Buckingham Palace conjures up Victorian ghosts in new show

The ballroom of Queen Victoria’s Buckingham Palace has been brought back to life through Pepper’s Ghost: a 19th-century illusion recreated by Hollywood animation whizzkids. The dancing, music and colour scheme has been revived inside the palace ballroom as part of an exhibition for the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth. The 1856 ball celebrating the end of the Crimean War has been recreated using a Victorian technique called Pepper’s Ghost. Film is projected upwards and then reflected off a near-invisible glass screen set at 45 degrees, making dancers seem to appear magically in the room. Scientist John Henry Pepper’s trick stunned and terrified people in theatres when it first came out. The palace’s original wallpaper, friezes, windows and