TUSSAUD’S WAXWORKS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 March 1925, Page 5

TUSSAUD’S WAXWORKS.

DESTROYED BY FIRE. LONDON, Thursday. Madia me Tussaiid’s waxworks were the scene of a fire, which was a most wonderful 'spectacle, multi-coloured Haines shooting high in the air. The roof has fallen in, and only the shell of the building remains. Onlookers, watching the lire, when they heard the wax models sizzling, shouted to the firemen, ‘‘How’s Deeming.’” “How’s Beacc and Crippen?” In the early stages firemen and salvagers wefe able to save many exhibits. The contents of the ground floor and basement, in which was situated the chamber of horrors, were damaged by water.

The most tarn out aide feature, is the destruction of the Napoleonic relics. These, said Mr .John Tussaud, were irreplaceable. » Some think they were worth £2.30,000. The moulds of the most ifamoup figures are preserved in a separate building. The tableau depicting Queen Victoria being notified of-her accession was saved. —Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn. HEAVY DAMAGE DONE. (Received Friday, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Thursday. The damage at Tussaud’s is estimated at £2.30,000. Thousands visited the ruins and watched the salvagers carrying wax effigies from the building, and pictures from the valuable Gainsborough collection housed in the building. 'Police Constable Robertson, a wax policeman, who stood at the entrance, deceived many thousands of visitors into addressing him. He was one of the first rescued, to the evident delight of the real police outside. But out of the hundreds of famous efiigaes, only _the models of notorious criminals in the chamber of horrors, including Peace, Crippen, Yaquier, Thompson and Bywaters, were saved.

The crowd was chiefly anxious re garding the fate of Peace and Crippen —Aus. %nd N.Z. Cable Assn.