CULTURAL LONDON

TATE BRITAIN

• The clue is in the name:

Tate Britain is the place to go if you want to feast your eyes on hundreds
of years of British art, from the 1500s to the present day. Wander up th
e front steps of the gallery’s grand but not-too-imposing facade and you’
ll find a swirling spiral staircase, a serene starting point for an amble thro
ugh British art (and now an Insta-sensation in its own right).
 MADAME TUSSAUNDS

• Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France.

Grosholtz created her first wax sculpture in 1777 of
Voltaire.[5] At the age of 17, she became the art tutor to Madame Elizabet
h, the sister of King
Louis XVI of France, at the Palace of Versailles. During the
French Revolution, she was imprisoned for three months and awaiting exe
cution, but was released after the intervention of an influential friend.[4] O
ther famous people whom she
modelled included Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
Benjamin Franklin. During the Revolution, she made models of many promi
ALBERT HALL

• In 1851, with the direct participation of Prince Albert, the

first ever World Exhibition was organized in London. The Crystal Palace was erected in
Hyde Park to house the exposition next to the present Albert Hall. Inspired by the succe
ss of the event, Albert oversaw Kensington's transformation into a museum town,
Albertopolis, where the Royal College of Music and the
Royal Geographical Society began to be based on his initiative.
 THE YOUNG VIC

• The Young-Vick troupe was formed after World War

II , in 1946 by director George Devine as a branch of the Old-Vick Theater School to stage
classic plays for viewers ages 9-15. It all ended in 1948 when Devine and his assistants left
Old Vick , but in 1969 Frank Dunlop became the founder and artistic director of the new Young
Vick Theater, which opened on September 11, 1970.