Day 30 - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
The Making of Harry Potter
NOTE: If you are not a Harry Potter fan, have not read the books or seen the movies, you can skip this blog post because it is all about Harry Potter 🪄
July 21, 2023: Our kids grew up reading the Harry Potter books, and as the movies came out they became a family event. Even now, we play re-watch the movies and play the Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle game. We all know which house we belong to and have (I’m a Ravenclaw) and we can quote lines. It’s our thing. So when we decided to come to London, we knew we had to make a trip to Warner Brother’s Studio in Watford Junction to discover the filmmaking magic…and it was magical!
We have been to both of the Universal Studio Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter in Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Floridas. They are amazing and we love the rides, but what is different about this tour is that this was a tour of the actual sets, costumes and artifacts from the movies. We were able to walk through the Great Hall that served as the backdrop for some of the most iconic scenes of the films including the Yule Ball and the Battle of Hogwarts. It was first built for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2000 and was used for all of the subsequent films. There is the set of the Hidden Forest which was filmed both on location and in the studio. It includes Aragog’s lair which continued to grow throughout the film series. Aragog is animatronic and it would take over 15 people to operate it, four of which would be behind the scenes acting as puppeteers for the back four legs.
Most of the scenes that take place on Platform 9 3/4 were filmed at King’s Cross Station in London (where we are catching our train to Edinburgh), however, for Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows 2, a set was created at the studio complete with track and train. We were able to see the actual Hogwarts Express train as well as Diagon Alley where all the scenes were filmed starting with the very first film where you see Harry get his wand and his owl Hedwig. The Diagon Alley set changed constantly throughout the film series. It is home to Ollivander’s Wand shop which had 17,000 individually labeled wand boxes during filming as well as Gringott’s Bank. There we saw Bellatrix Lestrange’s bank vault which was a major scene in the movie and learned how they did that scene. The props were actually made out of foam rubber. Additionally, they made over 210,000 coins for that scene.
The 4 Pivot Drive set was refurbished and had just reopened recently so we were able to see where the scenes with the Dursley’s were filmed. It shows the scene with thousands of Hogwarts letters for Harry. That scene was achieved using a mail sorting machine that blew the letters into the house. It also shows the scene where Marge Dursley blows up. They had to make several sizes of her costume and the actress wore a fat suit to get the effect. Nearby the Pivot Drive set was Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse complete with the mandrakes you could pull up and hear the screaming. Professor Sprouts costume has so many amazing details you would never have noticed in the movie.
We also saw the Gryffindor Common Room which was the location of many scenes during the film series and Dumbledore’s actual office with the animatronic Fawkes. According to our guide, it was so realistic looking that Richard Harris actually thought it was real. Another incredible set was the detailed model of Hogwarts. It was used for the exterior scenes in the movie. If you add up all of the time of the 86 artists and crew members who worked on it, it took an incredible 74 years to build. It measures 50 feet across and is a 1:24 scale model.
So many incredible sets and so many more things we learned that I have not listed here. We were so glad we booked the VIP tour because we got to see behind the scenes and had an expert guide who told us facts we would not have learned on a normal tour. You will have to check out the Photos and Videos section to see all of that we saw, but I have to say that it was a highlight of the trip for me! We had to take a train to Watford Junction for the tour and then a shuttle bus to the studio. It takes about an hour in total.
In addition to the Harry Potter tour, Jimm got his traditional full English breakfast and we took a train to Bang Bang Oriental Hall for dinner where we found bao buns, soup dumplings and some great Pad Thai!
Jimm’s rating for today: ***** (I totally agree!)