Load up on butterbeers and fool your boss with a forgetfulness charm: It's Harry Potter’s birthday, an excuse for Pottermaniacs everywhere to celebrate all things scarred and spectacled.
One of the most wide-reaching franchises of all time, the JK Rowling series has reached every corner of the globe, and superfans travel from all over the world to enjoy these magical attractions…
Incidentally, when we say 'birthday’, we don’t mean some book or film-related anniversary, we mean the character’s actual, fictional birthday. According to Potter lore, today Harry is turning 39.
1. Official Studio Tour, Leavesden
A Mecca for Potter-heads the world over, the studio tour, or, to use its full name, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, has reeled in enormous crowds since its grand opening in 2012.
Props, sets, costumes and photo ops abound, including the original Great Hall, the Hogwarts Express, quidditch kits, and more than 950 jars from the potions classroom. The books were still being written while the films were made, so the film crew couldn’t discard any items they might end up needing later.
2. Platform 9 3/4, London
The OG of Harry Potter attractions, Platform 9 3/4 introduced Harry – and the world – to magic in the first book and film, when the Weasley family vanished through a wall at King’s Cross.
Now a trolley protrudes from the brickwork to honour the historic moment. There’s no queue, no admission fee, it’s literally just sticking out of the wall. Just roll up, pose, and snap.
3. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Florida
Prepare to be stupefied, because this Potter-palooza leaves no resurrection stone unturned in giving our bespectacled hero the full Florida experience.
Packed with more fan service than a Marvel movie, the park is based on the village of Hogsmeade, with endless shops flogging replica wands and cafes overflowing with butterbeer.
Naturally, the rides take centre stage. Adrenaline junkies will be well-served with the squeal-inducing ‘Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure’, while gentler thrills can be found on family-friendly roller-coaster ‘Flight of the Hippogriff’.
4. Glenfinnan Viaduct, Highlands
The Glenfinnan Viaduct, a.k.a. "The Harry Potter Bridge", featured heavily in films two and three, and has become so popular with Potter-heads that the site gained a visitor’s car park late last year.
En route for the Hogwarts Express, when the Jacobite Steam Train chugs around the bend the scene resembles a screenshot from the movies.
Putting Potter aside, the structure is a sight to behold in its own right, and the nearby visitor centre is filled with gratifyingly gruesome details about the area’s Jacobite clansmen.
5. The Elephant House, Edinburgh
The self-described ‘birthplace’ of Harry Potter, the Elephant House provided a young, financially struggling JK Rowling a place to sit and write while she penned her first Potter book in 1995. There is no historic table or teacup at which fans can pay their respects, so the headline act is the bathroom, which is coated floor to ceiling with Potter-themed graffiti several layers thick.
We’re not sure what they put in the coffee, but the cafe attracts writers left, right and centre. It claims also to have hosted Alexander McCall-Smith and Ian Rankin.
To go full circle, check-in for a night at the Balmoral Hotel – a city centerpiece that hosted Rowling while she finished Deathly Hallows. She stayed in Room 552, and if you book far enough ahead, so can you.
6. Wynott’s Wands, Salem
This Harry Potter-themed curiosity shop, in Salem, Massachusetts, sells an assortment of magical memorabilia. Wands are of course the main attraction, and the Wynott range features a variety of hand-turned models with a range of materials and magical properties.
Other products include bendable bowtruckles, niffler knapsacks, and golden snitch sticker kits.
7. Durham Cathedral, Durham
Look familiar? It should because Durham Cathedral provided interior shots for everyone’s favourite magic school. During the first three films, the cathedral put up Hogwarts courtyard (the cloister) and the transfiguration classroom (the chapter house).
We could have highlighted Gloucester Cathedral or Lacock Abbey, but Durham is also a masterpiece of Norman architecture, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the undisputed gems of the North East.
Fun fact: According to The Guardian, producers wanted to film at Canterbury Cathedral, but the authorities said no because of Harry Potter’s ‘pagan themes’.
8. London Zoo, London
Avid Pottermaniacs will remember that the reptile house featured prominently in the opening sorties of the series, as a pre-Hogwarts Harry freed a Boa Constrictor (played in the film by a Burmese python) being harassed by the dastardly Dudley.
London Zoo is one of a handful of shooting locations that isn’t doubling for anywhere – it appears in book and film entirely as itself. Rest assured the real reptile house does not come with disappearing glass.
9. Leadenhall Market, London
There are filming locations dotted all around London (Claremont Square, for instance, is easily recognisable as Grimmauld Place), but surely none are as easy on the eyes as Leadenhall Market.
The ornate, Victorian arcade doubled as Diagon Alley in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone.
