Harry Potter in London: Warner Bros Studio Tour

This is M&M and I am going to tell you about my experience at Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios : The making of Harry Potter. We are such big Harry Potter fans so this was one of my most favorite places that we saw here in London. We woke up and had an amazing breakfast down at the restaurant. We then went to the subway and took a train to the studio tour bus pick-up. We were afraid that we had missed the bus, but we got lucky and made it just in time! The bus took us through the city and then we got to the studios.

The bus dropped us off and we saw the building. Near the front of the Harry Potter Studios, were the chess pieces used in the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. It was super cool. We also got Wizarding Passports! There was spots all in it to put stamps from around the studios and we were so excited to start looking. Also, there were golden snitches that were hidden all around the studios so we kept our eyes peeled.

We walked into the studios and saw the dragon that was used in the seventh movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The cool thing is that the dragon was huge but it would be 3x larger in real life. It was so big. We took some pictures then set off towards the entrance to the tour.

We then walked to the start of the tour. There was the cupboard under the stairs and we also saw Harry Potter's first pair of glasses. Then we walked into a room with a lot of people and watched the actors of Fred and George Weasley talk to us about the tour. They were super funny! Then we went into a different room and sat down. There was a big screen in the front just like a movie theater. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger talked to us about the studios and walked through the door to the great hall. Then the screen lifted and there was the real door!!!!

We then walked through the door and saw the real great hall used in the movies. We saw all the outfits of the teacher's and some students outfits like Harry Potter's and Draco Malfoy's. We learned that this was one of the only permeant sets that stayed the way it was because it was used in so many movies. The floor was not wood but stone and the house tables were all set up too. It was super cool.

We then walked into the prop and set designers room. We got to see all the real props inside like the goblet of fire, golden snitch, quidditch supplies, brooms, and we even got to see all the real outfits of the characters and the wand maker ( not Ollivander ). One part was super cool. There were people in blue jackets and they were soo cool because they were total Harry Potter whizzes. They told us all about the sets and outfits. We also got the opportunity to get close to some of the actors clothes. One person was super cool and helpful. He let us see the outfits of Luna Lovegood and we learned some cool facts about her too. Did you know that she made most of her own clothes and props? They were so good! Big Sis wore her Radish earrings that she made herself to match her Luna Lovegood outfit. She got a complement about them from almost every helper in blue. There were so many props that they were countless. We had fun walking through and saying stuff like " Oooo! That was in Lupin's office in the third movie." or " Look! It's the mirror of Erised!"

Want to know something CRAZY? There was only one real moving staircase out of the 140 in the movie and only one part of the bridge was real! It was a ton of fun hearing all of these fact from the people in blue and telling them what we know.

We saw the props for the Yule ball. There was so many things to see. The ice sculpture was huge! It wasn't made of ice because it would have melted, so it was made of plastic. We also saw the bath faucet from the 2nd task in the fourth movie, The Goblet of Fire. It was cool because there was coloured water going down the tubes of the faucet. There was plastic tubes going down and the water was inside it.

We also saw the Gryffindor Common room. It is a lot smaller than you think. There was so little room! The beds were super tiny. It makes me wonder if they had to make a bigger room to shoot when the actors were growing. But the helpers in blue told us that the beds were made when they were all little, so when they are up they had to change the camera angle and they were all squished in the bed, or they had their feet sticking out the end.  We got the stamp for that room and sadly, I messed up, so whoops. You were supposed to put only one page in the stamp press, but I put the entire book in, so that one got messed up but I got the others right. We also saw the invisibility cloak. It had a green screen inside so that was super cool. We were watching the movie of the first book and Big Sis thought she saw the green screen. I am still now sure. We even saw the big clock in the clock tower. It was the one that was used during the test of O.W.L.s. It was cool to see it rock back and forth and back and forth. It was HUGE!

