Prior vacation posts:
Day 1 (London): https://georgegmoore.com/2025/10/18/vacation-day-one-london/
Day 2 (London-Rock ‘n Roll Tour): https://georgegmoore.com/2025/10/26/vacation-day-two-london-rock-n-roll-tour/
Today’s the big day—Kel and I headed to Leavesden for The Making of Harry Potter, Warner Bros. Studios, London. I took around 160 photos and will post about 60, which is too many for one post. So I’ll break the day into two posts.
We traveled from the Pimlico underground station to the Euston underground station and pick up the Overland Railways train to Watford Junction station.
We picked up a shuttle bus dedicated to the studios. We sat on the upper deck. Yes, the ceiling is low, and I had to duck down.
Even before entering, the venue was setup for fans, including wizarding chess pieces, giant wands, and wanted posts.
Since this was a once in lifetime trip, we decided to get deluxe tickets, which added several perks to the experience, including a tour guide (Our group was six people.), line cuts, and a free breakfast. I got a breakfast English muffin. Like all the European meals I had, this one was huge. I already had a quarter in the picture below. Plus, the sandwich had bacon, streaky bacon, cheese, sausage, and a egg over easy. As best as I can tell, British bacon is like Canadian bacon, and streaky bacon is like our regular bacon.
Beside the dining area, hanging from the ceiling was a huge reproduction of the Marauder’s Map.
Instead of presenting the tour as we experienced it, I’ll jump around a bit, which makes writing two posts easier.
I should note that various songs from the soundtracks played all day long—we were here from 10 a.m. until after 5 p.m. There wasn’t a break, not even in the bathrooms.
At the beginning of the Half-Blood Prince, Prof. Dumbledore stands before a perfume advertisement pictured below in an underground station.
They brought the Dursley’s house from Privet Drive. The line of people to go inside was long, so we skipped it.
A scale model of the Weasley’s house used for filming was displayed.
The filming set for the inside of the Weasley house was interesting in the detail. Notice the plates on the kitchen table—none of them match. Our tour guide, Paolo said the set designers figured that as each kid came along, they’d buy another place setting. He also said the house’s additions were added for the same reason.
Of course, I had to get a picture of the Weasley family clock. Included is Mrs. Weasley’s crocheting.
The Knight Bus was on display. London is filled with double-decker buses. In fact, the shuttle from Watford Station to the studio was a double-decker bus. The Knight Bus is a triple-decker bus, which introduced several issues during filming.
It couldn’t fit under bridges. When it had to go under, a crane lifted the top section off, the rest of the bus went under, and the top part was reattached. Also, the bus couldn’t go terrible fast—not only was the extra weight of the third deck a problem for the engine and transmission, but the extra height also caused stability issues. Paolo used a phrase that came up often on tour: health and safety issues.
Filming the inside of the Knight bus was done on-stage. The set was on rollers to allow for the beds to move back and forth, and allow the chandelier to swing naturally.
The Riddle family gravestone was on display.
The Gringott’s Bank set was fascinating. First off, before the Deathly Hallows, it wasn’t a set at all–it was actually filmed at the Australian High Commission building in London, which needed little additional set dressing. The owners balked at having explosions set off in the Deathly Hallows, so a set was built.
the beautiful marble floor is actual linoleum, which is easier to work with and inexpensive. Many of the coin stacks were actually cast in silicon as one piece, then painted to look like metal. As part of the Deluxe Tour, Kel and I got to take seats at a ledger table, handling a real quill.
The entire Diagon Alley was displayed.
Here is the Ministry of Magic statue showing Muggle’s in the proper place was on display. Now is a good time to talk about the Ministry of Magic’s tilework. It was tile or marble at all because of expense, and health and safety. The weight of tiles spanning the height of the walls would make them unstable or having to be reinforced.
Funny thing about Platform 9 ¾. I visited Kings Cross Station. Platforms 9 and 10 are modern platforms—there’s no brick wall there. You have to go down to platforms 1 through 6 for a wall. I suppose Platform 5 ¾ doesn’t flow quite right.
Kings Cross Station also has an official Harry Potter store, where a trolley (hand cart for those of us in the States) is embedded in the wall. You can have your picture professionally taken for £15 if you wished to wait in a line. When I was there, the wait time was an hour. I said to Kel, “I’m not spending 15 quid and an hour on a picture.”
I figured the studio tour would have a trolley setup, and it would be free. As it turns out, I was right.
Of course, for all of these pictures, we were on the studio tour. When you enter the studio, your ticket is verified. If you have Deluxe tickets, you scurried to a corner for your guide to collect you. He takes you through security and then to the dining area for the breakfast. Afterward, you go to the entrance to the Great Hall. A short film is played to hype the audience for the tour ahead. They even got Daniel, Rupert, and Emma to do it. Then, and employee opens the doors for everyone to enter.
Except for the Deluxe ticket holders. We got to have our pictures taken at the door by our tour guide, Paolo.
Paolo was young—late 20’s or early 30’s—and knew everyone working. He worked there long enough to talk with set and prop designers, who also help set up the tour displays. He provided plenty of inside info.
The last stop for this post is the inside portion of the Great Hall door. Though never really seen close-up, it has symbols for the houses.
That’s all for Part 1.
I’m an author living in northern Virginia with a wife and a cat. In the late ’80s, I worked on the International Space Station project. I recently retired from managing a group of software engineers to focus on writing science fiction and speculative fiction. Learn more.