Blue Badge Tourist Guides in London are used to taking people around places that have been around for a while and are often asked, ’How old is this place?’ Hogwarts School may have existed for some time, but nothing in the Harry Potter series of books and films is over thirty-five years old. In this blog post, I’ll take a look at some of the places associated with the boy wizard.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

The Birth of Harry Potter

In 1990, the idea of Harry Potter came to J K Rowling on a train. He was the boy wizard who lived with the Dursley family and went off to Hogwarts boarding school at the age of eleven, where he became friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Grainger. Rowling’s train was delayed when Harry appeared to Rowling, and, as she did not have a pen and paper on her, she allowed her imagination to flow. Rowling was ambitious to be a writer and worked on the Harry Potter idea for several years before any books were published. She had been born in Gloucestershire and worked as a secretary for Amnesty International. Now, she is the world’s richest writer, a CBE, and a Companion of Honour, who has sold over 600 million books and is a noted philanthropist. As Rowling approaches her sixtieth birthday, she is the world’s richest writer. Although she denies being a billionaire, she is worth north of £800 million.

Her parents also met on a train that left King’s Cross station for Scotland, where they worked for the Royal Navy. They married when both were nineteen and Joanne, their first child, was born in 1965 when they were twenty. She was followed by another girl, Dianna. Joanne’s earliest memory is of her sister’s birth. Rowling’s mother, however, died in 1990 at the age of forty-five, the year that Harry was created. Although they were close, she had never told her mother about the stories she was creating and has since said that her biggest regret is that her mother never lived to see her success as a writer. Her father remarried his secretary soon after, and there followed a long period of estrangement between the writer and him.

After being rejected twelve times, Rowling found an agent at Christopher Little who persuaded Bloomsbury to publish the first Harry Potter book in 1997. As they were hoping to sell the book to boys as well as girls, Bloomsbury persuaded her to use it under a ‘gender neutral’ name. She agreed to J K Rowling, the ‘K’ coming from her paternal grandmother Kathleen, as Rowling has no middle name. The first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was renamed for the American market as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a move she agreed to as American readers might be put off by the word ‘philosopher’.

When the first Potter book was published, Rowling was a poor single mother living in what she described as a ‘mouse-infested’ flat in Edinburgh, where she had gone to be near her sister after the collapse of her first marriage to the Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes. This marriage produced a daughter Jessica, named after Jessica Mitford, one of Rowling’s heroines and major influences. She also sometimes goes by the name Joanne Murray, after her second husband, Neil Murray, a Scottish doctor whom she married in 2001. They have had a son and daughter since then. She owns houses in Edinburgh, Perthshire and London.

Rowling has long finished writing the seven Harry Potter books, and they have all been turned into films. The final story has been split into two parts. She has also written books related to the Harry Potter story as well as two children’s books. Rowling has continued writing under the name Robert Galbraith for the Cormoran Strike novels and is also the author of The Casual Vacancy, both of which have been adapted for television. She is now working on a futuristic novel, which will be completed after the tenth and final Strike book. Although she has had success in her post-Harry Potter career, it is the boy wizard who made her name.

British Library: Harry Potter A History of Magic exhibition. Photo Credit: © Tony Antoniou via British Library.

Harry Potter Books and films

The Harry Potter books (in order) are:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The final book in the series was turned into two films, so there are seven books and eight films in all. The early films were made largely on location using places such as Lacock Abbey, Gloucester and Durham Cathedrals and Alnwick Castle for the Quidditch games. Locations in London include Australia House, which stood in for Gringott’s Bank, and Leadenhall Market, which was turned into Diagon Alley (a pun on diagonally). London Zoo and Piccadilly Circus were also used as locations in the Potter films. Christchurch College in Oxford is also a favourite destination of Harry Potter fans. The college dining hall was recreated in a slightly larger format in the studio so that it would have four tables, one for each house – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The entrance to the hall was also used in the first film.

As all Harry Potter fans know, the train journey to Hogwarts leaves from Platform nine and three quarters at King’s Cross. This platform does not, of course, exist in real life but Network Rail has put up a sign at King’s Cross, which people can use for photographs if they are ready for a wait that can last an hour or two. There is no charge for this photograph although there is a gift shop next to it which sells all sort of Harry Potter memorabilia. The shop used to sell a VIP lanyard for those who wish to jump the queue but this practice has been discontinued.

In the first Harry Potter film, Goathland station in Yorkshire doubled as Hogsmeade at Gringotts. Later Potter films were made using locations in Northern Scotland. A good place to see the Hogwarts Railway Line is at the Glenfinnan viaduct.

Harry Potter: Platform 9 3/4 at London’s Kings Cross Station. Photo Credit: © Edwin Lerner.

The World of Harry Potter Studio Tour

Since it opened on 31 March 2012, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter has welcomed over twenty million visitors. People who wish to travel with the studio’s preferred partner, Golden Tours, can buy a ticket which has transport included. The average time spent on the Studio Tour is between three and four hours but people can spend as much time as they wish. They have the chance to explore the behind-the-scenes secrets of the Harry Potter film series and buy souvenirs of their visit while enjoying Harry Potter style refreshments such as butterbeer and chocolate frogs. Advance booking is essential and tickets can be booked at wbstudiotour.co.uk or at goldentours.com. To get to the Leavesden studio on your own, take a train from Euston to Watford Junction and then a bus.

Harry Potter statue and tours in London

Many guides will have conducted Harry Potter tours and walks or inserted pieces of Potter trivia into their standard London tours. A statue was unveiled in 2020 at Leicester Square showing Daniel Radcliffe showing him flying his Nimbus 2000 broom while playing quidditch.

The Harry Potter Play

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is set nineteen years in the future when Harry is Head of Magical Law Enforcement. The play follows his relationship with his son Albus and is in two parts. It was written by Jack Thorne from an idea by Rowling and has been seen by over eleven million people around the world since it opened at the Palace Theatre in 2016. There have also been productions in New York, Hamburg and Tokyo as well as a touring version.

J K Rowling’s religious and political opinions

Rowling identifies as a Christian and is a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Some Christians, however, have objected to the use of cathedrals such as Durham and Gloucester in the making of the early films. She is a noted philanthropist and has donated to many causes she supports. However, she has attracted controversy because of her belief that only those born as women should provide counselling at rape crisis centres, one of which she funds. Actor Daniel Radcliffe, who portrayed Harry Potter, is one who disagrees with her on this issue and she has been described as ‘transphobic’, which she vehemently denies.

The Harry Potter Ford Anglia

Although it was not thought of as the greatest car produced in Britain, the Ford Anglia has now developed a certain retro charm. It is featured in the Harry Potter books and films simply because J K Rowling remembers an Anglia being the first car she and her childhood friend Sean Harris rode in. In the films (but not in real life) the Anglia can fly and it is a major attraction at the World of Harry Potter and several Potter themed shops, including one at Wizards and Wonders opposite Charing Cross. Ford ceased production of the Anglia in 1967 when it cost around £500, although a good second hand Anglia can now fetch £10 – £15,000.

The value of a wizard

How much is Harry Potter worth to British tourism? That is an impossible question to answer as many visit these shores for various reasons, one of is an interest in the wizard stories. In 2017, however, it was calculated that Harry Potter was worth four billion pounds to the UK.

Harry Potter: Warners Bros Studios – Scale model of Hogwarts. Photo Credit: ©Waldo Miguez/Pixabay.

Note: Thanks to Georgia at the press office, The World of Harry Potter, for information.