We also saw the triwizard cup. It was very tiny but it was lit up. The Sorcerers Stone is tiny. It looks like rosin that you use for the bow of cellos and violins but a little different. The Deluminator was super cool to see. It had some kind of green gem design on it. It was super cool to see. Dumbledore's office was also pretty big. Did you know that his telescope had a huge chair on the back. It was so cool to see all the big gadgets and stuff that was in his office. The Sword of Gryffindor was on one of the shelfs in his office too. It was cool. The Horcruxes were in a case too. It was cool seeing the locket and other horcruxes like the Ravenclaw diadem. The Sorting Hat was also there. It was so ragged and it was cool to see it on the shelf.

The Mirror of Erised was cool to see. According to Dumbledore, the Mirror of Erised shows "the deepest, most desperate desire or our hearts. " and when we looked into the mirror, we saw us all together! Did you know that Erised is desire spelled backwards? Have you ever been able to read what's on the top of the mirror of Erised? I found out that it is the same as it's name. It says "I show not your face but your heart's desire" backwards, with the spaces rearranged. Did you know that? Super cool fact! Behind the Mirror or Erised was the potions room. There was so many yucky things in the jars. It was so gross to see what was inside but cool at the same time. We also saw the outfits of Snape and Slughorn. We didn't get a picture of Slughorn but that's ok. It was sad that the actor of Snape died a little after the movies were filmed. He was my mom's favorite.

The Chamber of Secrets door was also pretty cool to see. It was made of metal and it was SO cool to see it move like it did in the movie. It moved the snakes heads and the big snake slithered across the edge. It was so cool to see! The Flying Car was also super cool. It was funny too. They made the Whomping Willow's branch hit it too. The car also looked super small. There was dents all over it. The car was also bouncing all around like it did in the movie.

The Death Eater's masks were cool to see too. There was not one that was like another. They were all unique. We also saw the room in Malfoy Manor that had all the death eaters around a table. Nigini was so big. She was probably like 100 feet long! The people in blue talked about the teacher that is hanging from the ceiling, they said that they used the real prop that was used in the movie. When the studio first opened they had the electrotronics turned on for the teacher, and she would move her neck and head.  They said that they had to take it down because it was soo scary and too lifelike. It looked pretty scary in the movie.

We also saw the tomb of Tom Riddle. The people in blue said that they messed up the date. It said that his mom died on a date like 1888 and that he was born on 1890 by his mother. That made no sense. So the people in blue blew our minds yet again and told us that the person that made it messed up the dates. Whoops! So in the movie that had to use this prop, but had to cover the dates with a green screen and put more accurate dates through the green screen.

The Forbidden Forest was all cool. Did you know that all of the giant spiders were made of coconut shells because of their furry outside. Monster was scared in the forest part with the spiders but we thought it was super cool. They even had the Aragog thing jump out at us. Poor monster got so scared that he had to stay in Dad's arms the whole time. I personally also got scared at it when it jumped out at me but I thought it was super cool.  We even saw BUCKBEAK!!! It was so cool because he was not all computer animated. They could make him run, kneel, and even screech like he did in the movies. It was super cool. They just had to use an animated model for the flying parts in the movies.

The Hogwarts Express was super cool! We even got a chance to walk inside. It is a lot smaller than  you think. It's a wonder that the trolly lady fit. We saw all the compartment for each of the movies. In the first one from the first movie, Scabbers was there and there was candy all over the seats like in the movie. The second looked like it too. The third had the hand mark that Ron made when the dementor came. His hand was on the window and it froze so there was his hand mark. The water that Lupin had also was frozen over. It was super cool to see. The forth and the fifth also had special things that went with the movie.

We also got to take a picture going into the wall. We never got to go to the real Kings Cross Station but we still got a picture running through the barrier of platform 9 3/4. Yes, it wasn't the one from the movie but it was still cool.

After the Hogwarts express room, there was the lunch room with a big cafeteria and then and outside place with all the outside props. We had lunch and we had Butterbeer ( BEST DRINK EVER!!! ). We all got one and it was delicious. I have had one before at the other Harry Potter studios in California but this one was so good and much better since it didn't make our heads have instant brain freezes. After lunch, we went outside to see the props out there.

