Harry Potter Studio Tour

We are off to the HP studios today, as we had booked bus tickets to get to the Warner Bros Studio in Leavesden, about an hours drive from central London. This is the studio where all the Harry Potter films were made over a 10-year period, and which still contains many of the sets, props and costumes. We were on a self-guided tour around the studio, which was great, because you get to move through the two studios at your own pace. My favourite displays were Gringotts, the Great Hall and Diagon Alley. Seeing how they turned Robbie Coltrane into the giant Hagrid was also interesting.

I also enjoyed learning about the behind the scenes work that went in to each movie - the talented artists and craftsmen that built all the sets, costumes, props and accessories, and who created the special effects, did a phenomenal job. The work that went into building the sets, the engineering and mechatronics used to build the beasts, and the work that went into creating the goblin masks was amazing.

They built a model of 1/25 scale model of Hogwarts that is huge - it took about 7 months for the model to be built. This was used in a lot of the external shots in the movies.

On the way back to London we passed by the Abbey Road Music Studio and the pedestrian crossing made famous by the lads. There were so many tourists there trying to get “that shot” risking life and limb which must annoy the drivers (like our bus driver) using the road to get somewhere.Read more