[title]
The name is unlikely to be familiar to you, but two of this year’s biggest hit London exhibitions have come from a Spanish company called Madrid Artes Digitales (MAD). Long story short, it specialises in immersive historical shows that blend the nuts and bolts of any exhibition (historic artefacts and the like) with spectacularly dressed rooms and show-stopping digital sections (VR and the like) that open the appeal up to audiences that might find the British Museum’s latest a little on the dry side. So far in 2025 we’ve had Tutankhamun: The Immersive Experience and The Legend of the Titanic, and as the year closes MAD returns with yet another show: The Last Days of Pompeii.
For the benefit of anyone who has been living under six metres of volcanic ash the last 2,000 years: Pompeii was a Roman town that was wiped out by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79AD. However, its last moments were exceptionally well preserved, and while we’re not short on documentation of the Roman Empire, Pompeii is responsible for much of our best evidence of what typical Roman domestic life was like. Plus at a remove 2,000 people getting wiped out by a volcano is a pretty gripping story.
The Last Days of Pompeii will be a 10-gallery exhibition – once more staged at ImmerseLDN in the Excel London – that will take you into the doomed city. It’ll begin with an actual recreation of bits of Pompeii as it was – combined with period artefacts – before moving on to casts of the city’s dead citizen (their outlines were preserved in calcified ash) and then eventually the fancy digital stuff, which includes a free-roaming VR journey through the city as it was, and a huge immersive digital film section that charts the eruption of Vesuvius without anyone actually getting hurt.
As with its predecessors, it sounds spectacular.
The Last Days of Pompeii: An Immersive Experience is at ImmerseLDN from Nov 14. Tickets go on sale Sep 30.
This is what the Science Museum’s new Space gallery is like.
The 50 best things to do in London with kids.
Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.