Harry Potter Tour

Harry Potter

Harry Potter fever is with us again after the release of the 3rd film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This film and the previous Potters were shot on location entirely in England which was the wish of J.K. Rowling, the author.

Choose from the super Harry Potter sites that we have to offer below. You can integrate parts of our London tours with the London-based Harry Potter destinations such as London Zoo and King’s Cross Station etc.

London Zoo

It was in the Reptile House of London Zoo that Harry first realised there was something different about himself when he held a conversation with a snake in the first film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Opened in 1828 as the World’s first scientific zoo, London Zoo housed collections of exotic animals that were studied by leading scientists of the time. It wasn’t until 1847 that public entry was permitted and today you can see a vast array of animals including reptiles (which will be most appealing to the Potter fan), mammals, birds including owls, fish and invertebrates. You can even adopt an animal to help out conservation and upkeep. The zoo is located at the north-east corner of the famous Regent’s Park.

London King’s Cross Station

King's Cross Station

Have a photograph taken standing beneath the mystical Platform 9 3/4 sign, but please don’t try and run through the wall unless you are a witch or a wizard!. Trains depart King’s Cross destined for the north-east of England and Scotland (where Hogwart’s is thought to be), but it’s actually Platform 4 with its glass canopied roof that represents the magical platform where the Hogwart’s Express departs.

Other London Harry Potter Sites

The River Thames, Big Ben and Parliament Square are seen when Harry first arrived in London and you will spot a number of red London double-decker buses which feature in the latest film The Prisoner of Azkaban although you would be hard pushed to spot the Knight Bus speeding through the streets. You can also visit Leadenhall Market which Hagrid and Harry walked through.

Harry Potter

Australia House was the setting for Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The exhibition hall on the ground floor was used and the set took over a week to build. Situated in the Strand, Australia House is home to the Australian High Commission and the building forms a striking triangle decorated in the beaux-arts style of elaborate décor, statues and carving. Please note. You will only be able to view/photograph the outside of the building as access can not be gained to where filming took place except for one open day per year.

Oxford

Oxford’s historical colleges and schools were the setting for many of the scenes of Hogwart’s School including the library, Hogwart’s hospital wing, the dining hall and the enigmatic staircase where the pupils are welcomed by Professor McGonagall. Christ Church is one of the oldest of the 39 colleges at historical Oxford and houses Great Tom, a bell that is rung 101 times every night at five past nine. This signifies the number of students plus one that formed part of the original college in 1525. The college hall was used for the dining scenes in Harry Potter and the Bodleian Library and Divinity School for the library and hospital scenes. Construction of the library dates back to the 1300s and Divinity School has impressive stained-glass windows.

Places of Interest near Oxford

Part’s of our other tours fit in well here with visits to Blenheim Palace, Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, The Cotswolds and Warwick Castle possible.

Alnwick Castle - Northumberland

Alnwick Castle (pronounced Annick) is the setting for the Quidditch games, THE game of the Wizarding world (as Potterphiles know, Quidditch is the fast playing game on broomsticks with the ultimate goal of the Seeker, Harry’s position, catching the Golden Snitch). The castle is the ancestral home of the Duke of Northumberland set amid a charming stone-built village near to the border with Scotland. Sited inside a stone wall or curtain with inner yards, the castle was used extensively for Harry Potter scenes in all three films. The snow scene was filmed at the entrance close to the drawbridge and the garden entrance was used for shots with Hagrid. Watch out for the Golden Snitch!

The castle has been owned by the Duke’s family for 700 years and there are examples of fine furniture and works of art by Caneletto, Van Dyck and Titian. There are beautiful gardens, walks, restaurant, museum and shop.

Gloucester Cathedral

A place of worship for over 1300 years, the cathedral is heralded for its famous cloister with fan vaulting. The cathedral was founded in 1089 and the cloister and immediate area were used for filming the Gryffindor house secret entrance where pupils are required to say the password ‘Caput Draconis’ to enter. The Chapter House was also used for the dormitory room. The ghost scenes, Moaning Myrtle, talking paintings and the eerie writing on the wall scene were also filmed here.

The real pupils of King’s School, Gloucester walk the cloister every day to chapel and some were chosen to appear as extras and can be seen leaving the cloisters to enter the cloister garden. The memorable troll scene was also shot here.

Durham Cathedral

Building of the cathedral began in 1093 as a shrine to St. Cuthbert and claims to fame (apart from Harry Potter) are the vaulted nave (earlist documented vaulting in Europe) and the first known use of the flying buttress, a contstruction technique that allowed craftsmen to build bigger, stronger, taller and better cathedrals.

Some film was shot in areas that are currently off limits such as the triforium, but the Chapter House was used for some of the Hogwarts shots and the cloister was filmed for some of the snow scenes.

Lacock Abbey – West Country

The Abbey was founded in 1232 and has spectacular medieval cloisters, chapter house and sacristy. Extensive filming was undertaken here including the Mrs. Norris cat scenes filmed in the cloisters; Professor Snape’s laboratory in the sacristy; the nunnery for many of the scenes from The Sorcerer’s Stone, the nun’s warming room which was transformed in to a classroom and the chapter house where Harry first saw his mother and father in the Mirror of Erised.

There is a museum, garden and shop and the sleepy stone built village of Lacock is also worth a visit for a pub lunch and site seeing.

Goathland Station - North Yorkshire

The Hogwarts Express is the magical steam train that runs between Platform 9 3/4 and the Hogsmead village where Hogwarts is situated. Hogsmead Station is in actual fact Goathland Station in the Esk Valley, served by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) located inside a beautiful national park in northeast England. Goathland is a beautiful little station which has not changed much since the day it opened in 1865. The NYMR has been running for over a century and you can still ride an original classic steam or diesel locomotive today along the 18 mile track. Trains run from Pickering to Grosmont via Levisham, Newton Dale and Goathland.

The Hogwarts Express is actually locomotive 5972, Olton Hall, owned by the West Coast Railway Company. The train does not do regular trips but it will be on display at Britain's National Railway Museum in York later this year.

Abbot's House is the site where monks settled in about 1100, and it marks the first records of Goathland. Henry 1 allowed the monks the privilege of cutting timber from his Forest of Pickering for their buildings and fences on condition that they should provide food and a bed for any poor travellers who passed their door.

Picket Post Close - Berkshire

Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging (where Harry lived with the despicable Dursleys) is in actual fact located at number 12 Picket Post Close, Martins Heron, in Bracknell, Berkshire. Only the exterior of the house was used for filming and ever since the house was chosen, the old owner has had to put up with hordes of young Potter fans on her doorstep.