As the world’s eyes descend on London for the Olympics, here at Door2Tour we decided to have a look at another new attraction, visited by our guest blogger Katie Shea, which has recently opened its doors to the public. We are sure that both children and adults alike will enjoy stepping into the world of the Harry Potter films for the Warner Bros Studio Tour, beware though, this blog does contain spoilers! (And it just so happens that today is J.K Rowling and Harry Potter’s birthdays – it isn’t a coincidence I assure you!)
Having loved the Harry Potter books since reading the first one when I was just seven years old, words could not express my excitement upon hearing the film studios in which every film was shot, were due to be opened to the public.
With the excuse of taking my young cousin who is also Harry Potter mad, I sat on the Warner Bros website anxiously awaiting for the tickets to go on sale. After several website crashes I finally managed to secure tickets for a studio tour just days after it opened.
After months of waiting the day of my tour finally arrived. The Great Hall is the first set you walk through, the details the set designers went to is astonishing, much of the detail isn’t even seen in the films, but once they point it out you can’t help but notice.
Having been given an introduction about the set and the tour, visitors are allowed to wander through at their own pace; it normally takes approximately three hours. Sets for the Weasley’s House (The Burrow), Gryffindor Common Room, the Boys Dormitory in Gryffindor Tower and the Potions Dungeon are featured. As well as famous props such as the Mirror of Erised, The Gates to Hogwarts Castle and even the original letters used in the first film to inform Harry of his place at Hogwarts. It is clear how many painstaking hours the designers took to build and perfect every little detail throughout the eight films.
Ironically, the set of the Boys dormitory was made during the first film, and to allow for continuity they did not enlarge
the set as the actors grew. They therefore soon became too large to fit into the beds and their feet ended up hanging out the bottom during scenes filmed in the latter films.
After exploring the exhibits inside it was time to venture outside, a real size Knight Bus stands three storeys tall. Also a Kodak moment is to be had in front of Number 4 Privet Drive. It is here that you can buy your very first ‘Butterbeer’, it is hard to even begin to describe the taste, think root beer with a caramel flavoured froth. It’s rather addictive nonetheless, but definitely does not suit everyone’s taste buds, “It’s weird” said my cousin.
The tour continues back inside where you can see the full scale set of Diagon Alley, it is astonishing. The lighting is set on a cycle of day and night, so be sure to loiter around to get the full effect… Again, Kodak moments are definitely necessary here!
Possibly the most breath-taking part of the tour is at the end, when you can walk around a 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts Castle. The intricate details are amazing, the windows flicker symbolising fires alight in the castle. Again, this is on a day and night setting, which allows you to appreciate the full effect of the lighting and detail that went into building it.
Finally, what would any attraction be if you didn’t finish in the gift shop. Only this is no ordinary gift shop, you can buy wands, robes, broomsticks, chocolate frogs in addition to the normal must have souvenirs: mugs, key rings, t-shirts, magnets – you name it, they have thought of it! However, I would definitely recommend taking all your pennies from your money box, trust me, you will want to buy everything and it’s not the cheapest!
All in all, it was a great day had by everybody, my cousin immediately wanted to go home and start a Harry Potter film marathon, however when I reminded him that it takes 20 hours to watch all eight films he didn’t seem quite so enthusiastic!