My adventure with Harry Potter started around 1998 during college when my best friend lent me her copy of “The Sorcerer’s Stone”, as I read the USA version of “The Philosopher Stone”. After that, I was hooked, as everyone else, then I brought the first three books from the USA version. After I moved to England in 2002, I bought the first four books from British version and then the first movie. However, it took me a while to understand the books as I was unfamiliar with the vocabulary, but that did not stop. Since then, it has been all about Harry Potter and I followed the story from the books to the movies and finally to the theatre.
The Books
I was such a fan that for the last book, I bought the book in presale from two different stores so that I could have it at from the midnight release. We were living in Oxford for the last book release in 2007, I usually get my copies during presale but online. However, for the 7th and last one I could not wait for the post to arrive and we walked to the city centre to get the book at midnight. I started to read the book as soon as we arrived home, and by midday I had finished. After this, the next thing was to wait for all the movies to be released.
The Movies
The first movie was released in 2001, after the fourth book was published. Therefore, there was still more Harry Potter to be expected. The production company decided to do eight movies from the seven books, as the last book was divided into two movies. The last movie “The Deathly Hallows Part 2” was released in 2010.
Warner Bros Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter
The production for all the movies was a huge investment from customs to set design, therefore, Warner Brothers decided to open a public attraction to host all these unique pieces and to show how the Harry Potter film series were made.
The Studio Tour is located in North London and all movies were filmed inside this complex formerly known as Leavesden Film, now Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden. Although located inside the complex, the tour is separate from the complex and has its own separate entrance. This attraction is so popular that receives over 6,000 visitors a day during peak times.
The Leavesden Film was bought in 2000 and used for 10 years to film the entire Harry Potter film series. However, other films production also used part of the studio but it was mostly occupied with the permanent sets of Harry Potter. Due to their quality as permanent and Victoria style, productions like Sherlock Holmes and Sweeney Todd also used their sets. After concluding filming Harry Potter in 2010, Warner Brothers bought the site as a permanent European base for their operations.
After Warnes Bros bought the studio, they invested £100 million to redevelop and refurbish all the original structures, in order to be become a film and television studio. Additional they created two new soundstages J & K to house the permanent public exhibition hosting the most iconic sets, props and customs of the entire Harry Potter movie franchise.
The studio tour was opened in early 2012 and by April 2012 we were there to see this new attraction that was all about Harry Potter. The tour is not styled as a theme park as Warnes Bros sold this licence to Universal Studios. However, there are still many things to see. The tour is self-guide, with extra cost for audio guide, and it takes around three hours to cover it all.
Although the studio can host up to 6,000 persons a day, the entrance is timed as a way of crowd control in 30 minutes time slots. One inside you can take as long as you required, which in my case could be between three to four hours.
Warner Brothers had been storing items from the films since the first one in 2001, as it always had the idea to build a place like this. The tour includes sets, props and costumes that were created for used in the production of the Harry Potter film series.
Before arriving to the studio tour plan your trip. There are two ways of reaching the studio by car or public transport. If you choose to drive, there is a free parking in the premises. If you choose to take public transportation, you need to take the train from Euston Station to Watford Station and from then there is dedicated bus to the studio tour, at an extra cost.
Before entering the studio, take a selfie with the façade as it the first step into this new Harry Potter adventure. Once inside, the lobby has a cafe and the studio shop. I recommend that while you wait to queue, go to the shop and browse what it is there, if you have time, buy before entering as there are fewer people before entering than after. Do not forget to collect your kid’s passport or ask for one in the audio guide booth (even if you are an adult), as it full of activities and stamps to collect.
Once in the queue, enjoy it, there is a bit of a wait but remember that behind those doors the adventure starts and just need to wait a few more minutes. After the doors open, the first set that you enter is the Great Hall, this is the original as it was built in stone to last and it did for 10 years.
After the great hall, the next session has many interior sets including Gryffindor Boys Dorm, Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore’s office, potions classroom, Hagrid’s hut, the Burrow, and Ministry of Magic. As a treat you could fly your own broomstick all over London. However, if you want to keep a photographic souvenir you need to pay an additional fee. In addition to all these sets there are many individual props like horcruxes, Tom’s Riddle gravestone, tri-wizard trophy, several statues, dark arts artefacts, broomsticks, and quidditch artefacts.
In the middle of the tour, there is an open area section where there are some exterior sets like Ford Anglia car, Hagrid’s motorbike, Hogwarts bridge, Privet drive (access to interior), the knight bus (access to interior), Potter’s Cottage and some chess pieces. The best part is that there is food court where you could buy the famous butterbeer as a drink or as an ice cream.
After the backlot, the tour continues inside and the next part is the creature shop, where you can find the magic behind the creatures like how they built them and what inspire their creation.
After the creature shop, the tour continues with Diagon Alley, where all the shops façades are, including Gringotts Bank, Flourish & Blotts, Ollivanders and Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
After Diagon alley, there are all the model, sketches and illustrations of many production designs like Dumbledore’s office and many others.