We saw Number 4 Privet Drive. One of my favorite rooms in the house was the living room because there was all of Harry Potter's letters flying around. Its was so tiny. It again made me wonder how some people like Dudley and Uncle Vernon fit. We only got to see the dining room and the living room but we did see the cupboard under the stairs at the start of the tour.

We saw the Night Bus too. Man, things are so much tinnier than they look in the movies. It was so squished and tiny inside, We only got to see it and not go inside. We also found out that it had to get rebuilt when they tried to make it through to the leaky cauldron. Mom told all about that in her muggle tour post. So I would encourage you to read that first before this post. We also saw more vehicles like Hagrid's motorcycle, well it was originally Sirius's motorbike, but he gave it to Hagrid in the first movie to take Harry to the Dursley's. Monster went crazy when he saw all the vehicles and he wanted to get in each and every one.

The outside area also had the bridge of Hogwarts and the Potter's house too.  The bridge was so mis-shaped like in the movies. We learned that this was the only real section of the bridge and the only part that was used for filming.  The real bridge was short, but with the help of computer animation, they made it look so huge in the movie.  It was fun to walk on. We saw the Potter's house too. It was sad to see it all broken down, like after Voldermort had destroyed it, but it was nice to see all the same.

We then went into the second studio building. The first part of this building had all the creatures and animals from the movie.  Did you know that the dementors were used by the top part of the body being a backpack and the people underneath being covered by the black cloak. Also, the werewolf also had a person inside monitoring it and moving it. That was cool. The Gringotts bank was so neat. We found out from the people in blue that they used a real bank somewhere for the first movie but they had to make their own for the 7th movie. They made it all from scratch and it was cool learning all about it. We also found another golden snitch on the stairway. Just before we exited the bank, we saw a room that had a computer animated dragon that moved around the bank. There was real stuff in there from the movie like the broken pillars but the rest was computer animated. They replayed it after it flew off and it was always different. It was cool to see the dragon stomping toward you and it looked like it was actually there but the people told us it was computer animated. It was not its normal size because I told you about the dragon at the start of this post. 

We also saw Diagon Ally, which we learned was also the same set for Hogsmead. All the shops were there and had things that moved in the window like in the movies. The joke shop was so cool. It was so sad because the people in blue said that they spent like a full two months making all the boxes and signs for the joke shop but the director made them start over. That must have sucked. Also, in the window of the shop, did you know that there was an eggplant, it was a green plant that had cooked eggs on it. That was funny and awesome to see. We found another golden snitch near the broom stand. Sadly we were almost to the end of the tour.

Hogwarts was last. It was a mini/huge model of Hogwarts that was used for the outside shots like when Hedwig flew over it in the snow. We walked all around it and learned some more fun facts about it from the people in blue. It looked super cool to see.

And lastly, the Wand of Fame. On all of the boxes, there was a name of someone that was either an actor, director, helper, maker, or designer. There was so many names! There was person in blue that showed us some of the names like the actors of Dumbledore, Luna, Lupin, the other Dumbledore, Harry Potter, ect.

After the Wand of Fame, we got into the store and we bought some souvenirs. Big Sis, Little A, and I all got scarves and I got 2 shirts and a poster. I didn't need any nick nicks because I already had some from the other studios.

We were sadly done and we got on the bus then the train all the way home .  We ended up spending 6 hours at the Harry Potter Studio.  We loved every second of it, but we were all completely worn out.  Everyone fell asleep on the train back to the apartment.  We got home a little late and we just had food from a restaurant on the way to the hotel.

It was sooooooo amazing going to Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios : The making of Harry Potter. I would HIGHLY suggest people ( Muggles ) to go see this amazing place. You get to see all the real props and how they made all the sets and how they filmed.

We also learned some super mind blowing facts about Harry Potter. Like, The actor of Moaning Murtle was 40! The director had to get Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy's robe pockets sewed together because they kept hiding and eating chocolate frogs through the movie filming. It was an amazing experience going to Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios : The making of Harry Potter. I loved it so much.