Tower of London - will it freak ds out?

[funnypeculiar]

Ds is 8 but really, really easily freaked out. All it needs is dark lighting/corridors and slightly spooky music/noises and he's in pieces - has to be led through places with head and ears covered - or just leave.

We were thinking of going to the Tower of London tomorrow (he's doing the Tudors atm), but ds knows it's a prison and is getting jittery.

Anyone able to give me a vague idea of whether it has any semi-spooky bits? Or indeed, whether there are any waxworks - another of his pet hates.... COuldn't see any on the website, but that's never a guarantee....

TIA

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I took my daughter when she was 5 and she loved it. No waxworks that I can think of, and no spooky bits.

No, we went a couple of weeks ago with easily spooked DS aged 6, and nothing freaked him out at all. The only dark bit is the torture exhibition, and you don't have to go in it. Didn't see any waxworks at all, Ds6 and DS13 both really enjoyed it.

No it's really not spooky at all normally, nothing like that at all, unless they're doing something special for Halloween week.

Thanks everyone, that's really reassuring. Think we'll steer clear of the torture element....

I did check for Halloween wierdness, MrsVincentPrice, and it looked safe from that perspective.

Anyone else...?

You might want to avoid the Beefeater tours as they do cover executions and so forth in slightly ghoulish detail, and I'd have a quick skim through the guidebook when you get there (even better, check with the information office) in case there are any waxworks lurking in one of the towers/rooms, but off the top of my head I'd say it should be fine for him.

Agree avoid the torture tower, also where the young princes dissapeared from - though mine loved voting for 'who done it!' The tour by the beefeaters was excellent and very funny, but they do talk about where this and that (generally gruesome) happened - e.g. Where queens were executed etc. All of the stopping points were outside though, so the settings weren't at all spooky. There was one thing in the house where I think it was Lady Jane Grey was kept, where you could see a tv screen with cctv fottage of upstairs and visitors looking around in real time, on which they had superimposed a ghostly figure in tudor clothes supposedly mingling with the visitors. You might want to avoid that or not go upstairs, there was so much else to see though that you wouldn't feel short changed if you avoided that and the torture exhibition. No music that I recall, my three all loved it (were 7, 5 and nearly 3), but they all love horrible histories anyway. Have fun and if you want to see crown jewels, get there early, go straight there and be prepared to wait!

Fantastic, thank you!

I suspect he'd cope with horrible things if they were happening outside - it's anything atmospheric stuff that messes with him. We had a Dig For Victory exhibition at the Imperial War Museum last year - despite me pointing out that the scariest thing he was likely to see was a carrot....

Ds hates Horrible Histories because "They're horrible, mum, why would you want to see that...?"

DD loved it when she was 4.5 and the only slightly freaky bit is the story about the two princes in the tower as they show a small film (Lawrence Olivier as Richard III) and the scene where they are smothered.

Just to say ds (& dd) loved it - we avoided the Princes bit, and the torture tower, & much fun was had by all. And thank you for your input - being able to say to ds that I had talked to lots of people who had been & those two were the only scary bits really, really helped. In fact, we bought a year pass and will be going back