Highclere Castle's Christmas

In early December, a few friends and I drove back down to Highclere Castle, home of the fictitious Lord & Lady Grantham, who live in Downton Abbey along with their daughters and all the help. It's funny, the show is supposedly set near Ripon, a town less than 10 miles from where I currently live, but the house they chose to use for filming is a good 4+ hour drive south! 

Wheee!

We had tickets for their Christmas Market. The rooms open to the public (and used in the interior filming as well) were chock-a-block filled with vendors selling their upmarket candles, scarves, toiletries, notions, nicknacks, foodie items, and trinkets. It was really enjoyable seeing all of the market stalls, but it was a bit challenging for the gals who hadn't been their before, as they really were hoping to see the rooms and their furnishings. Oh, well! 

A wee walk around the castle

We got there early and had time to walk around the castle woods, and took plenty of pictures. Since I had been there once before, I only had my phone and took but a few shots. By the time the sky turned grey and ominous, we were allowed to head inside to peruse the market. 

We shopped while a local choir sang carols from the main sitting room, you know, this room: 

Downton Abbey Sitting Room
Not my photo! Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

No photos are allowed inside, so that's the best I could do. Once we were done with our shopping, we made our way back to our car for the 4+ hour drive home. 

Front of the castle

And a good time was had by all! 

OMG - It's Hogwarts!!! (Part Three)

The last part of the Harry Potter studio tour included outside set pieces, the special effects, Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts itself. Sit back and enjoy, HP nerds! 

The famous platform sign

It was a cold day in the London suburb of Watford, but that didn't deter us from going outside to see some more of the iconic set pieces from the movies. Such as the Hogwarts Express and the Knight Bus. 

All aboard!

The Hogwarts Express

The Knight Bus was truly massive. They actually took two de-commisioned double-decker buses, cut them apart before welding them back together again. Then painted the whole thing purple! It was awesome. 

The triple decker bus

The Knight Bus was massive

Unfortunately, everyone was lined up to take pictures of themselves on the doorstep of #10 Privet Drive, and I didn't want to wait. Therefore, a picture of some random couple and their stroller in front of the Dursley's home. 

One family was at the studio with their 8(ish) year old daughter who arrived wearing her own homemade wizard robe. She was adorable, posing in front of so many of these sets. Priceless! 

No. 10 Privet Drive

If you look closely at Godrick's Hollow (Harry Potter's parent's home), you can see where the roof is caved in from the attempted killing of baby Harry by Voldemort. 

Godrick's Hollow

I didn't get a very good picture of Hogwarts's bridge, but this featured prominently in the last movie when Nevill (the unsung hero and my favorite characters from the books) stares down the death eaters during Hogwart's Last Stand. 

Bridge to Hogwart's castle

And then we moved to the special effects portion of the tour and got to see a lot of the prosthetics and models used throughout the eight movies. 

Special effects models - Nearly Headless Nick!!

More special effects heads

Doesn't this mask (below) look realistic? Well, if goblins were real, that is...

A Gringott employee

The blown-up version of Aunt Marge was a bit of a hoot!

Harry's mean, blown-up Aunt Marge

But I think my favorite head by far was that of the mermaid (merman?). How simply terrifying! 

Mer-person head

Dying Voldemort was also super creepy. There was a button you could push and he'd wriggle around as if he was trying to get up. Gave me the heebie-jeebies! 

Lord Voldemort's not doing so well...

After the section on special effects, we moved into a fully realized Diagon Alley. The street of wizarding shops was hard to photograph as it was so big. I attempted a selfie, but either I am too old for selfies or my arm is too short as I always come out with eight chins or generally look rather dopey. This photo is no exception, but it's the best one I have that encompasses most of Diagon Alley. 

Diagon Alley, diagonally

The window in front of Fred & George's joke shop was pretty popular. Probably because of the life-size display promoting their puking pastilles :-) 

Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes

Puking Pastilles display

I personally liked the front of the owl shop, myself. 

Owl shop 

I was sad there wasn't a model of Dobby, but I did get to see some conceptual art of the sweet house elf. 

Conceptual art for Dobby, the house elf

And last, but not least, we made our way to the large model of Hogwarts. Again, it was all dusted in snow for the season, and the castle was lit with regular lights for a few minutes and then the lighting slowly shifted to cool, blue lights to make it look like night time. Visitors could walk all around the model, so I've included several pictures from different angles. 

