Elvis Presley. At the O2? In London? I’M THERE.
Everyone knows I’m a massive fan of Elvis Presley – I have all of his music on CD and vinyl, DVDs of concerts, my bedrooms at home and uni are both covered in posters of him, and I have a ridiculous amount of other Elvis merchandise…
So, of course, I had to go and see the ‘Elvis at the O2‘ exhibition on the day it opened in December and buy a return ticket so I could visit 6 times.
Elvis at the O2 is an exhibition of Elvis Presley’s personal items including clothes, records, army uniform and even cars, his motorbike and a pool table!
It’s great for anyone in London / the UK who doesn’t have the opportunity to visit Graceland!
I would have written about Elvis at the O2 months ago, but the first time I visited, I just wanted to look at everything and not take pictures. And the second time I forgot my camera.
Yesterday I visited again, this time with family, and I thought it was about time I wrote a blog post about it.
I can’t praise this exhibition enough!
The O2 arena did a fantastic job arranging Elvis’s stuff in various themed rooms, including Graceland and Hollywood. My favourite room, the 68 special, pictured above, features his guitar and outfit from the 68 comeback concert, with video screens playing the show.
You’ll walk through several exhibits, which feature his early family life in poverty, his rise to fame with Sun Records, the peak of his career, and his army experience.
Elvis songs play in every room.
After this, you’ll arrive at the centre room, which is pretty damn cool.
There you’ll see his fancy car, cabinets full of stage outfits (jewelled jumpsuits!), his pool table, and lots of glass cabinets filled with letters, sheet music and other cool things.
Don’t forget to look up, because the ceiling is covered in massive plaques of his vinyl record covers!
From this centre room, you can enter each themed room.
The Hollywood area showcases a classic red MG and memorabilia from his movies.
I loved the white-carpeted Graceland room, which had items from his home alongside video montages of what it looked like inside, with the song “Welcome to My World” suitably playing.
When you’ve had a good browse, head over to the theatre room to watch a movie montage of his concerts. It’s the perfect way to end the Elvis experience.
The gift shop is excellent. I bought a t-shirt, a patch for my jacket, postcards, a tote bag… judge me.
One of the best parts of Elvis at the O2 is that they update the exhibition every few months with different items brought over from Graceland.
The famous gold suit was added in April, and apparently, a pink Cadillac is coming in the summer!
The tickets are around £12 for adults, and they have discounts for families, students, pensioners, and people who wish to go several times (like myself).
I can’t recommend this enough to people who like Elvis, music fans, those who want to visit Graceland but can’t, or people who want something interesting to do while in London.
All the best,
