Warner Bros Studio Tour, London, The Making of Harry Potter.

Originally posted on the Medium blogging platform and reproduced here for my regular readers.

I’ve read all the Harry Potter books, as our daughter was a fan when a child, and I started by reading the first three to her. She read the rest herself and I read them, too. Last Xmas, she and her husband, and his mother, came to see us from their homes in Australia. She treated us to the Harry Potter Tour in Watford. We All spent the previous night in a hotel in Hemel Hempstead and arrived in the tour’s extensive car park around 09:00 the following morning.

It was a dull, damp day, but people were already queueing for tickets. Fortunately, ours were booked, so we went straight in. There’s a security check, and we were a little alarmed by signs declaring ‘No Cameras’, until the guy doing the check explained it meant only that cameras weren’t allowed to be used in the security area!

We moved from there into the main entry hall, a wide spatial area with a dragon hanging from the ceiling. The initial greeting includes a couple of sessions as a group, organised by friendly guides, and involving a short film followed by a brief explanatory presentation. Both useful introductions to the tour.

From there, we could continue as individuals or, for those wanting guidance, as members of a small group led by one of the professional guides. We decided on an individual tour.
The place is huge and the exhibits extensive and utterly fascinating. Because it was approaching Xmas, the staff had made the parts representing exteriors seasonal with snow. Very effective!

The first thing we found as we entered the exhibition was Harry’s cupboard under the stairs. Its complete authenticity hinted at what was to come. We next entered the Great Hall, decked with Xmas decorations and lined along both long walls with tables laden with seasonal foods that looked real enough to eat. From there, the tour revealed a series of linked but discrete scenes from the various films. I’ve labelled the following photographs to give readers an idea of what we saw. But these are just a sample, there are so many more things to see.

When I’d watched the films, I’d assumed much of the background to various scenes was CGI. But, although both CGI and Green Screen techniques were used, the many artifacts on display in backgrounds and settings were, in fact, actual objects. The attention to detail is astounding. The quality of the items is extraordinary. Some very intricate objects are shown. Every time I turned a corner, I was surprised by the sheer variety and superb quality of the exhibits.

Walking round the area, it’s very easy to revisit each of the films. And seeing the work, craftmanship and creativity that produced these movies is certainly worth the price of entry.
Toward the end of the interior display area, visitors have the option to step outside. It was drizzling for our stay, but we decided to risk the poor weather, and were very happy we did. You can see the Wooden Bridge (before it was blown up during the final attack), a seriously impressive model of the Burrow, the Dursley’s house on Privet drive (with interiors as shown in the pictures here), the Knight Bus (impressively tall!), and Professor Pomona Sprout’s greenhouse with its mandrakes.

Back inside, past one of the dining areas, you find Platform 9¾ and the real steam engine with its carriages (which you can board to take picture of yourself if you wish) that form the Hogwarts Express.

Moving further, you enter the ornate and imposing Gringotts Bank, complete with Chief Bank Teller, Ricbert, sitting sternly at his desk. The Lestrange Vault comes next, absolutely crammed with its treasures in numbers it’s hard to imagine.

There is then an area depicting the final battle at Hogwarts. From there you travel down Diagon Alley, past the many shops, all full of the items needed and/or desired by wizards.

And then on to the final display item, a superb large-scale model of Hogwarts itself, which you can walk right round. This, because it was winter, was also generously dressed in snow. You then arrive back at the way in/out, where there are shops selling all manner of memories of the world you’ve just visited.

The whole exhibit area is well equipped with toilet facilities, and there are a number of dining areas serving different types of food, including some of the specialities described in the books.

Our visit was shorter than we really wanted, we could’ve stayed all day, but, at 75, I no longer relish driving in the dark, and in December that comes early, so we left in time to return home in daylight.

The entire experience was fascinating, informative, instructive and, quite frankly, extremely impressive. Visitors are encouraged to take pictures and share them on social media (though there are a few areas where you can ‘experience’ certain wizarding activities and have your picture taken. In these small locations, photography is not allowed. It goes without saying I recommend it to all Potter fans. You’ll find a map of the location here. And further information relating to the studio here, and to the Potter world, here.