There are not many people in the world that haven’t heard of Harry Potter, its books and especially its movies. Sure, they might be quite a few, in remote or very poor locations around the world, but I’m sure there’s way more people that DO know who Harry Potter is.
I know there’s quite a few locations that were filmed for the Harry Potter movies, besides filming being done in studios. One of these locations was in King’s Cross station, in central London. There aren’t any signs on the station that say ‘This is where parts of Harry Potter were filmed’, or something like that. The only Harry Potter reference anywhere in the station is the actual shop selling Harry Potter stuff.
Next to it there’s a wall with half a luggage trolley embedded in it, recreating those scenes when the students and their parents go through the wall – on platform 9 ¾ – to reach the other train platform to take them to Hogwarts. People can queue up and wait for their moment to hold on to the trolley, while wearing a Hogwarts scarf, a magic wand and looking back. There’s always dozens and sometimes hundreds of people queuing up and/or taking pictures, specially at the weekends, when it’s most busy.
Other locations in central London are the beautiful Leadenhall Market (1st photo below), where you can find the exact door that was used for the Leaky Cauldron shop, on Diagon Alley (2nd photo below). When I went there, you could see that some people (tourists) where walking around looking for something that they couldn’t find, and their relieved and happy faces when they found this location. Taking pictures is a must!
Another central location is Cecil Court, that I think was also used to film parts of the Diagon Alley, if I’m not mistaken. If this is not the case, please let me know in the comments below. Cecil Court is located in Leicester Square, very close to Underground station. In the Court you’ll find great bookshops (one of them “metaphysical” called Watkins Books) and other antique shops that are well worth exploring.
There are a lot more locations in London where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed, and I’ll plan another day to go and find them, take pictures of them and then write about them right here on The Eleven 11, so if you want to wait up for that post, go ahead and subscribe so you can get a notification through an e-mail of whenever this happens.
#theeleven11
* Photos taken with a Xiaomi Mi Max mobile phone
