A Glimpse into the World of Harry Potter - Part 2

Returning to the World of Harry Potter. Following the first part of the Tour you emerge into The Backlot - during film production this area was used as home to some of the exterior shots.

The Backlot

The Riddle Family Gravestone

The Potter's Cottage - Godric Hollow

The Knight Bus

Hogwart's Bridge

Privet Drive

The Chess Pieces

No tour would be complete without a glass of "Butterbeer"! Emily paid the highest price and got to keep the mug! It was very refreshing with a taste of honey.

The Tour then returned indoors to the Creature's Shop

Fawkes

Mandrake

Aragog

Diagon Alley - for me this was the best part of the Tour

The Tour ends with a superb model of Hogwart's which has an incredible amount of detail. Its hard to get an idea of scale from the photos but its fairly large! The model was made for the first film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Nearby it appeared another film was being made as you could just see the tips of what looked like pirate ships - well hidden away from view by embankments and fencing!

Despite being quite expensive it was a great family day out and a wonderful place for children of all ages who have read the books and seen the films. It took us about 4 hours to walk round the Tour but you could easily spend a lot longer as there is so much to see and take in. Despite timed tickets there was still a wait (of about 35 minutes) before you started the Tour and even though it was a Friday in term-time it was packed with people. Having said that I would certainly go again!

Next post - back to Moths!

A Glimpse into the World of Harry Potter - Part 1

We had a family day out last Friday at Warner Bros Studio Tour, London, "The Making of Harry Potter".

Sorry rather a lot of photos and so I've decided to split it into two posts especially as Blogger is playing up tonight and its taken me 90 minutes just to upload the first lot of photos - they keep disappearing, re-appearing and going out of order! The post is really meant for any of you that are Harry Potter fans as its a slight departure from some of my usual posts. Also, if you are planning to visit yourselves you may prefer not to read the posts in case it spoils any surprises!!

Leavesden aerodrome and factory closed in 1994 and the site was transformed into a new home for England's film production from 1995. The studio was home to Harry Potter films for 10 years.

Waiting to enter the Great Hall

Unfortunately not too many pictures of this set. Regular readers will know I have problems with flash photography and the camera just hates low light. I eventually discovered on this tour that by increasing flash intensity to 3 and using the auto, rather than aperture setting, together with the flash improved the photos somewhat but not until after I had left the Great Hall :(

The Yule Ball

Gryffindor Common Room

Griffin Stairwell which led to Dumbledore's Office

Dumbledore's Office

The Memory Cabinet

The Potions Classroom where Professor Snape and later Professor Slughorn took potions classes

The Vault Cart

Chamber of Secret's Door

Hagrid's Hut. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts and later care of Magical Creatures Teacher

Model for Hagrid's Hut

The Ministry of Magic

The Towers

Umbridge's Ministry of Magic Office

The Burrow - the Weasley's Home

A magic scarf that knits itself :) Just the thing for CT, Lou Mary, Me and anyone else who is knitting/crocheting scarves et al :)

A Death Eater

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Coming up in Part 2 (if I can get photos to upload!!) - The Backlot (an outdoor set), The Creature's Shop, Diagon Alley (superb) and a huge model of Hogwarts Castle