Harry Potter Studio Tour with the Jests


Kimber surprised me with my combined Christmas and birthday gift of tickets to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in north London! I took a train to Reading Friday afternoon, the day after I had finished my second and last final paper. It was perfectly timed to celebrate the end of my first trimester in my grad program and the start of a new year in England. We hung around the house Friday getting excited for our tour the next day. Julian drove us the next morning about an hour north and east to Leavesdon, the town with the giant studio lot. Seeing the big posters on the sound stage walls was enough to get me pumped to go inside. We had an entry time of 10am, so we had arrived 30 minutes early to get our audio guides and wait in line with the medium sized horde of other people. In good form, the moved us through the line past Harry's first cupboard under the stairs into the waiting presentation room. They showed some awesome clips from press releases covering the release of the films, and from the stars themselves. Then we entered this theatre to watch a short film covering all eight of the movies they had made and as that finished the screen lifted to reveal the door to the great hall!! I was more excited than the 8 year old boy next to me. So we actually started the tour in the great hall and then moved onto sound stage J with tons of different sets and stations. The audio guide was really useful because it had short videos at each stop with interviews, gallery images, and little known facts. I watched every single one of them on all 30 stops, so probably well over 150 little videos. It was brilliant. It wasn't terribly crowded, but well populated I would say. It definitely got busier as the day wore on. We spent over 5 hours inside. Totally got our money's worth. About half way through we went to the backlot to try Butter Beer, which was so delicious and tasted like magical cream soda, and ate soup and crisps. Then we headed back inside to finish stage J before moving to stage K. See the pictures! And be grateful I took so few, another friend who went a few weeks before took 700... but this should motivate you to go yourselves. Only if you are a true fan and grew up reading the books like I have.

The Great Hall!

The tour guide for this part, who looked like Voldemort.

Snape's costume didn't change for all 8 movies. How boring! Except when he fled in the 7th they lengthened his hem. And his wig wasn't greasy at all.
Wigs are sort of gross, especially close up. But it turns out so many characters wore them! Even ones you thought had their own hair like Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

I thought it was neat that Harry wore Uniqlo jeans (my favorite brand) in the 7th movie.

The boys dormitory with their tiny beds that never got bigger, so they just had to curl up in them to make it look like they fit.

Elf armor from the prop cage. Support S.P.E.W.!

Entrance to Dumbledore's office. Lemon drops!

So many cool things in Dumbledore's office. All the paintings were real by the way, the artists team were all classically trained.

Just a random trophy for Gnome Racing.

Like Owen's hat? On the Knight Bus on the backlot.

Try to slip a letter in for the Dursley's at 4 Privet Drive.


I wish Doby lived. This is his very life-like corpse.


I bowed to the Hippogryph as is custom. He bowed back.

Puking pastille anyone? Weasley Wizard Wheezes!

Diagon Alley! Kimber and Julian there on the right. Gringotts Bank is at the end.


Next to Madame Malkin's Dress Robes for All Occasions. Kimber in the foreground.
This was the coolest model! Used for all the movies, it was added to as more parts of the castle were revealed from the books. It has snow on it for winter, but during the summer it is green.
They used real rocks and leaves and bushes for part of the model. The little turrets had tiny shingles--over 1,000 for some of the roofs--that were individually glued on by hand.



The very last part of the tour is walls of about 4,000 wand boxes, each individually made with a name on it from someone involved with the films over the 10 years it took to make them. I found a couple of special ones...

Edward had such a great start as Cedric Diggory.

Had to have the full name on there, or else we wouldn't have known it was "THE" Maggie Smith. She was perfectly cast and when I read the books as a 14 year old, I pictured her as Professor McGonagall.

This is the entrance lobby with big pictures of the cast from when they started and when they finished.

Also one of the flying Ford Anglia's.

After finishing, our overjoyed faces and it was super windy/stormy and we drove home in a downpour.

The cute Jest family! Owen loved it.

I always look for a pole to enhance any picture. Harry would've really enjoyed my company on the Knight Bus. 

The cupboard under the stairs right behind us. We are about to start the tour with our audio guides.

Our best Harry and Ron faces.

If you can spy Owen's little bald head, he actually has control of the steering wheel.

I had to wear my official Gryffindor scarf. I saw many that day, but mine was actually the nicest. Thanks Diddams.

Learning proper technique for casting spells.

The stunt guy was giving us the video tutorial and we could watch ourselves in the mirrors.


The kids in line behind us were jealous of how accurately we held our wand hands. They were also under the age of seven.



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