I’ve sat on this article, just waiting for the right time to post it. Christmas-based posts are usually pretty time/season sensitive. However with what’s going on in the world right now, with COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns and restrictions in place, it’s made everything very doom and gloom. Hopefully this will act as some kind of a pick-me-up both for myself and for anyone reading it.
Christmas is a time that will forever be synonymous with Harry Potter. From the franchise’s beginnings with The Philosopher’s Stone, really capturing not only the magical world of the books, but also the hearts and minds of a generation.
Even as the franchise got darker and more adult as the films progressed, they never missed out on showing us Christmas throughout the 8 film series. From the whimsical first Christmas for Harry in the Philosopher’s stone, through to the Yule Ball in The Goblet Of Fire, and even making a brief appearance in The Deathly Hallows pt.1 when we finally see Godric’s Hollow for the first time.
It seemed only fitting that as a Christmas present, I’d book tickets to take Holly to the Warner Bros Studio Tour in Watford. From November to January the Harry Potter exhibition changes its name to Hogwarts in the Snow, and as you’d expect, all the exhibits become as they are seen during winter in the fictional world of wizards.
Booking the tickets was super simple, however I did initially book them for the wrong day by mistake. After a call to the ticket office, I got the tickets changed to January 3rd without any issues. I also decided that it’d be best to stay the night following the tour so we wouldn’t be in a rush to get home (honestly the tour is massive).
I’m a fan of the films but wouldn’t consider myself to be an überfan, however I did choke up a few times throughout the day.
After catching the studio bus from outside Watford Junction Station, we arrived at the Warner Brothers Studio building. The walls near the drop off point are covered with all kinds of Harry Potter backdrops and posters which really set the tone for the rest of the day!
After taking a few photos of the giant chess pieces outside the main entrance, a short queue and security check you’re let into the building. Even this is just the building that houses the tour, they really left no space without a trace of where you were.
The main hall had a full-scale model of the Dragon that was guarding the vaults of Gringott’s Bank in Deathly Hallows Part 2 hanging imposingly from the ceiling. In this spralwing space there was also a Starbucks outfitted to look like an apothecary, a dessert counter that was made to resemble a box of a chocolate frog and a faux great hall that was the buildings main restaurant.
Finally stepping into the Great hall stirred something in me that I’d never experienced before. I’m not usually one to get “starstruck” by people, let alone places. But the gravity of knowing I was standing in the “real” Great Hall was definitely affecting me. The Hall was made up as it appeared in The Goblet Of Fire in its full Yule Ball regalia, a Christmas feast laid out on the house tables as well as some selected costumes to represent the 4 houses.
Taking the exit from the Hall we entered the main exhibition. It felt like walking into the Room of Requirement, every square inch of space was made up with props, costumes, parts of sets including Snape/Slughorns potions classroom, the Griffindor common room and Dumbledore’s office. Each prop and set piece just pulls you through the exhibit with such excitement that you have to remember to slow yourself down to really absorb what’s in front of you.
One of the later additions to the tour was the Forbidden Forest. It mainly showcases some of the film’s creatures in their own setting from the films. The area also serves to show of some of the creative lighting solutions which help to convey different moods or times of day with filmmaking.
Platform 9 3/4 was just fantastic to see. Such attention had been paid to making a faithful reproduction of the station used during the film’s earlier on in the franchise. For the last 3 movies, any sequences involving the famous platform were shot on a sound stage instead. The train itself is THE train from the movies and it just as captivating in person as it looked when you first saw it in The Philosopher’s Stone. The tour continued inside the trains carriages where the booths were dressed to represent iconic scenes throughout the films.
The backlot portion of the tour provided some of my favourite pieces from the tour. Being able to walk down the bridge was fantastic as you were able to really interact with a piece of the set.
The creature effects department was a wonderland of latex, electronics and makeup. Creations from all the films were featured, from the goblins of Gringott’s Bank to the Mandrakes from Madame Sprouts Greenhouse, they had everything!
Rounding the corner after the creature effects department you follow a small dark corridor that opens up into Gringott’s Bank! I was in awe at the sight of this room. If it wasn’t for the lights above the ceiling or the corridor I’d just entered the room from, you could really believe you were in the fictional bank. As you walk through you can see all the small details like written ledgers and quills on desks, even one of the complete goblin costumes sits at the head podium to give a sense of scale and place.
As you leave Gringott’s, you pass through other small parts of the banks underground vaults, including vault 713 where the philosopher’s stone was kept in the first movie, and later on in the franchise where we find ourselves in the vault of Bellatrix LaStrange.
Diagon Alley was what I was looking forward to seeing most of all. Finally getting to walk the cobbled streets and see the storefronts that first caught our imaginations after being revealed by the wall in the Leaky Cauldron by Hagrid. The set was so intricate and well made up, we would have happily wandered into Fred and George’s joke shop if it wasn’t for the barriers.
As if this whole post has painted me as anything other than a nerd, I did really love the scale set models created by the art department. Each small scale model had such intricate attention to detail.
It’s pretty hard to articulate just how big the model of Hogwarts Castle is. Considering we had just come through a corridor filled with small scale models of different set pieces, we thought we were prepared to finally see the complete model of Hogwarts castle… We came through the doors and it was huge! Two girls who were near us actually burst into tears upon seeing it.
The final part of the tour leads you into a room full of wand boxes. At first it just feel like the backroom of Olivander’s but then you start to read the names on the boxes. Each and every box in the room bears the name of a member of the cast or crew that had worked on the film series. Seeing all these names was honestly one of my favourite parts of the tour and such a nice note to finish on.
This of course leads onto the gift shop, a sprawling labyrinth of themed areas to represent different elements of the wizarding world. Honeydukes stocks all your favourite sweets, the wand shop is fairly self explanatory, there were sections that tailored more towards jewelery, Quidditch and another more tailored towards the darker characters in the franchise.
After finishing the tour we jumped back onto the company bus. After getting back to Watford Junction, we found our way to our Travelodge and ordered ourselved some Jackfruit Burritos from Tortilla.
We had an amazing time, and because this exhibit is ever-changing and updating we hope to go again for another tour. Before the lockdown Warner Brothers had announced that the tour would focus on Slytherin house and would allow visitors to visit the house common room for the first time.
Oxfords Over Brogues. 