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

Leavesden Studios, home of Harry Potter

One of my original England bucket list items (things I want to see while I live here) finally got ticked off the list in November when I went down to London for a few days with friends. The main reason for the London trip was to visit Leavesden Studios, the soundstage where all 8 of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. A portion of Leavesden Studios has been turned into a permanent tour, featuring all of the sets, props, costumes, and special effects used in the movie.

Flying Ford Anglia

Harry's cupboard bedroom under the stairs

I knew when we saw both the flying car that took Ron and Harry to Hogwarts in book 2 and the Dursley's makeshift bedroom for Harry - both before we had even entered the ticketed area - I was in the right place.

Decoration in Hogwart's great hall

The studio sells out far in advance, so every day is basically chock-a-block with visitors. They only let in about 50 people at a time, so they do a pretty good job of spreading out the crowds. Once our group of 50 (or so) watched a brief introductory tour, we were lead into the great hall and giving a 10-minure tour of all things Hogwarts. 

Great hall tables, decorated for Christmas

Ravenclaw costumes and crest

We went when the whole studio was dressed for Christmas, so the tables and sets were all decorated for the holiday. It was really lovely, and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit, especially because we visited only a few days before Thanksgiving. 

The second table in the great hall

Flaming Christmas pudding in the great hall

The great hall is one of the only sets that they left in place. Therefore, the stone floor, walls, tables, etc. are exactly where they were when they filmed the movies. All of the other sets were either moved or broken down, moved, and re-built to accommodate the tour. 

Slytherin crest

Gryffindor crest

I was really excited to see the faculty side of the great hall and the amazing costumes for many of the Hogwarts teachers.

Dumbledore and McGonnagall's costumes

Flitwick, Trelawney, Mad-Eye, McGonnagall, and Dumbledore

We were allowed to roam around the great hall for about 10 minutes after the short tour, and the photo below was taken once everyone (save but a few) had been escorted on to the next phase of the tour. I love this photo of the great hall - you can really see how it looked when they filmed. Just pretend the white "stay back" ropes are gone and it's perfect! 

Another view of the great hall

The rest of the tour is a pace-it-yourself tour. They said one person breezed through in a half-hour, while another took 13 hours (wow!) to see everything. I think we took an additional three hours (including a quick lunch, complete with butter beer!) to see everything, which is probably about average. 

Model used in HP and the Goblet of Fire

Costumes for the tri-wizard ball

The lighting inside the studio was rather dark and I had a hard time getting good shots of everything. I like to photograph manually (adjusting everything on my DSL camera), but it was challenging and I didn't want to spend all of my time taking photos and not enjoying the experience. I eventually turned my camera to the 'point and shoot' mode, and the photos are good enough. I spent my time absorbing the exhibit instead of spending my time monkeying with the camera settings. 

Flaming cauldron

More costumes from HP and the Goblet of Fire - I want Fleur's hat! 

One of the best sections was the Gryffindor tower. Seeing the Gryffindor rooms was really cool. It surprising how small everything is in real life, though. 

Statue to Dumbledore's office

Gryffindor's bedroom

Harry Potter's four-poster bed

I can't for the life of me remember where they used this wonky tunnel in the films. Was it somewhere in Diagon Alley? The Leaky Cauldron, maybe? Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

Wonky tunnel

The audio tour explained that wands were prized possessions during filming. Each actor/actress had to sign out their wand before filming a scene and had to sign it back in as soon as the scene was done. No wand was ever lost or stolen during the filming of all 8 movies. However, Daniel Radcliffe went through over 400 wands because he used them as drumsticks whenever the camera wasn't rolling! 

There was an entire display of wands on the tour. I tried to photograph them as a whole, but the glass in front of the wands cast a huge reflection, so you get a photo of two super-dark wizard wands. 

Dark wizards' wands

We got to see a handful of special effects while we were visiting. One was the flaming pudding in the great hall (near top of post), another was the goblet of fire, on fire! The goblet even shot out a piece of paper with Harry Potter's name on it, but I wasn't the lucky visitor who caught and got to keep said piece of paper. Oh, well! 

The goblet of fire… on fire!!!

I took so many photos, that I have two more blog posts full of them. 

Stay tuned for parts two and three, coming soon!