Modeled from life by John T. Tussaud. In common with many of the models in Madame Tussaud’s, this model is dressed in the subject’s own clothing.
CHAPTER XXXIX
Bank Holiday queues—Cup-tie day—Gentlemen from the north—Bachelor beanfeasts—The Member for Oldham—A scare.
The four regular Bank Holidays of the year are great occasions at Madame Tussaud’s.
On each of them the precincts of Tussaud’s show signs of activity long before the average Londoner is astir. The length of any of the queues has never been actually measured, but it is no exaggeration to say that the people have frequently waited four and five deep in a line extending almost a quarter of a mile—from the doors of the Exhibition to the gates of Regent’s Park.
The crowd at these times consists mainly of Londoners from all the outlying districts of the Metropolis, for Madame Tussaud’s has always been in great favour as a holiday resort for the multitude. Parents also bring their children in great numbers, and the holiday crowds continue to come for days after.
There is, however, at least one morning in the year when the portals of the Exhibition are literally teeming with life while the citizens are slumbering in bed.
On Easter Monday, Whit-Monday, the August Bank Holiday, and even on Boxing Day, holiday-makers may be seen at an early hour waiting in a queue, yet no comparison may be made between these crowds and those of the Cup-tie mornings I have witnessed at the Exhibition.