Once we stepped through the doors we were in the great hall. It was pretty much like being in the castle. There were heaps of little details that you don't notice in the movies - we will have to look for them when we get home.
After the great hall was a huge sound stage filled with sets from heaps of the rooms in the movies, and with props and actors costumes. The detail in all of these was incredible and particularly impressive because they had to be designed and made by scratch because they are different to our everyday items. We were particularly impressed about how many props were made to actually move themselves rather than using cgi to get the magical effects.
Part of this room was a green screen area where we were able to see ourselves in a short clip flying in the ford anglia and then dress in robes and fly on a broomstick. I was going to be able to buy the video, but we could only get pictures.
Outside in the backlot was the knight bus, no. 4 privet drive, the potters house, the bridge from Hogwarts, the giant chess pieces, Hagrid's bike and the ford anglia. They were also selling butterbeer, which is only sold in two places in the world. It was very yummy, and tasted like a cross between creaming soda and a spider. It has some kind of cream on the top.
The next area was displays about how they made the faces etc for all the creatures and odd looking wizards in the movie. There were also models of the dragons and buckbeak. Unfortunately we had to whizz through this part so we would miss our bus. We then stepped on to diagonal alley, which again made us feel as I'd we were actually there.
The last display was a scale model of the Hogwarts castle that they used in filming. It was fantastic to see the whole castle all it once. There is a lot more to it than you can tell from the films.
Our final stop was the gift shop where we accidentally purchased a very very heavy book about the making of the movies...
When we got back to London we had to pop in to our hostel to drop the heavy book off. We then caught the train the greenwich. We intended to find the meridian line, look through the park and see the old royal palaces. However, when we got there the park was closed as it is set up for the Olympic equestrian!
We hid in McDs and grabbed a very late lunch after using the toilet for free and hiding from the rain. If you are ever in the Cutty Shark Greenwich area this McDs is very nice and clean.
We caught the ferry along the Thames back to Westiminister. This was great because it gave us a completely different view of the buildings from the river. We also had an interesting commentary about all the buildings from one of the crew members.
When we were dropped of at Westminister we had our first view of Big Ben and parliament. We wandered over the Westminister bridge to the London Eye. We went for a ride and had some magnificent views of London.
After our ride we walked along the Thames on the southbank side of the river. There was a lot of things happening as it was Friday night. We saw some skilled skate boarders. We then found our way to a train station and caught a train to Leicester Square. Unfortunately all the shows had already started so we looked around and did some more shopping. We found the m & ms shop that had four different stories. It was pretty ridiculous how much stuff there was to buy from a place that makes 2-3 chocolate products!
We found china town and our tummies were rumbling as it was around 9.30pm. We stopped at Mr Wu's buffet - £9.35 all you can eat. The food was very nice, a little different to back home but not too much, and very filling.
After dinner we found our way to Piccadilly circus, saw the end of a street performers show, took a few pictures and headed home for the night.
Harry Potter studios were awesome. We could have definitely stayed there all day! The friendly guide even said we could stay until they left at 10pm! It is definitely a must do for any fan, or even anyone interested in filmmaking.
- Heidi xx
Photos:
Dumbledore's office
The boys dormitory
Piccadilly circus
Big Ben from boat cruise
Hogwarts castle model
Tower bridge from boat cruise
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