FREE Harry Potter Tour London
FREE Harry Potter Tour
Welcome witches, wizards, muggles, dementors and house-elves to the London school of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Wands at the ready, cauldrons on the boil, broomsticks in the air; its time to delve into the weird and wonderful world of Harry Potter in London…
Cecil Court (aka Diagon Alley)
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FREE
He grinned at Harry’s amazement. A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry’s age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. ‘Look,’ Harry heard one of them say, ‘the new Nimbus Two Thousand – fastest ever –’. There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels’ eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon…”
Cecil Court is lined with bizarre antiques stores and rare bookshops which gave J.k Rowling the inspiration for Diagon Alley. Flourish and Blotts, Gambol and Japes, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Madam Malkin’s and Olivander’s can all be found here by magical folk. Muggles will have to make do with Watkin Books and Sullivan Mark, although some of the bookshops here sell first editions of Harry Potter!
Opening Hours: 9am-6pm
Getting Here By Tube/Apparating
Leicester Square Station
Getting Here By Bus/Broomstick
Leicester Square Station: 24, 29, 176
Getting Here By Car/Flying Car
Q Park, Leicester Square,
Goodwin’s Court (aka Knockturn Alley)
Details
FREE
A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion, a blood-stained pack of cards and a staring glass eye. Evil-looking masks leered down from the walls, an assortment of human bones lay upon the counter and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling. Even worse, the dark, narrow street Harry could see through the dusty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley.”
Goodwin’s Court is the real-life site of Knockturn Alley, a dark and mysterious street where no muggle nor wizard should go…
Opening Hours: 24 hours, Every Day
Getting Here By Tube/Floo Powder
St John’s Wood Station
Getting Here By Bus/Broomstick
Abbey Road Bus Stop: 139, 189,
Getting Here By Car/Flying Car
Q Park, Kingsmill Terrace, St John’s Wood, London NW8 6AA
Kings Cross (aka Platform 9 3/4)
Excuse me Sir could you tell me how I might get to Platform 9 3/4?” “Platform 9 3/4, think you’re being funny do ya?”
Kings Cross is where students can catch the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 3/4. You can take your photo outside the famous 9 3/4 sign. Magical folk can push their trolly through the invisible barrier to get to The Hogwarts Express. There is a gift shop next to it where you can buy your wands, jumpers and Gryffindor scarfs (or any other last-minute things you might need for your potions class).
Whilst you’re there you can always hop on a train to Cambridge and go on one of our Cambridge Footprints Tours, which run 11am and 2pm daily. Platform 9 3/4 gets very busy at peak-times and on the weekends. Try to get there early in the morning…or buy a time-turner! If the barrier is closed, you can always fly to Hogwarts in the Flying Car or go on one of our Oxford Harry Potter tours!
Mon-Sat 8am-10pm, Sunday 9am-9pm
Getting Here By Tube/Floo Powder
Picadilly Circus (Picadilly and Bakerloo Line)
Getting Here By Car/Flying Car
Q Park, (0113 238 4200), 39-41 Whitcomb St, London WC2H 7DT
The Leadenhall Market (Aka The Leaky Cauldron)
Some people argue that the oldest pub in London is the White Hart on Drury Lane; others that it is the Angel on Bermondsey Wall, or the Lamb and Flag on Rose Street. All of these people are muggles, and all of them are wrong. The oldest pub in London, as any wizard will tell you, is the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road.”
The Leaky Cauldron maybe situated on Charing Cross Road in the wizarding world. However the scenes were filmed at The Leadenhall Market, a historic market in the City of London.
Mon-Sat 8am-10pm, Sunday 9am-9pm
Getting Here By Tube/Floo Powder
Monument (District and Circle Lines)
Getting Here By Bus/Broomstick
Fenchurch Street: 35, 47, 48, 149, 344
Getting Here By Car/Flying Car
NCP Car Park, Thames Exchange, Bell Wharf Lane, London EC4R 3TB
Australia House (Aka Gringotts Bank)
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.”
Gringotts Bank was filmed at Australia House but the exterior is modeled on The South African embassy!
Mon-Sat 8am-10pm, Sunday 9am-9pm
Getting Here By Tube/Floo Powder
Embankment (District and Circle Lines)
Getting Here By Bus/Broomstick
Royal Courts of Justice Stop K
Getting Here By Car/Flying Car
Q Park Covent Garden, 34-35 Bedfordbury, London WC2N 4DU