Museum
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not
A few weeks ago we went to Ripley’s Believe It or Not (would we believe it!) which is located near the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus, London. We enjoy exploring around Piccadilly. Ripley’s is like a kind of museum that houses curiosities and what would be called a freak and unusual. There was a short queue at the ticket booth when we arrived there late morning.
We found the cost of the entrance of £26 each so £52 in total just for two adults, so more than a bit expensive. Being Londoners anyway and being lucky to have amazing free entry museums, we wondered if the cost was worth it.
We were directed to start on the fifth floor and work our way down. When the lift doors opened on the fifth floor, we were not overly impressed. There were exhibits scattered around; it was like being in a warehouse. Yes, most of the exhibits were interesting and had a tale to be told for their provenance but the way they were displayed was rather haphazard.
We worked our way down through the floors where it got more interesting with pictures and figurines of celebrities and models created with unusual and exotic material such as sweets, candy, coins, postage stamps, even spider webs, and unmentionable bodily by-products!. Fascinating people, animals some freaks of nature and objects that made us wonder about the diversity that can be created on our small planet.
We had coffee and blueberry muffins at the café surrounded by waxwork life-size models of Guinness recorded extremely obese people (meant to be a wry juxtaposition I guess). I think we paid enough for our small fayre of food, the amount probably would have fed a poor starving family in Africa for a week?
Places like Ripley’s make enormous profits from the in-house catering and gift shops. Of course, we the visitor have the choice not to seek food or buying gift/souvenirs, but with demanding young children in tow it can be hard to resist, especially if needing refreshment after walking a lot & viewing exhibits.
Overall it was interesting to visit, but we think (especially in today’s tough economic climate) that the high entrance fee made Ripley’s something of a rip-off.
