I’m so unsettled and captivated by this incredible photograph of wax figures burnt and melted after the massive 1925 fire that destroyed Madame Tussauds wax museum in London. I think wax models alone are already pretty creepy, but I don’t think even the Chamber of Horrors can touch the pathos of this unintentionally gruesome scene. With missing heads and appendages, charred skin and clothing in disarray, the uncanny wax models truly look like the causalities of some great trauma.

I’ve been trying to unearth more photographs of destroyed wax models from the fire, with no luck. However, I did come across this newsreel which shows the destruction of the fire, and some of the wax figures within the rubble.

Almost as interesting are some of the colorful quotes taken from 1925 news stories about the fire:

// Image from Wassenbeelden Museum (via Theory of Disease/firsttimeuser). Photographer unknown.