When I was in high school, I discovered a series of books that captivated my imagination in a way no book had before or has since. There’s just something about J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter novels that is entirely whimsical and magical: no matter how old you are when reading them, you feel like a kid again as you share in Harry’s adventures. Harry Potter captivated the world from the moment the first book was published, and I’ve realized over the last few weeks that magic will never fade. I am perfectly happy about that.
Harry Potter has been in the news a lot this past week. Tuesday was the 14-year anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (14 years?!? It doesn’t seem possible.) But the big news was that Rowling published a new short story about the world of Potter on her Pottermore social media website. While the rest of the world is tuned in to the finals of the FIFA World Cup, you can follow the news of the Quidditch World Cup through Rita Skeeter’s gossip column in the Daily Prophet. The story describes adult Harry Potter and his friends as they attend the biggest quidditch match of the past four years.
Tuesday also marked the grand opening of Diagon Alley at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. One of my dreams in life is to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and have a Butterbeer in Diagon Alley. While I haven’t gotten there yet, I was pleasantly surprised to visit many Harry Potter-themed locations during my recent trip to the United Kingdom. This, more than any of the mentions of Harry Potter in the media this week, has proved to me that the magic of Harry Potter will live on forever.
I knew when I left home that I would have free time in London, so visiting King’s Cross and Platform 9 ¾ was always at the top of my to-do list. But I never even considered how many other ways Harry Potter would come to mind throughout my trip. I even found myself wondering at one point: what would this trip have been like before Harry Potter existed? Would it have been a little less magical? Because there were times when I could imagine Harry actually existing, which made the trip that much more special for all the fans who traveled with me.
It all started when we were in Edinburgh, Scotland — which may seem strange, but let me remind you that Rowling herself lives in Scotland. In fact, Rowling spent much of her time writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (as the first book is known in the U.K.) in a little café called The Elephant House. I don’t know what the café was like back in the 1990s, when Rowling was a regular, but today it’s a wonderful place to stop and have lunch.
The Elephant House proudly boasts about being “The birthplace of Harry Potter,” but other than a sign on the window and news clippings on one wall, the café has held to its original elephant theme. There are elephant statues, elephant pictures, elephant books (Babar!), and even a really cute old, wooden child’s chair shaped like an elephant. It had a great atmosphere and really good food. One could easily forget the connection to Rowling until walking into the restroom. I can’t speak for the men’s room, of course, but the walls of the women’s restroom were covered, floor to ceiling (and even the mirror), with notes from Harry Potter fans from all over the world. Standing there, looking at all the notes, really made me realize how large the Potter fandom is.
In the famous Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from The Elephant House, lie the graves of Thomas Riddell, Esq., and a William McGonagall, both believed to have been subconscious inspirations for the characters of Tom Riddle and Professor McGonagall. Unfortunately for me, though I wandered through this graveyard that day, I did not realize the connection to Harry Potter until much later. However, I did see some very creepy headstones in the graveyard, and it made me think a little of the graveyard scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
After leaving Scotland, we traveled down through England, making our way to London. We spent one day in the lovely city of York, which was also the starting point for this year’s Tour de France. After touring York Minster, which is a gorgeous cathedral with a fascinating history dating back to the Romans, we were taken on a tour of some of the smaller streets of the town. Walking through those streets was like stepping into Harry Potter’s England in real life.
The streets were brick or cobblestone, and the myriad collection of storefronts with colorful window displays reminded me so much of the famous Harry Potter location, Diagon Alley. (There were even a few that brought to mind images of the creepier Knockturn Alley.) As I walked, I could imagine myself looking into the storefronts of Ollivanders or Madame Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. I had made this observation to one of my traveling companions and, not five minutes later, we turned a corner and suddenly we really were standing in Diagon Alley.
The Shambles is one of the oldest streets in York and one of the best-preserved medieval locations in the world. At the time they were built — as early as 900 years ago — the owners were taxed based on the footprint of the building; therefore, they would build up and out, leading to buildings appearing top-heavy and crooked. Looking down this street, you really could swear you were in Diagon Alley — in fact, Harry Potter tours will make this a stop on their trip, claiming the street served as an inspiration for the street of markets. The Shambles may well be the closest you’ll get to Diagon Alley in real life (not counting a theme park attraction), so if you ever find yourself in York, I recommend you look it up.
London is one of the first places in England people think of when they think of Harry Potter, and, indeed, there are a lot of connections there. However, I found my favorite Harry Potter-related memory in London actually had nothing to do with Platform 9 ¾ which is basically just a tourist trap these days — a fun stop, but I prefer more authentic experiences. I did not wait in line for the photo op as I did not have time before I had to meet the rest of my group for a tour of Windsor Castle, but I did stop into the gift shop nearby.
While this is just another tourist trap and way to spent money, I did enjoy wandering through this small shop, looking at all the merchandise. (They had actual, house-themed cardigans and scarves!) There was a wall of wands nestled in their boxes, just like you would find in Ollivanders. The hustle and bustle of the shop and the Harry Potter soundtrack pumping through the speakers couldn’t help but make me imagine I was really in a wizarding shop.
While in London, we also made a quick stop at Millennium Bridge, which you can see being destroyed by Death Eaters in the sixth Harry Potter film. Aside from the Harry Potter connection, the bridge itself is fascinating. There are places where people have dropped used chewing gum as they have walked across the bridge. The gum has become ground into the floor of the bridge. Some of those pieces have become miniature works of art, as someone has taken the time to transform them into animals and other images. Rumor has it, this is the work of the artist known as Banksy.
My favorite Harry Potter-related memory in London is one that was entirely unexpected — and also a little terrifying at the time. After arriving at our hotel on the outskirts of the city, we had to take a double-decker bus into the city, where we could then use the London Underground. I was excited to be able to cross “ride in the top of a London double-decker bus” off my bucket list, but the ride itself was rather terrifying.
Remember that scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where Harry rides the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron? This ride literally felt almost exactly like that. The bus drove fast and came to many abrupt stops — sometimes much closer to the vehicle in front of us than may be comfortable — crossed lanes haphazardly, squeezed between parked cars on one side and oncoming traffic on the other, and nearly ran straight into another bus making the same turn. It truly reminded everyone with me of Harry’s trip on the Knight Bus, and looking back, it’s possibly one of my favorite memories from London — it’s certainly one of the most vivid.
And that’s why, even after all these years, Harry Potter still has an impact in the lives of its fans. The magic of the books and the films can be invoked at any time; they can cheer you up on a dreary day, transport you to a world where anything is possible, and, last month, Harry Potter helped make my trip to the Great Britain just a little more magical.