The Harry Potter Studio Tour London

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:13 pm

For anyone who's interested I can highly recommend the new Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavendon. Just took the kids there last Friday and I have to say it was a fantastic experience, and one that I feel Lord of the Rings deserved to have also. Maybe now that Warner Brothers have the Hobbit it will finally happen.

First area had the original Great Hall at Hogwarts, followed by a huge area with, from memory, the Gryffindor Common room, Gryffindor Boys dormitory, Potions classroom, Dumbeldore's office, Umbridge's office, Leaky cauldron, Hagrid's Hut, part of the Room of Requirement and much much more. Loads of props including Gringotts vault carts, displays of food from the Yule Ball, loads of the costumes and Wigs... in fact everything you could hope for. Oh, and all of the above are actual sets/props. Not replicas. Finally there was a green screen experience where the kids got to fly broomsticks and watch their footage live.

Then outside they had 2 houses from Privet Drive including No 4 obviously, The Night bus, The destroyed cottage at Godrics hollow, Tom Riddles Grave and a section of the Hogwarts Bridge. You could also buy Butterbeer here!

Then, back inside for creature effects demos, animatronics etc, then the complete street of Diagon Alley and finally the giant Scale model of Hogwarts that was used for all the camera panning shots.

All in all, it took us about 3 hours without dawdling to get through it all. A really fantastic experience I can recommend to anyone. (Pearly Di, I'm looking at you!)

I'll be uploading photos to Facebook soon and will share the link here also.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:21 pm

That sounds really fun, Alatar. It would be amazing to have something similar available for LotR/the Hobbit (especially if it didn't involve traveling to New Zealand, which I would love to do, but . . .).

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:24 pm

Well, I saw the LotR Exhibit in the Science Museum, which was awesome, but really you could see everything there in about an hour, even being as obsessive as I was. This was on a completely different scale, maybe 30-40 times larger.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:29 pm

I'd enjoy the Potter exhibit very much, too. And my daughter would be ecstatic—all my kids read and liked them, but she literally grew up with them and was the "target age" as each U.S. edition came out. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are like friends she's had since childhood. I know she's looking forward to sharing the books with her own children someday.

Post by **Lalaith** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:00 pm

The LotR exhibit that toured the US was pretty awesome. It certainly took us more than an hour to go through, but it doesn't sound as massive as this exhibit. I would like to walk through the actual LotR sets.

Is this a permanent exhibit? (Not that I'm interested in touring it; I'm just curious. I'm not a HP fan, but it still sounds cool.)

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:34 pm

Its permanent, yes. I'm pretty sure we saw the same exhibit as the one that toured the US and like I say, nowhere near the size of this one.

Post by **WampusCat** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:19 pm

I'd love to see it! Thanks for the report, Al.

Post by **Elentári** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:48 pm

Hey! We're going to HP Studios on 29th of this month as a treat for my sons' joint birthdays! Can't wait...my neighbour has been and thoroughly recommended it.

So I won't be reading your reviews just yet, Al!

I also went to the LotR exhibition at the Science Museum years ago, when my eldest was about 8 or so, and it was fabulous. I reckon we probably spent at least an hour in there...I remember we queued to have the boys' photos taken on Gandalf's cart with the scale-thingy...

ETA: Found the photo!

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:49 pm

Hope this link works:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... tif_t=like

Post by **Pearly Di** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:52 pm

Oh, this looks great!

. I was in fact planning to go this summer, Al, with a friend, but traumatic events happened in both our lives and we've both had to postpone plans for a bit. But I'd very much like to go.

.

Oh, if only they'd do this for LotR ...

I would be in seventh heaven! Just think of walking around Minas Tirith ...

... I'd never leave.

I think the LotR exhibition at the Science Museum was in early 2004 ... goodness.

. Nearly a decade ago! It was fabulous. I wanted the Rohan banners and Galadriel's frock! And Frodo's mithril shirt.

Thanks for this thread, Al.

. I really want to taste butterbeer.

And see Snape's robes.

Post by **Elentári** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:51 am

I tasted the Butterbeer! (a bit sickly!!)

Had a fabulous day yesterday on the Tour...kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and it really was magical! The kids loved the passports haded out free, and had a whale of a time collecting the various "stamps" around the studios, as well as looking out for the hidden objects. rReally great job done by the organizers and staff, particularly the tour guides who manage somehow to keep their routine fresh for each batch of visitors. As it was Half-Term ("Dark-Arts Week!" ) there were some "extras" about...

Here's a slideshow of our pictures...