"Harry Potter and the Filming Locations"

This past weekend my friend Anneliese and I took the train into London for the day. It was my first time riding a train! It was so beautiful riding the train through the English countryside. Once we arrived at Paddington Station we met up with my friends Anna and Colton who are in the UK this summer as well. They are spending a couple of weeks here for a wedding. It was great to see friends from home and have new experiences together. The majority of our day was spent on a Harry Potter Tour! Anyone that knows me knows that I am a huge HP fan. People that don't know me have probably gathered that as well, what with my Hogwarts Alumni sweatshirt and a Facebook profile that's had HP cover photos for two years running. What follows is a photo diary of my Harry Potter excursions. Parts of the movies were filmed all over the UK, including right here at Oxford! Prior to the London trip my friend Megan and I spent time locating several Harry Potter scenes here on campus at Oxford. It is important to note that since there were several different directors throughout the Harry Potter series multiple locations were used to form the sets over the years. For example there are several locations of the Leaky Cauldron that have been used throughout the movies. I will include all Harry Potter related photos taken so far in this post, those from both London and Oxford. Enjoy!

Oxford Filming Locations

This is Divinity School located in the Central Bodleian Library facility. It took over 60 years to build and was the first building built specifically by the University instead of one of the colleges. It was built in 1488. It was the infirmary in many of the Harry Potter Movies. It can be seen very well in the Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets

This is the door that Harry and Hermione burst through during the Prisoner of Azakaban after they complete their time turner adventure. They are coming back into the Infirmary to see Ron.

This same room is also where Professor McGonagall taught Ron to dance in the Goblet of Fire.

There is so such thing as a plain, simple door here at Oxford.

The next set of photos are of the Duke Humphrey's Library, located directly above the Divinity School in the Central Bodleian Library. It is named after a collection of manuscripts that was donated by Duke Humphrey, a son of King Henry IV, in 1447. Over 250 manuscripts were donated, many of them a translation of classical works from Greek to Latin. Today only three of the original books remain in the library. However, this room contains some of the oldest books in the world. There are some books that date to the early 1600s!

The Duke Humphrey's Library is the Hogwarts Library. Due to the age of the books in the room, photography is not allowed. So I collected some photos from the internet for you to see. It was truly a magical place. I would always do my homework if I could be in a place this beautiful to study. No wonder Hermione always had such good grades. 

Just a casual Thursday afternoon studying Transfiguration.

Current students of Oxford can actually come and study in this room!
This makes UNCG's prison of a library seem even worse if that's possible.

No electricity or computers at Hogwarts. Wizards don't need such frivolous technology. #muggleprobs

Magical.

I've included some pictures of my good friends Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the library so you can see it in action.

Discussing Polyjuice Potion during the Chamber of Secrets.

London Filming Locations

Diagon Alley!

Diagon Alley!

The magical bookstore on Diagon Alley. It is also a magical bookstore in real life. It is described as an esoteric book shop. They sell books on reading tarot cards, the union of mind, body, and spirit, and other occult things.

That blue plaque states that Mozart lived above the book shop in the same building! I wonder if he ever knew of the wizards in his neighborhood.

Heading down toward the visitor entrance to the Ministry of Magic.

The far building in the picture serves as the visitors entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Harry and Mr. Weasley walk down this same street when they are heading to Harry's court trial in the Order of the Phoenix.

This is the actual spot where the visitor entrance is located. In the movie there is no door on the building and there is an abandoned red telephone booth which serves as the entrance. Visitors enter the phone booth and dial 62442 (MAGIC) on the keypad to be transported down into the Ministry of Magic.

In the books the Ministry of Magic was located directly beneath the muggle Ministry of Defense. In real life it is located directly below the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The guy in the picture was our tour guide, Tom. He is Australian. He was a fantastic guide! Funny, entertaining and very knowledgable! 

During filming Daniel Radcliffe attended this school for boys for a little while. However, he withdrew because he got picked on and made fun of quite a bit. Its reported that they yelled at him "WHERE'S YOUR BROOMSTICK NOW?!" HAHAHA. I'm dying. That's hilarious.

This isn't a great picture, but this leading down to the Millennium Bridge. This is the bridge that the Death Eaters destroy and the beginning of the Half Blood Prince

This is a view of the Globe Theatre from the Millennium Bridge. I interested this picture because you can see the railing that is so predominant in the view of the bridge from the movies. 

This strange shaped building is the building that the muggles are sitting in during that same opening scene of the Half Blood Prince. It shows them looking out the window into the bad weather with concerned and frightened looks on their faces. This is the building they were sitting in.

This is a pathway that leads into a great covered outdoor market in London known for its many different cultural foods. This stretch of alleyway was the inspiration for Knockturn Alley. You can see how dark, dim, and ominous it is compared to the alleyway they used for Diagon Alley. 

Knockturn Alley

This is where they filmed the Leaky Cauldron in the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Knight Bus zooms down the street and slams to a stop in front of the Leaky Cauldron. When it stops The Knight Bus hits the back of a BMW. The BMW is parked directly outside of this restaurant.

This modern restaurant called Shuck is where the Leaky Cauldron was during that same scene. They changed the outside to look more magical. Clearly. But it is in this area where that hunchbacked barkeep that offers Harry the pea soup comes out of  the bar to collect Harry and his belongings. "Right smart bird ya got there. Arrived just five minutes before yourself."

Another filming location of Diagon Alley.

The Leaky Cauldron!! This is the most famous version of the Leaky Cauldron. It is this door frame that they used as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron in the Sorcerer's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets. During the movies the exterior of the bar was painted a dark brown instead of the modern bright blue. 

See the intricate window directly above the door? You can see that exact same window in the Leaky Cauldron door scenes in the Sorcerer's Stone.

Leaky Cauldron in all its glory

This area called Leadenhal Market is where they filmed Harry and Hagrid walking just after Harry has finished shopping, right before headed to Platform 9 and 3/4 for the first time in the Sorcerer's Stone. In that scene they used a 6'7" body double of Hagrid with additional height and width added to make Hagrid seem so much larger than little Harry.

Harry and Hagrid walked down these streets

Isn't is wonderful? They were setting up an event in my honor since I was going to be in the area. "Everyone come and admire this smart, funny, beautiful, Harry Potter obsessed American woman!"

This is St. Panceras Station. It is the train station they used for the exterior of King's Cross Station in the films. I am taking this picture from King's Cross Station just across the street. King's Cross has a much more modern look to it, so they chose to use the more visually please train station across the street. JK Rowling chose to use King's Cross Station as the location for Platform 9 and 3/4 because it was where her parents met. They were both taking a train to Scotland. 

St. Panceras Station again. Most notably this can be recognized for the scene where Harry and Ron fly off in Mr. Weasley's flying Ford Angelina. If you watch the movie you can very clearly see the building as they get in the car and take off. 

St. Panceras Station

There you have it! All the Harry Potter locations I've seen so far! I saw Platform 9 and 3/4 from a distance at King's Cross Station. They have a cart set up that's half way in the wall where you can have your picture taken pretending like you are heading off to Hogwarts. But the line (or queue as they call it here in the UK) was a mile long and I was starving, so I passed up the opportunity. I may be heading back to London next weekend if I finish all my school work, so perhaps I could take a visit to King's Cross then.

I have procrastinated just about all I can. I am currently in the Social Sciences Library with seven other girls from my program. Time to hit the books and quit dreaming of escaping to Hogwarts.

XOXO, Oxford Girl