Seaside Towns and the Harry Potter Studio Tour

Do you ever have one of those day where you just have an urge to go out and explore someplace on your own? Yes? No? Well, last Saturday was one of those days for me.

Despite being back at the flat for less than a week after my long spring break, I already needed to get out of my flat, out of London, and spend some time on my own.

Earlier in the semester, the Imperial College Woman’s Football Team that I am on had tried to gather enough girls to take a trip to Bournemouth on the southwest coast of England to play a match. Sadly, that never happened as there weren’t enough girls able to go on the trip, but since then I was intrigued by Bournemouth and wanted to visit.

When looking up photos of Bournemouth online, it looked beautiful. The ocean and cliffs were stunning (some would add the beach into this category but as I’m not a fan of beaches I’ll skip over this part…) and it seemed like a good break from the rush of the city of London.

On Saturday morning, I took a bus from London Victoria Coach Station to Bournemouth Coach Station. It was about an hour and a half long ride and was quite pretty the closer we got to Bournemouth. When I arrived in Bournemouth though, I was met not with the views of the ocean from over the cliffs, but instead with a view of the incredibly thick fog. Standing on the sidewalk near the beach, I wasn’t even able to see the water. It was that thick.

I decided to go explore the city center and quickly discovered that Bournemouth was in fact known as a resort town. How I missed that when researching the city before going is still unclear to me.

As I couldn’t see much and wanted to explore more, I  decided to rent a bicycle and bike down the coast toward Southbourne and Christchurch. As I biked along the coast, the fog slowly began to clear up and I was able to see more of the ocean and the cliffs. I ended up biking 10 miles to Christchurch and back to the main center of Bournemouth. While it was a leisurely bike ride, it was still a long distance and I was pretty tired after.

As I biked along the coast, I passed many of the little beach huts that lined the cliffs. Many of them were brightly colored and so cute! Most of them were closed, but a few of them were open and you could see their owners sitting inside drinking tea or coffee and reading the newspaper. They were so quaint. I wish I could take one of the little beach huts home with me!

The next day was a day I had been looking forward to for most all of the semester. It was the day we traveled to Leavesden, home of the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter.

We left on a coach bus from Kensington to the Harry Potter Studios at two in the afternoon and got to Leavesden around three. Then, it was time to enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. After watching a short film where Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint welcomed us to the studios, the doors to the Great Hall opened and suddenly we were transported to Hogwarts. Two long tables lined the walls and at the end of the hall stood mannequins of professors such as Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid, McGonagall and more. The life-sized mannequins wore the actual costumes of the characters and it was incredible to see up close. Sadly, the ceiling to the Great Hall was non-existent and therefore there were no magically suspended candles in the air.

We then walked into a large room of the studio that housed many of the props, costumes, wigs and major sets from the movie series. Some of my favorite parts included the set for the potions classroom, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room. It was so interesting to learn how long it took to perfect each set, costume or prop and how they were maintained for the duration of all of the films.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After this room of the studio, was turned a corner and were suddenly at Platform 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts express filled the length of the room. It was unreal. After taking the classic Platform 9 3/4 photo, I boarded the Hogwarts Express. Okay not really, but I did get to walk inside the train and down the hallway. Each compartment depicted an important scene found from each film that featured the train.

We then came to the cafeteria where they served Butterbeer and Butterbeer ice cream. We decided to go outside to see a few more of the sets before sampling a Butterbeer treat. Outside, we saw the Knight Bus, 4 Privet Drive, the main bridge at Hogwarts, the flying car and Hagrid’s flying motor bike. WOW. So many cool, magical things in one space! After that, it was finally time to go inside and get a Butterbeer product. I opted for the ice cream as I’m not a soda person, and was pleasantly surprised by the butterscotch taste of the ice cream.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

The next portion of the studios included a walk down Diagon Alley (pronounced diagonally by the Brits), introduction to some of the most important technical props like Dobby and Buckbeak (the Hippogriff), and then a large replica model of the entire Hogwarts Castle and surrounding campus. This was probably my favorite part of the entire tour as the Castle was so detailed and large. The model itself was created so that the directors could film the castle with a green screen in the background and it would look life sized in the films. Crazy what a camera and the perfect set can do!

 

The tour ended in the gift shop where I spent almost 45 minutes trying to find the perfect gifts and souvenirs. Apart from that, there was just so much to look at in the shop that it took me three times longer than it really should have.

I still cannot believe that I was able to go to the Harry Potter Studios and see how the Wizarding World I grew up with was really brought to life. While this was so cool to see, it also made me a bit sad and nostalgic inside. Also, I’m currently feeling the urge to do a Harry Potter marathon of all the films. Where is ABC Family when you need them???