Finally, the tour ends with the magnificent and powerful view of the Hogwarts Castle model which is a 1:24 scale. However, the best part of the model is that the light changes depicting the different hours of the day. Therefore, you can see the castle from colour purples of the night to the greens and yellows of the sunrise. Additionally, the lights of the castle light on during the night cycle. It is an amazing experience.
My favourite part of the tour is to wait at the entrance of the model room and see the faces of my tour companions as they enter the room. It is fascinating to see the amusement of their faces as they are facing the model. During my last trip, I was waiting for my nieces to enter and I talked with this lady guide about different people reactions to the same place.
In 2012, I was so excited to attend as soon as they opened that I just took my normal camera. However, in December my parents were coming and my parents were also excited about Harry Potter as being a fan is contagious, and for this tour I took my best camera with my best zoom for close-up shots of the model. This time I knew what to expect as I enter again the studio tour, however, my husband did not join us.
Although, I already enter the tour in April during my December visit, the studio rebranded itself as Hogwarts in the Snow. This meant that the Great Hall, Diagon Alley and Hogwarts Castle were covered with snow and full of Christmas decoration, which made this a different experience even though was the same settings as the one in March.
The other change in decorations occurs during Halloween, where the Great Hall’s lightening changes to blue, green and pinks with hanging pumpkins. There are also a lot of dark arts exhibitions but the best part is duel fight demonstration in the backlot. Beside decorating according to the season, the studio has been constantly changing and new expansions had been added so people like me go to the studio with every new expansion.
In 2015, the first expansion was opened. This new expansion was the introduction of the Platform 9 ¾, which is placed between the interior sets and the exterior sets. This new expansion consisted in the full engine including the coal wagon and the passenger’s seaters, where each seater is decorated as it was in every movie. The last seaters include the customs and props from the first train ride and the 19th year later shot.
In addition to the train, there are various photos opportunities. There is a trolley embedded to the wall like if you were accessing the magical platform from the muggle world. There is an interactive train experience, where you can also take a train ride through the 8 movies and get an amazing professional photograph with a dementor and keep it as a souvenir, for a small fee. There is also a small gift shop specialising in platform 9 ¾ items, within the expansion.
This expansion coincided with the release of Fantastic Beast and Where to Find them, which is the first movie of a series dedicated to Newt Scamander a spin-off and prequel to the Harry Potter film series. This series is also filmed at Leavesden and the lobby had a full set of customs including wands and props of the main characters of the movie.
There were also new interior sets added like the Malfoy Manor and Borgin and Burkes shop.
In 2017, the next expansion was opened. This new expansion was the forbidden forest, which was placed between the interior sets and the platform 9 ¾ set. This new expansion consists of the Hogwarts Castle gates as the entrance of the forbidden forest, once inside there is Hagrid, a centaur, Buckbeak, giant trees, giant spiders and the physical representation of a Patronus. There is also a small gift shop specialising in forbidden forest items, after the expansion.
In 2019, the next expansion and new refurbishment was opened. The main entrance has changed in order to accommodate the bag scanning system, now the entrance is blue and there are some chess pieces framing it.
The lobby has increased in size and now there is even a dragon hanging from the ceiling and the wall’s images are interactive and changes. There is a new café and a new ice cream parlour depicting a chocolate frog case. Although the changes look amazing, the time on the queue has increased at least double, but still worth waiting to see what is at the other end. The final part of the refurbishment was the expansion of the gift shop, which I love. However, now a days the only items that I buy are sweets.
The new expansion was the Gringotts Bank, which is place between the creature shop and Diagon alley. The new expansion consists of amazing columns, giant chandeliers, tellers with goblins, full stationery, customs, amazing lighting and intricate flooring. In my opinion it has been the best expansion.
After the entrance of the Gringotts Bank, the next part is the vault 713 including the philosopher stone, then Bellatrix Lestrange vault with its content, then there is a photo opportunity to have a picture inside the vault. The final part is an interactive video of the destruction of Gringotts Bank including the dragon.
After all, I have gone 8 times in total. This is due to the fact that everybody loves Harry Potter and my frequent traveller friends want to experience every new expansion. These new expansions keep people like me returning as soon as it opens.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Theatre)
The last book ended with a preview of what happen to the main characters 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts. Therefore, this is premise of the two-part play which was based on the original story of JK Rowling but has been adapted to play with the help of John Tiffany and Jack Thorne.
This play was premiered on 30th July 2016 and I managed to buy tickets for October 2016. As it is a two-part play there are two options for watching it, one is on consecutive nights and the other is on the same day. For the next two years, the only place available to see the play was in London and the tickets were sold out constantly. Therefore, this is a play that not everyone of my friends has not seen but everyone wants to see.
