Let me start by saying that if you are any kind of Harry Potter fan at all, you HAVE TO do the Making of Harry Potter tour at Leavesden Studios. It's that awesome!!
So after breakfast I trotted out to Watford Junction (express train from Euston). Outside the station on the left there was a small bus interchange, so walked down there and the first bay had a sign saying Harry Potter shuttle bus. Waited for the first shuttle of the day (9:20) to arrive.
Arrived at the studio a bit early (I was paranoid about getting there late and missing out entirely), but that gave me plenty of time to get some photos, get my guide book and have a look through it, sign into the free wifi etc.
Harry Potter shuttle bus outside Leavesden Studios
My ticket was for 10:30 so in I went.
The Cupboard Under the Stairs
First up is a bit of an introductory film.
Then into another room for a big screen introductory film.
Then they lift the screen and there are the doors to the main hall! Which they open to great effect and in you go. So fricken awesome!!
Entrance to the Great Hall
As it turns out, they actually moved the entire set from its original location in an old hangar to the current location in a purpose built building for the tour. Same with all the other sets they have there.
The Great Hall of Hogwarts
Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape costumes at the teacher's table in the Great Hall
The Great Hall of Hogwarts
After wandering around the great hall, you go off into the "interior sets" room, which has several sets and *heaps* of props and costumes. There's the Gryffindor boys dormitory, Gryffindor common room, potions, Dumbledore's office, Hagrid's hut, the Burrow and the Ministry of Magic in this room. The place is packed with stuff from the movie, and have to make sure to LOOK UP! Because there's all sorts of things way up high. I think I spent probably two hours in this room. And it was surprisingly uncrowded - I was expecting it to be like it was in Sydney. Which incidently had some of the same things that were here now, like Hermione's Yule ball dress. There's multiples of costumes. I know in Sydney Snape's vest was actually purple, but it was black in all the ones here.
Roof of the Great Hall
Gates of Hogwarts from Half Blood Prince
Gryffindor Boy's Dormitory
Gryffindor Boy's Dormitory
The Fat Lady portrait from Philosopher's Stone
Gryffindor Common Room
Stairway to the dormitories
The Griffin stairwell entrance to Dumbledore's office
The Triwizard Cup, and egg containing the clue for the second task
Snape's costume in the potions classroom
Dumbledore's office
Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem
Hagrid's Hut
Entrance to the Chamber of Secreats
The Burrow
Magic is Might from Deathly Hallows
Bellatrix and Voldemort costumes
Umbridge's office from Order of the Phoenix
Wizarding currency
Next you go outside to the "backlot", which has an outdoor area where they've gathered a few things, including one of the Ford Anglia's and one of the motorcycles, both of which you can sit in, Tom Riddle's grave, a Knight Bus, the Privet Drive buildings (two of them), the Potter Cottage, the covered bridge, and some chess pieces.
Knight Bus
Interior of the Knight Bus
Tom Riddle's gravestone
Replica of houses on Picket Post Close, Martins Heron - aka Privet Drive Little Whinging! Built for Chamber of Secrets
Covered bridge built for Prisoner of Azkaban
Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow info board
Chess pieces from Philosopher's Stone
Then it's back inside for some displays showcasing the work of the art and effects teams.
First up is the creature shop, with some videos hosted by Warwick Davis.
Fawkes the Phoenix
Then you get to walk through Diagon Alley.
Diagon Alley
Ollivanders
Weasley's Wizard Wheezes
Then you get to see some of the concept art and models. Amazing stuff. I loved the paper models. You get to walk by a whole heap of these.
White-card model of Hogwarts
And then the finale - the 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts Castle. It's spec-fricking-tacular! Absolutely enormous and intricately detailed, including hundreds of lights. The room cycles between night time and day time so you can see both. Amazing, just amazing.
The Hogwarts Model
The Hogwarts Model
The Hogwarts Model
The Hogwarts Model
The Hogwarts Model
The Hogwarts Model
Lastly you walk through some of the boxes of wands. Apparently they made and labelled something like 17000 boxes of wands, and they're labelled with the cast and crew.
Wand boxes in the Wand Room
Out through the shop of course. Everything was crazy expensive though (like £24.95 for a scarf or £24.95 for a wand or £7.95 for a chocolate frog - I don't think so!!). T-shirts were reasonably priced (£14.95) but I didn't really find one I liked.
And so I left. I was there for three and a half hours after 10:30, but could have stayed longer if I'd spent more time in the effects rooms. Hopped on a shuttle bus back to the station and straight on a train back to Euston.
From there I walked down to the museum and spent the rest of the afternoon there. There is SO MUCH STUFF in that museum it's ridiculous. I walked through the majority of rooms, but you could easily spend an hour or two in each room alone. I think if I lived in London I'd spend like an hour a week just exploring one room at a time (it's free entry so it'd be easy/cheap to do).
Chinese Tang tomb figures (History of the World in 100 Objects)
The Bredgar Hoard
The Lewis Chessmen (History of the World in 100 Objects)
Altar cross crucifix
The mechanical galleon (History of the World in 100 Objects)
Double headed serpent (History of the World in 100 Objects)
At this point I have £2 left in my purse. Which probably would have seen me through, however then I remembered I needed to do washing tonight. So went looking for an ATM. Now I've walked past like a thousand ATMs in this city, but the moment you start looking for one they all disappear (the exact same thing happened to Campbell yesterday). Ridiculous. Walked for like a kilometre around a few blocks trying to find one. Stumbled across Covent Garden at one point, but was super hungry and tired and grumpy, so when I eventually did find an ATM I just got money and went back to Earl's Court. Picked up a Subway and a beer and chilled out for a while. Headed out again to do the load of washing then back here to blog.
Distance covered on the GPS: 51.2 km (plus the trip out to Watford Junction that didn't record)
Steps walked: 16323
Photos on the Canon: 586
Photos on the Sony: 20
Videos: 12
GBP Spent: 35.36
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