(Written by Devri June 20)
We had a lazy morning. Brian and I were struggling with colds and the kids were struggling with trip fatigue. Exploring parts of London just didn’t seem important. So, we slept in, showered, had breakfast, and watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Part 3 (Rachel had been making her way through the series). And then, when it was time, we headed out the door, walked to the King’s Cross train station, ate lunch, and then walked to Euston Station to catch our train to Watford Junction. From their, we took a complimentary shuttle to the Warner Brothers’ Harry Potter Studio Tour.
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| What architecture nerds find in Euston Station |
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| Shuttle from Watford Junction |
What to say about the tour? The most telling thing is that they said to expect to spend 3 hours going through the two sound stages and backlot, and we were there for over 5 hours. There were so many cool things to see! We got to see so many of the set pieces, and it was incredible!
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| Harry's giant wand |
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| Giant Chess piece in front of the Studio |
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| Knight in front of the Warner Bros Studio |
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| Dragon in the lobby |
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| The Dursley's living room (Mr. Dursley has his eyes closed in the bottom right photo) |
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| The Cupboard under the stairs |
One of the first sets we went into was the Great Hall. They said that they initially used real candles on the ceiling, but then switched to electrical at some point. They also initially used real food, but then the heat and the long takes made the food gross, so they switched to prop food as well. We got to see a little pyrotechnics display for when Mad-Eye Moody arrived at the castle.
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| Hogwarts Castle |
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| The Ravenclaw Diadem and Gray Lady's dress |
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| The Great Hall of Hogwarts |
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| The Great Hall |
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| Do you recognize these costumes at the Teacher's table in the Great Hall |
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| Great Hall |
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| Great Hall |
Next, we passed some displays for the behind the scenes things, including hair and make-up, wigs, costuming, and the production crew. We got to see the Gryffindoor tower rooms, the Gryfindoor common room, the Slytherin Common Room from Chamber of Secrets, the moving staircase, Dumbledoor’s Office, the Potion’s Classroom used in Half Blood Prince, and some of the sets from the Ministry of magic, including the horrible muggle sculpture, toilet entrances, and offices. We got to learn about the special effects and green screen things, which included taking a “ride” on a broomstick during the TriWizard Tournament. We could have purchased our videos, but we decided not to, but it was fun seeing them all the same.
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| Rita Skeeter, Madame Maxine, and Hermione's costumes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
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| Gryfindor Boy's Dormitory |
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| Character's wands |
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| The Mirror of Erised |
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| The Fat Lady--if only we knew the password |
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| Guess we didn't need it: Gryfindor Common Room |
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| Clock Tower |
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| Dumbledore's Office Entrance |
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| Dumbledore's Office |
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| The Pensieve |
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| Potion's Classroom in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince |
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| Various Movie Props |
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| Hagrid's Hut |
They were having a TriWizard Cup Special thing going on at the Studios, so there was a lot of emphasis on things from Goblet of Fire. We got to see dancers from Beuxbatins and Durmstrang, which was pretty fun.
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| Live actors from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute |
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| The Door to the Chamber of Secrets |
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| Where they stowed Mad-Eye Moody |
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| Playing around with forced perspective |
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| Playing around with forced perspective |
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| Learning some spells |
We also got to walk through a remake of the Forbidden Forest with the giant spiders. Yuck! I knew they were fake, but still clung to Michael’s arm like a scaredy cat.
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| The Forbidden Forest |
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| Gilderoy Lockhart |
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| Tom Riddle's Grave |
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| Hippogriff |
We saw some 9 3/4s platforms signs, and the Hogwart’s Express stationed in King’s Cross.
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| The Fake King's Cross Station |
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| King's Cross Station |
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| The Hogwarts Express |
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| Inside the Hogwart's Express |
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| From Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince |
We got dinner in the Backlot Cafe, and when we went to order, they asked if we wanted some free ice cream, so we got a free cone and a free cup of butter beer ice cream in addition to dinner.
After dinner, we explored the backlot, first starting with a special effects demonstration where we got to see one of the dragons from Goblet of Fire. After the show, we saw the miniature of the Burrow, the Privet Drive houses, the Hogwart’s bridge, Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse (where we got to pull out a mandrake), a fountain, Hagrid’s Motorbike, and the Weesley’s car.
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| The Burrow |
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| Inside the Dursley's house when Aunt Marge blows up |
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| The Knight Bus |
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| Repotting Mandrakes |
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| Hagrid/Sirius's Motorcycle |
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| The Hogwart's Bridge |
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| Inside the Hogwart's Bridge |
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| Bathilda Bagshot as possessed by Nagini |
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| Hogwart's Courtyard Fountain |
After the backlot, we entered the second sound stage to see the creatures department. We saw how they created all the faces for the goblins, Hagrid’s animatronic head, mermaids, trolls, giants, and all the other magical creature things. Then, we got to see the set for Gringotts, both the intact one and the destroyed one. Finally, we took a walk down Diagon Alley, and ended with a large model of the Hogwart’s Castle.
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| Inferi |
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| Creature Shop |
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| Bowing to the Hippogriff |
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| Gringotts Bank |
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| Gringotts Vault Door |
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| Bellatrix's Vault |
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| So many cups! |
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| Bellatrix's Vault |
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| Gringotts Bank after it was destroyed by the dragon |
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| The dragon emerging from the deep vaults |
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| The dragon destroying Gringotts |
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| Gringotts Diagon Alley Entrance |
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| Large Scale Hogwarts model |
The whole thing was really, really cool. We probably could have spent even more time there and blown all our money in the super cool gift shop, but we were tired, it was getting late, and we still had to take a train back to London.
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| Harry Potter's Wand |
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| The Elder Wand |
The bus to the train station and train back to London were pretty uneventful, and then we took a taxi from Euston Station back to our place. We all went right to bed as we got home much later than anticipated, and we were so grateful for our lazy morning! We wouldn’t have made it otherwise.
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