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Chamber Of Horrors (Madame Tussauds)
The Chamber of Horrors was an original exhibition at Madame Tussauds in London, being an exhibition of waxworks of notorious murderers and other infamous historical figures. The gallery first opened as a 'Separate Room' in Marie Tussaud's 1802 exhibition in London and quickly became a success as it showed historical personalities and artefacts rather than the freaks of nature popular in other waxworks of the day. It closed permanently in April 2016. Early days The forerunner of Tussaud's ''Chamber of Horrors'' was the ''Caverne des Grands Voleurs'' (the Cavern of the Great Thieves) which had been founded by Dr Philippe Curtius as an adjunct to his main exhibition of waxworks in Paris in 1782. Here Curtius displayed wax figures of notorious French criminals who had been executed, as well as members of the French royal family and aristocracy who had been guillotined during the Revolution. When Marie Tussaud moved to London in 1802 to set up her own exhibition at the Lyceum Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madame Tussauds London
Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer used. Madame Tussauds is a major tourist attraction in many cities, displaying the waxworks of famous and historical figures, as well as popular film and television characters. History Background Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked for Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modeling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling beginning when she was a child. He moved to Paris and took his young apprentice, then only 6 years old, with him. Grosholtz created her first wax sculpture in 1777 of Voltaire. At the age of 17, she became the art tutor to Madame Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI of France, at the Palace of Versailles. During t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at the bottom of the frame, positioning the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass so that the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below. The guillotine is best known for its use in France, particularly during the French Revolution, where the revolution's supporters celebrated it as the people's avenger and the revolution's opponents vilified it as the pre-eminent symbol of the violence of the Reign of Terror. While the name "guillotine" itself dates from this period, similar devices had been in use elsewhere in Europe over several centuries. The use of an oblique blade and the stocks set this type of guillotine apart from others. The display o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Marwood
William Marwood (1818 – 4 September 1883) was a hangman for the British government. He developed the technique of hanging known as the " long drop". Early life Marwood was born in 1818 in the village of Goulceby, the fifth of ten children born to William and Elizabeth Marwood. He was originally a cobbler like his father, of Church Lane, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. He was married twice: first to a woman named Jessey (who died in 1860s), then to Ellen Andrews (who died less than a year after Marwood at the age of 55). Executioner At the age of 54 he persuaded the governor of Lincoln Castle Gaol to allow him to conduct an execution. The efficient way in which he conducted the hanging of William Frederick Horry without a hitch on 1 April 1872 assisted him in being appointed hangman by the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex in 1874, in succession to William Calcraft, at a retainer of £20 a year plus £10 per execution. The "Long Drop" Marwood developed the " long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Peace
Charles Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour's wife, eventually shooting her husband dead. Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him. He was linked to the Sheffield murder, and tried at Leeds Assizes. Found guilty, he was hanged at Armley Prison. His story has inspired many authors and film makers. Early life and crimes Charles Frederick Peace was born on 14 May 1832, in Darnall, Sheffield. He was the youngest son of shoemaker John Peace and his wife Jane, a naval surgeon's daughter. At age fourteen, Charles was permanently crippled in an accident at a steel-rolling mill. In 1854, he was found guilty of multiple burglar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murders At Stanfield Hall
The Murders at Stanfield Hall were a notorious Victorian era double murder on 28 November 1848 that was commemorated in print, pottery, wax, as well as a novel by Joseph Shearing. Additionally, it was the inspiration for the 1948 English film, ''Blanche Fury''. The victims, Isaac Jermy and his son Isaac Jermy were shot and killed on the porch and in the hallway of their mansion, Stanfield Hall, Norwich. The perpetrator, James Bloomfield Rush (1800–1849), their delinquent tenant-farmer, who had conducted a complex, devious scheme to defraud them of their property and their lives, was hanged at Norwich Castle on 21 April 1849. The unwitting accomplice to the attempted fraud was Emily Sandford, whom Rush had employed as a governess but who was also his mistress. Scenario In 1848, Isaac Jermy and his son Isaac Jermy were shot and killed on the porch and in the hallway of their mansion, Stanfield Hall, Wymondham, near Norwich, by James Bloomfield Rush. Rush had been their tenant fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burke And Hare Murders
