Royal London Wax Museum (Niagara)
Attraction Type: Wax Museum
Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario
Years Operational: 1971?-1975
Designer(s): Waxattract, Universal Android
Robert Dunham's Waxattract constructed the Royal London Wax Museum in the early 1970's. It replaced the Antique Auto Museum on Falls Ave. (located in the parking garage building attached to the Sheraton Foxhead hotel) when it moved to Clifton Hill and became the Cars of the Greats Museum. The Royal London was themed after the royal family and was a Waxattract built and owned attraction, but was a co-project of sorts, with some of the scenes and figures being created by Bruce Randall's Universal Android. The attraction was also co-owned, likely being Waxattract's first partnership with the Iannuzelli family who Waxattract would go on to build both House of Frankenstein locations for, as well as co-own with them for several years. Details on it's exact opening year a little hazy however. The Dunhams themselves recount that it opened in 1971 just before the first House of Frankenstein on Clifton Hill, which makes sense considering Waxattract shifted their focus to haunted attractions after the House of Frankenstein's massive success and began to move away from the more traditional historical wax museums. 1971 also lines up with the year the Antique Auto Museum closed, adding validity to that being the opening year as there's no record of anything occupying the space in between. That being said, newspaper articles discuss it as a soon-to-open attraction in 1973, however it could be that the publication is referring to a "new" updated version of the attraction or simply it's grand opening for that tourist season, if seasonal.
The only style of brochure that has surfaced for the attraction. Due to it's short lifespan, it's quite possible it was the only kind produced.
The building was adorned with regal neon signage, and in the front window sat a beautiful recreation of the Queen's royal stagecoach. The Dunham family allegedly had the coach sitting in their home's driveway when it was awaiting it's transfer to the attraction. Despite its gorgeous displays, it faced one problem: at the time, the Western world had no interest in the royal family. The museum was very well received by those lucky enough to experience it, but it simply was not a topic most people were willing to tour an entire museum on. Dunham's Boris Karloff Wax Museum he built and managed was performing much better simply due to its theme, despite being in a much less trafficked area of The Falls, whereas the underperforming Royal London was in perhaps one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the whole country. Dunham took note of this as well, and an attraction was on its way that would change Niagara Falls, and the amusement industry, forever. The lesson of the importance of a horror theme, as well as establishing Waxattract's product quality with the Iannuzellis, would have made the Royal London an important step in the eventual creation of the House of Frankenstein(s), if the attraction did infact debut first.
(Left): The Royal London Wax Museum seen in this digitally-enhanced shot from a blurry 1973 8mm film reel.
(Right): The Queen's ornate stagecoach that sat in the window.
The small building that would eventually become home to the Tower of London Wax Museum as it looked many, many years prior in the 1930's.
In 1975, with the Iannuzellis now seeing high returns from the House of Frankenstein(s), as well as Dunham finding success with Castle Dracula and shifting his focus to building attractions in the U.S., the decision was made to close the Royal London Wax Museum. It's collection was sold to the upcoming but ill-fated Tower of London Wax Museum on Clifton Hill, which opened in 1976. It's unknown how much of the collection was purchased by the Tower of London, but if the Royal London Wax Museum had occupied the entirety of the former Antique Auto Museum space, the entire collection likely wouldn't have fit into the small, 1925 building at the front of the Darling Motel property which the Tower of London was built in. The building was two floors and a basement, however the gift shop that had previously existed in the basement remained, meaning the museum only occupied two small floors at the maximum, or one if the motel offices remained upstairs and weren't relocated.
Regardless, the less that ended up there the better, as it would suffer a suspicious fire just a few months after it opened, destroying the entire museum. The once glorious stagecoach can be seen charred in the window in photos taken after the blaze, a far cry from how it would have looked rolling out of the Dunhams' driveway.
The sad, charred end of the collection and the royal stagecoach in the window of the (former) Tower of London Wax Museum, 1976.