I'm a big Harry Potter fan. I started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the first year the book came out. I have all the physical books of the Harry Potter series - they are the very few physical books I've kept after I started streamlining my book collection.
You could just imagine that visiting the Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studios was one of my top itinerary during my trip to London. I didn't have Kensington Palace or Buckingham Palace in my itinerary but I had Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studios. Haha...
Sharing with you my Harry Potter Studio Tours adventure. But if you want to go straight to the travel tips, I have compiled them at the end of the post. :)
The HP tour experience starts with a bus ride as the location of the studios is out of the way.
The place where the studios are used to be a local airfield factory. During World War 2, the plant produced fighter places for the Ministry of Defense and later on, it was used as a production center for Rolls-Royce aircraft engines.
As soon as you enter the lobby of the studios, you could already feel the excitement as there are already HP props on display. At the time when we went there in October, there was even a display of some costumes from "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" but since the movie hasn't been shown yet at that time, I couldn't relate. Haha... But I heard parts of Fantastic Beasts were shot in the studios too so I am sure in the coming years, new sections would be added to include Fantastic Beasts.
Anyway, while lining up at the entrance, the first set that you'll see is Harry's first bedroom - The Cupboard under the Stairs - at the Dursley's home at #4 Privet Drive.
Harry's first bedroom at Privet Drive
Like any other tour, it starts with a short video hosted by HP leading characters Harry, Ron & Hermione. The video would make you appreciate the movies better as it gives recognition to the creative and hardworking HP crew who worked on the HP movies for 10 years. Yes, the studio was home to HP actors and crew for 10 years. Imagine, the kid actors spent most of their childhood years in that studio.
After the introductory video, the tour officially starts with the opening of a set of big doors that lead to the Great Hall -
For HP fans, this is such a special place because it's been used in all movies. It felt so surreal to be walking in the hall with all the familiar things we saw in the movies. Check out the table settings -
Each house has a section in the Great Hall which features the students' distinct look and uniforms.
At the end of the Hall is the faculty of Hogwarts led by Professors McGonagall, Dumbledore and Snape.
McGonagall, Dumbledore and Snape
See the owl podium of Dumbledore above? It's made from real gold and wax!
One of the most popular props in the Great Hall is none other than The Sorting Hat.
The Sorting Hat
The time allocation in the Great Hall is limited since each batch has to vacate this area to give way to the next batch of visitors. This is also one area where you can never go back to so just make sure to maximize exploring the hall while you're there. :)
After the Great Hall, the next section houses a lot of popular sets, props and costumes from all HP movies. If you availed the digital audio guide, it's at this point when you need to start using it. However, in my case, once I saw all the familiar sets, I had sensory overload! I didn't know where to look, what to read and I wanted to take photos of everything! Haha.... In short, since I was so excited to see all the stuff, I opted not to use the digital audio guide at this point thinking it would just slow me down.
To understand what kind of sensory overload I'm talking about, check these out -
Costumes from the Yule Ball. Harry & Cho Chang's in front, and
Hermione and Viktor Krum's at the back.
Yule Ball Ice Sculpture
The Chocolate Feast!
Leaky Cauldron
Inside the Leaky Cauldron
This hallway of the Leaky Cauldron was created using an optical illusion called forced perspective - a technique to make things appear smaller, larger, closer or farther than it actually is. In the case of the hallway in Leaky Cauldron, it makes the hallway appear to be more than 50 ft long on screen. But the actual set isn't big or long at all. A person couldn't even fit in it. :)
Close up shot of the Leaky Cauldron hallway
Hogwarts' Gate
The ceiling of the Great Hall
Remember there are floating candles in the Great Hall? The production crew initially tried real candles on wire but I think the flames burned the wire and some candles fell so they decided to just digitally add the floating candles on screen.
Griffyndor Boys' Dormitory
The bed on the right is Harry Potter's bed. His trunk is marked HP right under his bed.
The beds were built during the first HP film when the actors were still kids. In the latter movies when the actors have grown taller, they had to curl up the beds to prevent their feet from dangling over the edge of the beds. Haha...
This frame contains the wands of the most popular and powerful wizards in Harry Potter books.
Wizards' wands
More Wizards' wands
Do you know how many wands they intricately created for all the HP films? More than 3,000 wands! Whoa....
