Last weekend I was
lucky enough to visit the Harry Potter studios in London. I have been absolutely
dying to go here since it opened so it was all very exciting to actually be
there! The tour itself is very much self-guided. You can just walk through the
sets at your own pace and the tour guides are simply there on hand if you want
to ask any questions. I really enjoyed the fact that you could wander around and
enjoy the sets by yourself so you didn’t have to rush and that way you could wait until
people moved along so it was a bit quieter! The start of the tour was a little
crowded but once left to your own devices it soon quietened down.
The very first set you see is the iconic
cupboard under the stairs which you get to see whilst waiting in the queue to
actually get into the studios. It was a very cool set to see but I was
surprised by how small it was!
The flying car and Ron and Harry’s Hogwarts luggage are also located in the lobby
area before you enter, as well as giant pictures of the cast which are hung up
around the room. It all gets you very much in the mood to see the rest of the
studios. Once you get through the queue, you are taken into a room where you
watch a short video about the phenomenon that is Harry Potter, followed by a
video featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson who tell you all
about the studios they called home for 10 years. Then the tour finally begins as you are taken
into the Great Hall. I have to say this was one of my favourite parts of the
tour and it is certainly the grandest of all the sets you get to see. I think just
seeing the doors into the Hall and walking through it was just the coolest
thing (being a mad Harry Potter fan) and it was quite surreal to be stood
inside it!
Following the great hall you wander through to
the next room which has loads of bits and bobs from the movie to squeal over
including Hagrid’s Hut, The Ministry of Magic and the door to the
Chamber of Secrets. My personal favourites in this bit were the Gryffindor
Common Room, The Burrow, The Potions Classroom and Dumbledore’s
Office. Much like the Cupboard under the Stairs, some of these sets were a lot
smaller than I expected but the detail that has gone into them is amazing.
When I visited it was the weekend of their Summer Spells
event so you could have a go at casting spells, as well as dressing up in the
Hogwarts robes and pretending to fly around on a broomstick if you fancied! There
was also a very cool section which showcased some of the specially designed
props including The Daily Prophet, The Marauder’s Map and
Harry’s Hogwarts Letter. Seeing these things
up close makes you realise how much detail and effort went into these movies – they were exceptionally cool to see! Once
you’ve navigated your way through the J stage, you proceed
into a backlot which is home to some well-known sets including Privet Drive and
The Potter’s Cottage. These two sets were also amongst my
favourites and I did get a tad over excited when I saw Privet Drive! 
This
area also features The Knight Bus, the chess board, Hagrid’s
motorbike, the flying car and the Riddles’ grave and you can buy food
and drinks here including Butterbeer. I had to try some since I was there and
to my surprise I did actually like it! It’s a little bit like an ice
cream float so it’s very sweet and not to everyone’s
taste…my friend hated it! Once
you’ve finished in this area, you move onto the K stage
(the stages are appropriately named J and K). This section features a lot of
the models that were made including the Goblin’s faces, Dobby and
Kreacher, Aragog, Buckbeak and the Dementors.
The amount of detail that has
gone into creating all of these things is amazing. I don’t think
you really appreciate how much work went into these films until you see
everything that was done to try and make them as magical as the books.
Following
this, you enter Diagon Alley which I think this was probably my favourite part
of the tour. Walking down that cobbled street with all of the shops, including Olivanders,
Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and Flourish &
Blotts, was amazing and it does make you feel like you’re
in the film! The shops windows are decorated with props so they do look very
real when you walk by them. Seeing editions of ‘Magical Me’ by
Gilderoy Lockhart in the window of Flourish & Blotts and boxes of wands in
Olivanders was pretty cool I have to say.
The final part of the tour is a look at some of the scale
models of iconic sets, including The Burrow and Hagrid’s Hut, followed by a look at the actual model of Hogwarts’s Castle that they used in the films. The model of the
castle is huge and it is so impressive when you see it. Apparently it took 8
weeks just to move it to its pride of place in the studios so goodness knows
how long it took to build. The castle really is amazing and it’s certainly a memorable set to end the tour with. Obviously
not all of the sets are there for you to see. You are told by Daniel Radcliffe
before you enter the studios - in a video clip, of course. He’s not there to greet people all the time unfortunately! - that
a lot of the sets were destroyed straight after filming. But if they did still
exist, I would love to have seen Moaning Murtle’s bathroom,
The Ministry of Magic courtroom, The Hogwarts Express and the Slytherin Common
Room. Following your tour you can then explore the mammoth gift shop. The shop
has all kinds of cool gifts but they are extremely overpriced – a chocolate frog was £8.95 – so if you’re wanting
something as a token of your studio experience, maybe stick to the cheaper
priced items like the postcards, fridge magnets and key rings. 
If you love Harry Potter then I guarantee you will absolutely
love the tour. Walking through some of the most iconic sets and seeing all of
the props is fantastic and it certainly rekindled my love of the movies. It is
most definitely worth seeing and I would recommend it to any Potter fan. You’ll have a magical time!
Tour Highlights: Diagon Alley, Privet Drive, The Great Hall
and Hogwarts Castle
