online). The
upside of this was that it was
not too crowded, given that it is in the heart of
tourist London.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, No1 Piccadilly Circus, London
www.ripleyslondon.com