Beautifully-designed wizard wands
Gryffindor Common Room
This is also one of the most memorable places in HP films where Harry, Ron and Hermione congregated and did a lot of planning.
Fireplace at the Griffyndor Common Room
The Clock Tower at Hogwarts Castle
The Griffin in the staircase that leads to the Headmaster's Office
Dumbledore's office
At this point of the tour, I thought of using the digital audio guide and I'm so glad I did. Apparently, the digital audio guide contains a lot of interesting trivia which you wouldn't get from reading the studio signages. It also helps you direct your attention to the most important things in the room. So instead of getting overwhelmed with so many things to look at, with the audio guide, you know where to focus on. In hindsight, I should have started using the digital audio guide early on! Haha....
Close up shot of Dumbledore's office
The Memory Cabinet
Remember this is where Dumbledore keeps vials of people's memories? It contains more than 800 tiny, hand-labelled vials.
Dumbledore's books
According to the audio guide, hundreds of the books in Dumbledore's office are actually British phonebooks covered in leather. Also, the guide said, somewhere in the bookshelves, you'll find the sword of Gryffindor. I actually couldn't find it. Haha...
Photos of past headmasters in Dumbledore's office
Nope, the photos weren't moving like in the movies. How do they make them move? By using green screen (green frames below).
The guidebook mentions that after all the films were made, a total of 5 giant warehouses were filled with props including 5,000 pieces of furniture, 12,000 hand-made books and 40,000 Weasley Wizard products. Wow!
Here are the most popular props from the movies -
TriWizard Cup and the Golden Egg
Philosopher's Stone
The Golden Snitch
Remembrall
This orb gets filled with red smoke when the holder has forgotten something. Remember that scene when Neville got one? And he said something like - The only problem is I couldn't remember what I've forgotten. Haha...
Time Turner
If you've already read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, you know that this is the most important magical device there. :)
The Goblet of Fire
You know how big is this goblet? It's 5 feet tall carved from a single trunk of an Elm tree.
The Potions Classroom
Here's the Potions' classroom - there are about 500 bottles with hand-crafted labels that line up its walls.
Professor Snape at the Potions' Classroom
One of the most remarkable characters in HP is Snape that's why a lot of HP fans got sad when Alan Rickman passed away. I couldn't imagine anyone else perfect for the role of Snape other than Alan Rickman.
The animal actors who played Crookshanks
Yes, there are multiple animal actors per role. Even Hedwig was played by 4 different owls - each owl with a different skill.
Hagrid's Hut
Hogwarts Door
The door looks huge in the movie but this is just it. The power of special effects. Haha... So this door was tightly shut in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban to protect Hogwarts from the threat of Sirius Black. But though the door is not real size, it doesn't mean it was easy to build. Each bolt, latch and handle were all mechanized by the Special Effects Department. Wow.
The Chamber of Secrets Door
We all thought that the snakes slithering on the door were all computer-generated. Apparently, this door was hand-built by the Special Effects Department and each snake slithers in a slotted track that was powered by a motor at the back of the door. Wow.
Gringotts Vault Door
Green screen for scenes flying on broomsticks
There's a section within the studios where you can actually have your photo taken flying on a broomstick and yes, you'll put on a costume - take your pick if you want to dress up as Gryffindor, Slytherin, etc. They use a green screen as a background and when the photo is generated, you're magically flying in the sky. Queues can be pretty long in this section so just decide if you think it's a good use of your time and money. But my priority is to explore the studios and I'm not also that good when it comes to posing for photos so I didn't have a hard time deciding. Haha...
Moody's trunk
I had to google to refresh my memory on this. So this is a magical trunk that has 7 locks and each one opens to an assortment of items. The 7th lock is where Barty Crouch Jr. imprisoned the real Moody. If you noticed the photo above, there is a mirror on top of the trunk which shows the reflection on what's inside the trunk. There's the image of Moody inside the 7th trunk.
Close up shot of imprisoned Moody inside the 7th trunk
Broomsticks used for Quidditch
There are also pocket of activities inside the studios like learning wand choreography.
One of the more interesting setups in the studio is The Burrow - the home of the Weasleys. You'll see the self-operating objects in the movies like these (in hindsight, I should have taken videos so you could see that they really move! haha...)
