Take a Virtual Tour through Harry Potter's Britain

April 5, 2020, 4:45 PM · Up until now our Virtual Roadtrip, we've been visiting parks that I have visited in real life and watching videos from our Theme Park Insider archives. But for today's stop, as we head across to ocean to Europe, I wanted to try something different.

So today, in lieu of visiting theme parks, we are going to spend the day visiting the sites that inspired one of my favorite theme park attractions - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We are off to Harry Potter's Britain.

We will start where every term at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry begins, at London's Kings Cross Station. This is the one stop on our tour that I have visited in real life. If you want to see where they filmed the Muggle side of Platform 9 3/4, look between platforms 4 and 5 at the station, but there's an actual Platform 9 3/4 photo op located next to the Harry Potter bookstore in the station's central terminal area.

From Kings Cross, you can discover many more Harry Potter sites throughout London (follow the links for Google Maps), including:

• The London Zoo reptile house
• The entrance to The Leaky Cauldron, which was shot in Leadenhall Market in "Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone" and at Borough Market in "Prisoner of Azkaban."
• Australia House, which inspired Gringotts Bank. (You cannot go inside, however.)
• Claremont Square, which served as Grimmauld Place.
• Millennium Bridge, site of a Dementor attack.

Once the world reopens, several businesses offer Harry Potter-themed walking tours in London, which you can find through our international ticketing partner.

Beyond London, you can ride on the "Hogwarts Express," whose engine and carriages were supplied by the very much real-life West Coast Railways, which offers a trip across the Glenfinnan Viaduct from the films on The Jacobite.

The production team behind the films uses several cathedrals and schools throughout Britain for inspiration and filming locations for Hogwarts, including:

• The cloisters at Durham Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Lacock Abbey
• Alnwick Castle, for Qudditch lessons
• Christ Church College, Oxford, for the Great Hall and staircase outside it
• Duke Humfrey's Library, Oxford, for the Library

I also want to get to some of the exterior locations made famous by the Harry Potter films:

• Glencoe, the site of Hagrid's hut
• Malham Cove, where Harry made camp while searching for Horcruxes
• Freshwater West Beach, the site of Shell Cottage

But the big attraction for anyone who wants to stand in the space where Harry Potter came to life is the studios where the movies were filmed, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London. Enjoy some 360-degree views of the actual filming locations from the movies, which have been preserved at the studios in Leavesden.

Diagon Alley

Hogwarts Great Hall

Potions Classroom

Dumbledore's Office

Gryffindor Common Room

Hagrid's Hut

Forbidden Forest

Theme Park Insider's Virtual Roadtrip:

• SeaWorld San Diego to Legoland California
• Knott's Berry Farm to Disneyland
• Universal Studios Hollywood to Six Flags Magic Mountain
• Holiday World to Kings Island to Cedar Point
• Hersheypark to Kings Dominion to Busch Gardens Williamsburg
• Carowinds to Dollywood
• SeaWorld Orlando to Universal Orlando Resort
• Walt Disney World
• Efteling to Disneyland Paris
• Yas Island, Abu Dhabi
• Dubai
• Singapore
• Tokyo

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