I saw the play on 6th and 7th October 2016 with my husband and oldest nephew, and we had an amazing time. We all enjoy it; however, my nephew had some problems with the talking speed and decided to read the book after the play to fully understand its content. The play is amazing as the magic of Harry Potter is real and you can see it live.
The play has since premiered in three different cities including London, New York, and Melbourne. The next three cities San Francisco, Hamburg and Toronto are due to premiered in 2020. With this in mind, hopefully the demand in London reduces to the point that we can book tickets with one to two months in advance instead of a year as before.
The only problem with plays is that they do not allow you to take any photographs so I only had the chance to take photographs during the intermission and at the end of every day by staying behind to do them. Although this is very annoying for the photographer in me, it is very good for the fan in me as like this we can all keep the secrets. Even though you can get to know the story, as there is a book with the story, seeing it live has a difference experience and therefore realising that the magic is real.
We had an amazing time and I would like to see it again, and hopefully I could get tickets without planning too much in advance, but we are still not there yet.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic
In 2017, as part of the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the publication of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone” a new exhibition was organised between JK Rowling, Bloomsbury (UK publisher of Harry Potter series) and the British Library. The exhibition was held at the British Library and opened on 20th October 2017.
The exhibition comprises of real books and artefacts from the British Library collection, of illustrations by Jim Kay (illustrator of the Harry Potter illustrated book series), and of drawing, book drafts and handwritten notes by JK Rowling.
The lectures that are depicting in this exhibition are: Potions and Alchemy, Herbology, Charms, Astronomy, Divination, Defence against the dark arts, and Care of Magical Creatures.
We attended the after-hours session on 14th November 2017. The exhibition was amazing as it depicted all the material researched by JK Rowling to write the Harry Potter series, the material she developed while writing the Harry Potter series and the Hogwarts Library books.
In conjunction with the exhibition a complementary book and documentary were created. The only problem as always, was that no photography was allowed. It is not that I need to document every single detail of my life, but I like to document every new thing that I see.
The Harry Potter Shops
Due to the popularity of the Harry Potter series, King’s Cross Station became a tourist destination. Although the book says King’s Cross Station as the departure station, the movies depict St Pancras Station as King’s Cross Station.
The first movie was filmed inside the old part of the station between platform 4 and 5. The old station only had 8 platforms, therefore, in order satisfy the curiosity of the tourist an embedded trolley was placed in the wall next to platform 8.
However, in 2012, King’s Cross Station underwent extensive renovation works and an expansion project. After many wondering tourists all over the station, they closed the access to the platforms and as part of the renovation and they moved the embedded trolley to the new extension, as this part is open to the public. There is a photo opportunity with the embedded trolley and for a small fee you could have professional photo and for a little extra a nice frame.
If you want to take the professional photo, you could do this between 9am and 9pm. However, be aware that this a very popular attraction of the shop and the queue could be a little taxing.
On 14th December 2012, next to the embedded trolley The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 ¾ opened. The shop was the first dedicated Harry Potter shop to open outside a themed visitor attraction, making this the best way to buy products from all the Harry Potter attractions including the play, books, products outside the Warner Brothers brand and 9 ¾ products. All products are available also from the website and can be delivered all around the world, be mindful that this may be a bit expensive.
Since then two other shops have opened one in Heathrow Terminal 5 and the other at Gatwick’s North Terminal.
Harry Potter Locations vs Real London Locations
The Harry Potter series was so extensive that a huge amount of exterior locations were needed to build these incredible art work. Many of these locations are London and these are:
Australia House (The Strand, London) as Gringott’s Bank,
Borough Market as Diagon Alley,
Claremont Square (Islington, London) as 12 Grimmauld Place,
Great Scotland Yard as public entrance into Ministry of Magic,
Harrow School as Professor Flitwick’s classroom,
King’s Cross Station (interior) as King’s Cross Station (interior),
Leadenhall Market as Diagon Alley & Leaky Cauldron,
London Zoo as Reptile House,
Millennium Bridge as bridge destroy in Half-Blood Prince,
Piccadilly Circus as London’s West End,
St Pancras railway station as King’s Cross exterior,
St Paul’s Cathedral as spiral staircase in Hogwarts,
Surbiton railway station as railway and café scene in Half-Blood Prince,
Westminster Hall as Hogwarts Great Hall ceiling.
Harry Potter has had so much impact in our lives that just visiting London and you can experience it yourself. There are many options and different budgets to have a little piece of Harry Potter memorabilia. The classification of the budget require is as follows:
Photographs on the exterior locations in London – free;
Shopping at any of The Harry Potter Shop – depending on your taste,
The Making of Harry Potter – £47 adult/ £37 child, however, it is recommended to book around 6 months in advance if you required a specific date and time, if not you could book it within the month of your trip if you are flexible with the time.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – the price is for both parts and ranges from £85 to £290 depending on the section. The best time to buy is during summer as the tickets for the new season are realised.
So, if you love Harry Potter come to London as you never know what is going to happen.
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