Wow. Just… wow. I don’t even know how to write about this one. If you like Harry Potter… come to London. Go on tour. I mean it. I try to minimize an overwhelming amount of pictures on this blog – I learned that in Antarctica (you can only have so many photos of penguins and icebergs!)… but… this is different. This is a whole amazing world. And… well… you’re about to get the most photos I’ve ever put in a blog post. So strap in. 🙂
The tour is about 45 minutes outside of London, but even the walk up to the studio begins with magic – these wands were part of an installation leading to St. Paul’s cathedral, which we saw the day prior, but they were relocated back to the studio and now welcome visitors to the Studio Tour.
And that’s… well, just the start of the magic that is to come.
Chess pieces from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Letters to Hogwarts adorn the walls
Celebrating 25 Years of Harry Potter
The entry hall for the Studio Tour
Our tour kicked off at 9AM (ish). We assumed four hours would be enough – boy were we wrong. There was just so much to see, so many things to experience and be reminded of the books, the movies, the story. It starts off with a video experience that explains the tour, then some old friends from the movies talk about their experience in the very same studio spaces where this museum/experience now reside… and then you’re released for a ‘self-guided’ part of the tour – a theme-by-theme step through the studio and different areas where you’re encouraged to collect stamps to your Harry Potter passport, find the Golden Snitch in various rooms, and look at every exhibit. Here’s some of that experience – enjoy!
After your video experience… you get to walk through the Great Doors – yep – right into the Great Hall.
And then you’re in the Great Hall
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You get to see models, props straight from the sets, hidden things like how they made/recorded the stairs moving, all of it. You even get to see costumes that the characters wore, all preserved and/or recreated, ensuring you can put the scene in context.
There’s collections of wands, The Gryffindor Common Room, a working, moving clock large clock from the movies, and yes… there’s even Dumbledore’s office… and the staircase that gets you there.
I’m not usually a ‘selfie’ person – but how often do you get to get Fawkes in the background?!?
Dumbledore’s Memories, stored in his office, ready for the Pensieve.
We weren’t nearly done at that point, either. The tour is so expansive it covers two sound stages, and that doesn’t even include the ‘outdoor’ area between them that is also full of exhibits nor the “Backlot Cafe” – where we had lunch (which I’ll get to eventually)
A Quidditch Set – with an interactive demonstration
Oh yeah, and there’s a green-screen set room area – where you can ride a broom, or be put into an Azkaban poster. You can even get a photo in front of the door to the Chamber of Secrets. I did, well… the lighting was terrible and my phone kinda ruined it but… I was there. I stood in front of it. I know where the chamber is now!
I think this was part of the tri-wizard cup base? I forget
You can step into Professor Trelawney’s Divination classroom, and even the Ministry of Magic entrance where Harry and Dumbledore first fought the returning Voldemort.
You can see the Defense Against the Dark Arts room – the staff will even teach you a few wand moves to cast spells and, if the crowd is interactive enough, you can defeat a Death Eater that interrupts the lesson.
You can stop by the Potions classroom, too.
And you can even see one of the Vanishing Cabinets – I’m a little afraid to guess where the other one might be right now…
All of this, all of these different scenes and props (and I promise – this blog post doesn’t even cover half of what you can see), leads up to even better things. Step outside, and into the Forbidden Forest…
AAaaaahhhh Spiders!
Just beyond the Forbidden Forest – Kings Cross Station.
Make it through the wall onto the train platform… and it’s lunchtime! Oh, and there’s Butterbeer – really good butterbeer actually! I could have had another one, even! We sat down for burgers, hot dogs, and French fries! There was also salads and other foods but… this seemed right.
Pretty tasty, plus you can keep the cup!
The Backlot Cafe is mostly the halfway point – though really I think it’s more like 70/30. Unfortunately… as we were finishing lunch we were also running out of time. We’d booked a tour where the driver was waiting for us, and we were at the four hour mark. He agreed to wait five hours… unbeknownst to us… as we continued our way on the tour and walked into the outside space.
The Hogwartz Fountain
It was about now that the agency that booked our travel called me – ‘hey’, they said, ‘you guys are taking longer than expected. The van driver can stay another hour – max – and then he has to go and we’d have to send another van. We don’t know how long that will take.’ – and we were, sadly, on the clock at that point – and there were a few areas remaining.
First, Gringotts bank. And this isn’t just a scene it’s all the makeup, effort, and movie magic that went into it. And THEN you step onto the actual set – no really – you walk through the bank lobby. It’s overwhelming. It was hard to take it all in, even as an adult.
Small models show the final plans for the destruction the dragon would cause – but here’s what it looked like when Harry first walked through the bank oh so many years ago…
We had to hurry through – you can probably tell from my photos being a bit blurry – but things just kept getting more impressive. After the bank… you get to see the dragon. I have a video, but I’ll save it here later if I add it at all – you should go and see it – it’s pretty fun and scared my nephew something fierce!
The dragon shows up here… in a room showing the ruins of the bank.
The last scene you get to see is Diagon Alley – in all its glory. Yes, all the stores you want to be there are there – wands, joke shops, all of it. The street is even cobblestone (well, sorta)
Now… if you’re me… you’re walking into the next room wondering… “how could they possibly top that? What could possibly be left?”
How about a model of Hogwartz – bigger than some apartments you’ve lived in – and so detailed your jaw keeps dropping as you walk around and around it.
Keep in mind… for purely scale reasons… those are *people* walking around the model. It’s huge, it’s mind-boggling. I am so glad I got to see it – that room alone was worth the price of admission – hands down. It was every young Harry Potter fan’s dream – even in miniature – Hogwartz exists. You can go see it. And it works, all the scenes, all the architecture. It lives, and it is wonderful.
We made it back before our van left, the driver wasn’t happy but he wasn’t mean or demeaning to us. He hustled us along and got us back to the hotel. After some time to recover… we talked to the concierge and he recommended a pub nearby for dinner. I got nachos and a local beer from “Beavertown” called “Neck Oil”. It was pretty good, we had a pretty normal dinner overall after all the magic of the day. And then it was time to head back and get some rest. We hadn’t walked as far as the first day, but this was our third day of a large amount of activity, car rides, scheduled activities. We were all looking forward to a calmer day the next day – especially after how amazing today was.
I, for one, fell asleep with the Harry Potter Movie Theme playing in my head, visions of going to see it in theaters years and years ago now when it debuted. It was a great day, an amazing tour. I can’t even put into words all the things I saw, feelings we felt. Perhaps I’ll revisit this post and some point and try to explain better but… just go. That’s my advice to you. If you loved the Harry Potter movies – go visit the studios. You won’t regret it!
More to come as we continue our Harry Potter trip – there’s still some strong tours ahead of us both in London and beyond!
