The Tussauds Group is to close the London, UK Planetarium in July following a decline in visitors to the attraction.

The 50-year-old, green-domed building is one of the UK’s best-known attractions and had been used for many years to teach schoolchildren and the general public about the night sky.

However, for the past two years, the Planetarium has shown just one, 10-minute show called Journey to Infinity and Tussauds maintains that visitors simply aren’t interested in attending space shows any more.

This is backed by an ongoing review of the business, which found that only three in every 10 people going to Madame Tussauds opted to include the Planetarium in their visit – despite its entry being included in the price of the main admission ticket.

Tussauds has confirmed it is currently working with the producers of Wallace and Gromit, Aardman Animations, on the show, which will be based on popular celebrity culture and fame and fully utilise the venue’s projection facilities.

Tussauds marketing director Nicky Marsh said that the Planetarium was not core to the attraction and, with the new Greenwich Planetarium scheduled to open in 2007, the group had chosen to do something entirely different with the space, rather than upgrade to be on a par with the new Greenwich site.

Marsh said: “Closing the Planetarium after so many years was a very difficult decision to make. We believe that the Greenwich project can offer astronomy in a way we never will so the time is right to concentrate on our own area of expertise, which is offer a lively, contemporary and interactive attraction rooted in the public’s fascination with famous people.

“The new fame and celebrity experience which will be based in the old Planetarium promises to be very exciting and we will be revealing details very soon.” Details: www.madame-tussauds.co.uk

Photograph: Britain On View