King’s Cross station (King’s Cross railway station)
There are several Harry Potter-related sites in and around King’s Cross train station. Inside are Platform 9¾ and a gift store, and next door is the neo-Gothic St. Pancras Station building.
- How to get there: King’s Cross St. Pancras subway station. Or buses: 17, 30, 46, 63, 73, 73, 91, 205, 214, 259, 390, 476.
- Opening hours: Monday — Friday: 05:00 — 01:40, Saturday: 05:00 — 01:11, Sunday: 05:30 — 01:36.
- Inspection time: 15 minutes to 1 hour not including photo queue time.
- Website.
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters (Platform Nine and Three-Quarters)
Joanne Rowling, in the Harry Potter series of books, invented the transition from the world of humans, Muggles, to the world of magic: students at Hogwarts School of Wizardry would pass through a brick wall at King’s Cross Station and onto Platform 9¾, where a magical train waited.
At King’s Cross station there is no platform between tracks 9 and 10. When the movie was filmed, they «built up» the width of the brickwork on the platform between tracks 3 and 4. To get to the filming location, you have to buy a train ticket and go through a turnstile.
A commemorative photo can be taken free of charge at another special location. How to find it: enter King’s Cross Station through the main entrance, turn left into the spacious modern concourse and walk inland along the right-hand side to the sign on the brick wall «Platform 9¾».
Under the sign is a Hogwarts student’s cart with a suitcase and an owl cage «embedded» in the bricks. Here you can take free photos of you as if you were entering Platform 9¾.
Photo Point is open during station hours, but a line gathers there during the day.
During business hours of the gift store next door, there is an employee on duty near the cart who offers a free Hogwarts faculty scarf and Harry Potter glasses for photo shoots. If you ask him, he’ll hold up the end of the scarf as if it’s fluttering as you run with the cart through the wall.
You should not ask an employee to take a picture of you, he will not take someone else’s camera or phone in his hands, not to be responsible for the safety of the equipment. Sometimes a professional photographer works next to the cart, shoots tourists with his camera and offers to buy a photo in the store. No one obliges you to buy: you can take a photo, look at the result, and refuse if you don’t like it.
The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9¾.
Next to the photo point there is a souvenir store with symbols of Gryffindor, Puffendui, Clawton or Slytherin: stationery, magnets, mugs, clothes, magic wands, soft toys, etc.
- Hours of operation are Monday — Saturday 8:00 am — 8:00 pm, Sunday 9:00 am — 8:00 pm.
- Website.
St. Pancras railway station (St. Pancras railway station)
To the left of King’s Cross Station stands a red neo-Gothic house with turrets — this is the St. Pancras Station building, the backdrop for Ron and Harry taking off in Mr. Weasley’s car in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The same building appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
London Zoo (London Zoo)
The London Zoo’s Reptile House was the filming location for an episode of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. At the zoo, Harry spoke to a snake for the first time and freed it from captivity.
- How to get there: it is written in detail on the website.
- Opening hours: 10:00 — 15:00 or until 18:00 depending on the time of year. You can check opening hours before your visit and book a ticket here or here.
- Tickets cost: £26 — £35, depending on date of visit.
- Inspection time: 1.5 to 3 hours.
- Special feature: you are not allowed into the zoo with large bags.
Regent’s Park.
London Zoo is small, occupying a small enclosed part of Regent’s Park. Therefore, a visit to the zoo can be combined with a walk in Regent’s Park itself to appreciate English landscape design, visit the rose garden in Queen Mary’s Gardens, relax in silence near a pond or fountain.
- Opening hours: open daily from 05:00, closes between 16:30 and 21:30 depending on the month of the year. Check the opening hours on the website.
- Admission is free.
- Inspection time: 1 — 2 hours.
- Map of the park.
Park officials ask that squirrels and birds not be fed, this disrupts wildlife habitat in the park:
- Excessively increases wildlife populations. Numerous squirrels, for example, damage and kill trees, and geese damage vegetation and pollute water in ponds.
- Harms the health of animals that visitors give «their» food — with salt, sugar, additives, fried, etc.
- Attracts rats, crows, and magpies that damage clutches and chicks of rare songbirds.
- Forcing animals to behave unnaturally in anticipation of handouts.
Harry Potter Museum (Warner Bros. Studio Tour London — The Making of Harry Potter)
The museum is located 20 miles northwest of London in Leavesden, a Warner Bros. studio. London Studio Tour Drive. The sets in which the Harry Potter movies were filmed are on display here: Hogwarts rooms, street fragments, Hagrid’s hut, etc. There is an exposition with character costumes and props, the Three Broomsticks pub, the Sweet Kingdom confectionery, the Boar’s Head inn and a souvenir store. Temporary exhibitions are regularly held in the pavilions.
- How to get there: at Euston train station, take the fast train to Watford Junction. Trains run every 10 minutes. Travel time is 20 minutes. At Watford Junction it is easy to find the stop of the double-decker bus that will take you to the studio.
- Hours of operation: during the summer, the first bus leaves at 8:15, the last bus leaves the studio at 22:00. The schedule is available on the website.
- Ticket price: adults £49.95, children under 15 £39.95, children under 4 free.
- Make your reservations here. Plan your trip in advance. If there are no tickets for the dates you want, check the website every day. Sometimes people return reservations.
- Ready-made tours with departure from London already include a ticket and transfers. Especially convenient for those who didn’t get a ticket. Options from 80 €.
- Inspection time: 3 — 6 hours.
A tour of the studio can be combined with a tour of Oxford, where most of the Hogwarts scenes were filmed — for example, the university dining hall served as the main hall.
The musical Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
The script of the musical does not repeat the stories from the Harry Potter books. Joanne Rowling wrote the play about the events that began after the epilogue of the seventh novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The musical has been running since 2016. The theater is located downtown.
- Ticket price: from £30.
- Ticket Purchase.
- Keep an eye on the London musicals schedule here.
- The theater’s website.
Leadenhall Market and the entrance to the Hole Cauldron.
An episode of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was filmed in Leadenhall Market. Harry and Hagrid crossed the alley and entered the Hole Cauldron pub. If you find Pavilion 42 on Bull’s Head Passage in the market, look out for the entrance to the optical store. It was through this door, only painted black, that Hagrid and Harry entered.
Millennium Bridge pedestrian bridge (Millennium Bridge)
In the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Death Eaters destroyed this bridge. The same bridge appears in the TV series Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch: it is where Irene Adler received a message from Holmes.
How to get there: landmark — St Paul’s Cathedral; St Paul 's metro station.
You can bypass St. Paul’s Cathedral from St. Paul’s Churchyard, enter Peter’s Hill pedestrian street perpendicular to St. Paul’s Churchyard, it leads to the Millennium Bridge.
Australia houseHigh Commission of Australia (Australia houseHigh Commission of Australia)
The Australian Embassy building appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when Hagrid takes Harry to Gringotts Bank. Harry visits this bank again in the seventh movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, along with Ron and Hermione. The building is lavishly decorated on the outside. You can’t get inside unless you have an invitation to the embassy.
How to get there: Buses: 15, 21, 89, 199, 341. Charing Cross Station.
I told you about Harry Potter-related places in London that are easily accessible by public transportation. When going for a walk, don’t forget a striped scarf of your favorite faculty — it will come in handy for photos. And to make it more fun and informative, you can walk with a professional guide: a 2.5-hour walk costs from 17 €.
