The creepy Edinburgh Wax Museum that 'scared local children witless'

Oct 08, 2023

It was the Edinburgh attraction that locals still wax lyrical about to this day - mainly because it scared them 'witless' when they were children and guaranteed them nightmares for months to come.

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It's the lost Edinburgh attraction filled with famous faces that locals of a certain age still wax lyrical about to this very day.

The Edinburgh Wax Museum only operated for a little over a decade, but created memories to last a lifetime.

Situated on the High Street in the heart of the Old Town, it was the capital's answer to Madame Tussauds and a precursor to the Edinburgh Dungeon all rolled in one.

READ MORE: The doomed Edinburgh light sculpture that rarely worked and left locals cringing

The hugely-popular attraction, which at its peak had 230,000 visitors piling through its doors, had a varied collection of more than 150 wax figures that included notable heroes from Scotland's past, as well as fictional characters from well-known children's stories.

The museum, which first opened in 1976, was curated by Charles Cameron, a professional magician, who also performed as Count Dracula in night-time shows in the Castle Dracula Theatre on the top floor.

It boasted realistic models of the likes of William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, Alexander Fleming, Robert Adam and Robert Burns. Children's story and airy-tale favourites, such as Captain Hook, Peter Rabbit, Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, could be found in the children's section called Never Never Land.

In later years, the attraction began investing in new models of contemporary famous faces, including Prince Charles and Princess Diana, ET and Leonard Nimoy AKA Mr Spock from Star Trek. Only the heads and hands of the models were made of wax, the rest of the figures being regular mannequins.

But while these figures were popular, the exhibits that got locals' blood curdling could be found in the wax museum's own Chamber of Horrors, which was full of manner of grisly sights, including witches, ghouls and vampires and medieval torture scenes featuring severed heads and mutilation.

Certain exhibits such as the evil sorcerer the Black Monk and the Snake Man, who could control snakes at will, were enough to guarantee younger children nightmares for weeks and months to come.

Recalling the wax museum on the Lost Edinburgh Facebook page, Vivienne Dunstan wrote: "The chamber of horrors scared me witless."

Scott Taylor said: "I loved this place as a kid and remember the Neverland scene Hook fighting Pan on the ship."

Donella Lawson added: "I loved this place. Went many times in the 80s. There was the man with the camera around his neck who would scare you by taking a photo suddenly. Was very sad when it went."

The Edinburgh Wax Museum was also recently recalled in a Reddit thread, with people recalling being utterly petrified of the place when they were kids.

One Reddit user commented: "My dad took me when I was wee and I freaked out in the horror section. I think they had to take me out the emergency exit."

Another said: "Ooh, yes, the chamber of horrors. I was traumatised by the Mary Queen of Scots scene, had nightmares and was obsessed with beheading for years after."

Sadly, in spite of its obvious popularity, the Edinburgh Wax Museum proved to be rather short-lived. It closed its doors for good in March 1989, with the premises converted for office use.

Many of the wax figures found new homes, with some picked up by other local and regional attractions, including the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre in Edinburgh..

You can access a list of many of the wax museum's original figures here.