The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Edinburgh was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, in a time when the demand for cadavers led to a shortfall in legal supply. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research should only come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans. The shortage of corpses led to an increase in body snatching by what were known as "resurrection men". Measures to ensure graves were left undisturbed—such as the use of mortsafes—exacerbated the shortage. When a lodger in Hare's house died, he turned to his friend Burke for advice and they decided to sell the body to Knox. They received what was, for them, the generous sum of £7 10s. A l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sixpence (British Coin)
The British sixpence () piece, sometimes known as a tanner or sixpenny bit, was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound or half of one shilling. It was first minted in 1551, during the reign of Edward VI, and circulated until 1980. The coin was made from silver from its introduction in 1551 until 1947, and thereafter in cupronickel. Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system (£sd), under which the largest unit was a pound (£), divisible into 20 shillings (s), each of 12 pence (d). Following decimalisation, it had a value of new pence (£0.025). In 2016, new decimal sixpences began being minted by the Royal Mint as commemorative issues to celebrate Christmas; these coins have been produced for each year since, and are minted in sterling silver. History The first sixpences were minted in 1551, during the reign of Edward VI. They came about as a result of the debasement of silver coinage in the 1540s, in particular the silver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punch (magazine)
''Punch, or The London Charivari'' was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term " cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. From 1850, John Tenniel was the chief cartoon artist at the magazine for over 50 years. After the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002. History ''Punch'' was founded on 17 July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells, on an initial investment of £25. It was jointly edited by Mayhew and Mark Lemon. It was subtitled ''The London Charivari'' in homage to Charles Philipon's French satirical humour magazine ''Le Charivari''. Reflecting their satiric and humorous intent, the two editors took for their name and masthead the anarchic glove puppet, Mr. Punch, of Punc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burke And Hare
The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Edinburgh was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, in a time when the demand for cadavers led to a shortfall in legal supply. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research should only come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans. The shortage of corpses led to an increase in body snatching by what were known as "resurrection men". Measures to ensure graves were left undisturbed—such as the use of mortsafes—exacerbated the shortage. When a lodger in Hare's house died, he turned to his friend Burke for advice and they decided to sell the body to Knox. They received what was, for them, the generous sum of £7 10s. A litt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Thistlewood
Arthur Thistlewood (1774–1 May 1820) was an English radical activist and conspirator in the Cato Street Conspiracy. He planned to murder the cabinet, but there was a spy and he was apprehended with 12 other conspirators. He killed a policeman during the raid. He was executed for treason. Early life He was born in Tupholme in Lincolnshire, the extramarital son of a farmer and stockbreeder. He attended Horncastle Grammar School and was trained as a land surveyor. Unsatisfied with his job, he obtained a commission in the army at the age of 21. In January 1804, he married Jane Worsley but she died two years later giving birth to their first child. In 1808 he married Susan Wilkinson. He then quit his commission in the army and, with the help of his father, bought a farm. The farm was not a success and in 1811 he moved to London. Thistlewood was the nephew of Thomas Thistlewood (1721‒1786), a British-born slave owner and plantation overseer in colonial Jamaica. Beginning o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Despard
Edward Marcus Despard (175121 February 1803), an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish officer in the service of the The Crown, British Crown, gained notoriety as a colonial administrator for refusing to recognise racial distinctions in law and, following his recall to London, as a Republicanism in the United Kingdom, republican conspirator. Despard's associations with the London Corresponding Society, the Society of United Irishmen, United Irishmen and United Britons led to his trial and execution in 1803 as the alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate the George III, King. Ireland, and military service in the Caribbean Edward Despard was born in 1751 in Coolrain, Camross, County Laois, Queen's County, in the Kingdom of Ireland, the youngest of eight surviving children (six sons, two daughters) of William Despard, a protestant landowner of Huguenot descent, and Jane Despard (née Walsh). With neighboring gentry, his father and grandfather enlarged their estate by enclosure, enclosing "was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
