London is officially home to the UK’s ‘weirdest’ tourist attraction. The landmark was awarded this honour due to reviews from 40 of the UK’s most unconventional attractions analysed by Betway Casino.
It used a very simple metric – how often visitors described them with words relating to ‘weirdness’. And it turns out that The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History in Hackney came first, with 76.82 per cent of its 371 reviews featuring keywords relating to weirdness.
It’s not your typical museum like the Tates, for example, as it’s found beneath The Last Tuesday Society cocktail bar, and you enter via a steep, narrow, cast iron, spiral staircase. Founded by Viktor Wynd in 2009, the museum operates more like a 17th-century “Wunderkabinett” (Cabinet of Curiosities) than a modern institution, intentionally eschewing traditional curation or educational signage in favor of an overwhelming, immersive aesthetic.
An eclectic mix of items are exhibited inside and outside glass containers at the museum -Credit:Getty
It may take you back slightly when you are there, as it contains unconventional, bizarre bits, including what is claimed to be excrement from Kylie Minogue and Amy Winehouse. The eclectic collection also spans centuries of the macabre and the magnificent, featuring taxidermy specimens like a two-headed kitten, Victorian mourning jewellery, and even a collection of “fairies” in jars.
But this wasn’t the only London spot to make it onto the top 10 weird spots list. Dennis Severs’ House came fifth with 36.82 per cent of the 823 reviews related to weirdness. Located at 18 Folgate Street in Spitalfields, London, this is an immersive “historical imagination”. It is not a traditional museum, but a sensory, theatrical experience designed to feel like a 18th-century Huguenot silk weaver’s home.
The top 10 ‘weirdest’ tourist attractions in the UK -Credit:Betway Casino
Then at number six was God’s Own Junkyard in Walthamstow. The figures show that of all 252 reviews, 30.56 per cent had something bizarre in them. This is a warehouse filled with Europe’s largest collection of neon signs, vintage movie props, and retro displays.
Other spots included Morbitorium, in South Wales, which came second. It’s a canal-side cottage which has everything from witchcraft artefacts to uncanny antiques. The Under the Pier Show in Southwold Pier came third. It has things like ‘Rent-a-Dog’, where visitors can walk a mechanical dog on a treadmill, or exploring the seabed aboard submarine simulator ‘The Bathyscape’.
Tenth place went to The Singing Ringing Tree in Lancashire. It’s a sculpture crafted from steel pipes that harness the wind to make an odd tune.
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