Hammersmith

Weather - Cloudy with isolated showers - Min 7 Max 17

It was a very different day for us as we took a tour to the Warner Brothers Studio at Watford NW of London to see the permanent Harry Potter Exhibition titled ‘The Making of Harry Potter’. Henk is a keen Harry Potter fan having read all seven books and seen the films many times; I have read only the first book in the series but I have seen all eight films. 

We left the flat at 7.30am as we weren’t sure how busy the trains would be with early morning workers. Sometimes the trains are so full that commuters are asked to stand back and wait for the next train. We arrived at Victoria Station way too early for the 9.15am special double-decker bus so we took ourselves off for a coffee. The trip took 1.5 hours.

The huge exhibition is in two very large especially built studio buildings and houses all the sets, props, costumes and special effects used for the eight films. Planning started for the exhibitions following the success of the first film in 2001. It opened in 2012 and caters for about 6,000 visitors a day. It is tightly managed with groups of about 250 going in at any one time. It takes 3.5 - 4 hours to view the exhibition and is self-guided. 

What struck us most about the exhibition was the sheer scale of it all, the complexity, the extraordinary skill, the immense organisational effort, and the meticulous attention to detail involved in bringing the films to life. The level of craftsmanship behind every aspect was impressive. Some complex sets were only seen for mere seconds in a film. We recognised so many scenes. A favourite was the Dursley house which features in the first scenes of the first film and subsequent ones. They had re-enacted the turmoil. 

It was good to read Rowling’s manuscript and then see the set. For the Dursley house she wrote, “Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys’ front door.’

Ron Weasley’s house and Hagrid’s one room hut were examples of the number of props that were sourced to make the scenes look authentic.

There was quite a number of opportunities throughout the exhibition to have photos taken with the sets. We loved being on Platform 9 3/4 trying to push the trolly through the brick wall and we pretended to be Ron Weasley as a chess piece from the movie ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’.

Henk had fun driving the Weasley family’s little blue car.

We loved Diagon Alley which has all the wonderful specialty shops where Harry bought his gear before he sets off to Hogwarts. Eeyelops Owl Emporium sells owls and it is where Harry’s owl called Hedwig came from. 

It was good to see the original costumes it gave us an idea of how big the actors were. We recognised the Miriam Margolyes’ costume for her role as Professor Pomona Sprout. She is clearly short. 

Halfway through the exhibition there was a large cafe which was well-geared to serve a lot of people. Harry Potter Butterbeer, a non-alcoholic butterscotch tasting beer was popular. I didn’t try it as I thought it was alcoholic until I saw children drinking it with straws.

Our bus returned us to the King’s Cross Station at 5.00pm and we arrived home at 5.30pm. It was a long but great day.