Daytime Hogwarts

Nighttime Hogwarts

Twilight at Hogwarts

Nighttime at Hogwarts

Daybreak at Hogwarts

Daytime at Hogwarts

Nighttime at Hogwarts

Daytime at Hogwarts

Mischief Managed! 

Goodbye, Hogwarts! 

OMG - It's Hogwarts!!! (Part Two)

Continuing my post about all things Harry Potter from Leavesdon Studios just outside of London…

The Gryffindor common room was tiny, but just as plush as you'd imagine. Again, because we went during the holidays, everything was dressed for Christmas. 

Gryffindor common room

I loved that they had costumes and props all included in the sets, so you really got a feel for the movies. 

Gryffindor common room and costumes from HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Snape's potions classroom was one of the larger sets. Each bottle had aged, hand-drawn labels that actually said stuff like 'frogs tongue' and 'eye of snargle' etc. When you pushed a button, the cauldrons would stir themselves. 

Snape's potions classroom

Snape's potions classroom

The pendulum for Hogwart's clock tower is massive and still swings. I got a far-away shot to show it's size, relative to people, and an up close shot to show its detail. 

Hogwart's clock pendulum

Hogwarts clock pendulum

Dumbledore's office was another fairly large set, but it unfortunately only had three small entrances from which to see the set. The opening that was front and center to his office was at least five people deep, so I made my way to the left of the set and waited a few minutes to get up to the front in order to get a good view. 

Dumbledore's office

Around all the big sets they had lots of little displays of smaller props. I could have taken photos of all of the props, but I would have been there all day! This little display holds the deluminator (light putter-outer), Nevil's Remembrall, Hermione's time turner, a golden snitch, and Serius Black's Azkaban prisoner number, among other things. The photo below that shows a bevy of prop wands for extras. Can you imagine how cool that would have been to be an extra in a Harry Potter film?!

A bevy of props

A collection of wands

Hagrid's hut was a very small set. My guess is that it was made that way in order to make Hagrid appear to be the half-giant that he was.

Hagrid's hut

It's hard to tell in the photo below, but the fire was actually flickering. It was a neat special effect to showcase how they make fires for film, but you can't really see it very well in a photograph. 

A faux cauldron fire

The also had a lot of larger props, such as the door to the chamber of secrets. This was actually very large, at least six feet in diameter, and looked very sturdy.

The Chamber of Secrets door

Near where they had Hagrid's motor bike and several wands agains the green screen, they had a station where you could get yourself filmed, in a Hogwart's robe flying on a broom with the green screen background. After you film the footage, you can buy the short DVD, still photos, or both. I stood in the queue for at least five minutes, but the line wasn't moving very fast, I didn't know where my friends were, and my phone didn't have a signal, so I decided exit the queue. Now I wish I had stayed in line. Sigh… Well, if friends or family ever want to come visit and go on the Studio tour, you know where you'll find me! 

Hagrid/Serius' motorbike

The Hollow, AKA the weasley's home, was another large set. Even though it was large, it gave off the cramped, cozy feel that it had in the movies. Again, when you pushed a button, the dishes in the sink washed themselves and the knitting needles started knitting. 

The hollow, AKA Weasley's home

The hollow

And then you turn a corner and make your way to some of the dark wizard sets and props.

A bevy of skulls

The scene below was another one that attracted large crowds, so I took my photo from a far angle. You can still see Nagini rising up towards the Muggle Studies teacher (I forget her name), hanging over the table with the Malfoys and other dark wizards in attendance. It was really creepy! 

Nagini at Voldemort's table

Several demeanors flew overhead… 

Dementor! Dementor! 

They had several backdrops from within the Ministry of Magic all in a row. 

Ministry of Magic sets

Included in the Ministry of Magic sets, was the statue of muggles holding up / being squashed by a pillar. If you look in the photo above, you can see how large the statue is in real life. It was pretty impressive. 

Ministry of Magic's muggle-squashing statue

A different edge of same muggle-squashing statue

Another interesting factoid I learned from the audio tour was in regards to Delores Umbridge's office. It took a dedicated team of professional photographers one solid month of photo shoots to get the kitten photographs for Professor Umbridge's twee plates. The detail to which the crew went to do anything and everything to make these movies really impressed me! 

Professor Umbridge's office

I will finish this second post on the Harry Potter Studio Tours with this photo of a collection of death eater masks. How horrible! 

Death Eater masks

I have one more post to come, so stay tuned for photos of the Night Bus, Privet Drive, Dobby, Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts itself!