Self-washing frying pan
Self-operating iron
Self-knitting needles
The Horcruxes: the diary, ring, locket, cup, Nagini and the diadem
Nagini at the Malfoy Mansion during the Death Eaters' Meeting
Ministry of Magic's colorful fireplaces
Dolores Umbridge's Ministry of Magic Office
Dolores Umbridge's pink dresses
Take a break and check your height :)
Hermione's trunk and school stuff
Platform 9 3/4. You may pose for a photo.
Hogwarts Express
You can go inside the Hogwarts express. There is a compartment that represents each movie - the props used by the lead characters while onboard the Hogwarts Express are on the seats.
Inside the Hogwarts Express
Here's one - just can't remember from which movie is it.
Inside the Hogwarts Express
Goodies sold at the Hogwarts Express
Here are more props used in the movies. Imagine, they created all of these in such great and realistic details -
Costumes worn in the last scene of the last HP movie
when Hermione & Ron, Harry & Ginny were already adults.
In between studio tours, you could take a break at the cafeteria where you can order a glass of Butter Beer. How does it taste? It takes like butter candy in liquid form.
Butterbeer
From the cafeteria, the next would be outdoor sets.
The Knight Bus
The Knight Bus is a 22 feet, triple-decker bus. It was created from pieces of 3 vintage double-decker London buses.
#4 Privet Drive
Hogwarts Bridge
Inside the Hogwarts bridge
From the outdoor section, you'll go back inside again for the last leg of the tour. Here's what's in store -
Masks and Prosthetics
Dobby
Dobby
Aragog. Did you know it took 100 technicians to operate this thing?
The basilisk
Gringotts
Diagon Alley
Ollivander's Wand Shop
Do you know how many wands does the Ollivander's Wand Shop contain? 17,000 individually-labelled wand boxes!
Check out how much detail they've put into each store.
There's also a section which shows the various works of the Art Department where they had super detailed sketches of each structure and from these sketches, they built prototypes, and from the prototypes, they built the real thing. So here's the prototype of the Hogwarts Castle -
Hogwarts Castle prototype
And here's the final work -
Hogwarts Castle
Hogwarts Castle is just a scale model which is made to look big on screen.
This section is actually the last room before the exit. When you're in this section, I recommend that you stay for a few minutes for 2 reasons: (1) marvel at the details of the castle and (2) see how the castle looks like at different times of the day with the use of lights. Check these out -
Hogwarts Castle at sunset
Hogwarts Castle at night
Hogwarts Castle at dawn
When you zoom in on the details, the castle does look big. Amazing details -
By the time we were at the Hogwarts Castle section, the studio was already announcing that they were about to close. We just finished right on time. Whew!
BTW, the photos I shared here are just some of the photos I took. I have several hundreds more! Haha.... I am not kidding when I said it was sensory overload. Haha...
Anyway, I compiled some useful tips below if you're planning to visit the Harry Potter Studios in London.
1. Purchase tickets way in advance. We got tickets online a week before our trip and sadly, all the morning slots were taken - even on weekdays. The earliest time slot available was 3:30pm and the closing time for that day was 7:30p.m. Four hours isn't just enough. BTW, closing time varies depending on the day and the season so just double check before purchasing a ticket. The official website is at https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/.
2. If you're an HP fan, get the Complete Tour Package at €48.95. This package includes a studio ticket, a digital audio guide and a paperback souvenir guidebook - the ultimate experience if you're an HP fan. Haha... Make sure that you use the digital audio guide because other than interesting trivia and behind-the-scene stories, it would help you focus on the most important items to look at in the sets.
3. The Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios is outside the city. Know the directions on how to get to the Watford Junction station, the estimated travel time and the Harry Potter bus schedule in advance so you won't be late for your scheduled time slot. You may use the tool in their website at
4. The bus ticket is a separate fee. Make sure to keep your ticket since the bus driver will ask you present it on the return trip.
5. Lastly, eat a big meal before going to the tour. I can't remember if there's real food at the cafeteria other than butter beer. But if you've limited time like us, there's really not much time for a snack break. Plus it's hard to absorb information when you're hungry. Haha...
P.S. October - November was HP overload for me. I tried doing an HP movie marathon before the studio tour to refresh my memory though I never finished all of the movies. I read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I watched Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them. After all of these HP-related activities, one night, I dreamt I was talking to a big snake in Parseltongue. Wahaha...
