Warner Brother's Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter

The world was forever changed on the day in 1997 when Harry Potter’s first adventure Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released. A whole new generation of children was introduced to the magic of reading. It didn’t stop there, 6 more books were released over the next 12 years alongside 8 spellbinding movies.

The movies were made by Warner Brothers Studios and were thanks to the tireless work of thousands of passionate specialists. The entire series took 10 years to come to fruition, this happened in 2010 when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two was finished. This event left the production crew with a treasure trove of Harry Potter artefacts including one of the biggest sets ever made, The Great Hall of Hogwarts. Also in the mix was costumes, props, creatures, scale models of important sets and so much more.

Rather than simply dispose of this fascinating collection the Harry Potter Studio Tours was born, giving fans, young and old, a place to get closer to the movies and their hero Harry Potter. The idea was to preserve the magic for generations to come.

The Tour

I had the pleasure of visiting for the first time yesterday with my mum, dad and one-year-old baby and each of us was captivated from the very second we walked in the main lobby area and saw that Dragon looming over the room.

The lobby and Chocolate frog café are new, as is the initial walk through when you enter the tour before you get the cinema screen. This passageway is full of quotes, on set photos and even the cupboard under the stairs from Number 4 Privet Drive.

Without a doubt, the biggest draw of this attraction is getting to see and explore the actual sets from the movie. The grandest of these is The Great Hall. For the festive season, Christmas trees are running down either side, the house tables are full of yummy foods including flaming concrete Christmas puddings. The top of the hall is decorated for the Yule ball.

The Great hall is one of the first things that you see and it sets the tour off with a big bang. After the Great Hall, you’re lead into the Interior sets hall. This Aladdin’s cave of smaller sets includes Dumbledore’s and Umbridge’s offices, potions class and Hagrid’s Hut. You’ll find tons of smaller props and sets plus many costumes. The Magic is Might statue that depicts muggles holding up the ministry of magic can be found towards the end of this hall along with the entrance to the ministry and Tom Riddles grave.

This lead way to the Forbidden forest set. This set immerses you in the forest with centaurs unicorns and of course giant spiders. You have interactive buttons where you can make thunderclap and the wind howl. My son, although only one, was fascinated by the lights and movement.

The Forbidden Forest leads on to Platform 93/4. This set offers the perfect opportunity for a photo with half a trolley hanging out the platform the moment you enter. You can alight the Hogwarts Express and take a peek at some of the train cabins from each movie and practice taking photos with the help of a green screen.

Next, a quick pitstop for a bite to eat in the café and a butterbeer naturally. This cream flavoured delight is fizzy sweet and frothy, the must-have beverage of the day. Out the doors of the café, you’ll discover more seta including the Knight Bus and the Dursley’s House, which you can enter. It’s full of flying letters from Hogwarts. The uneven rickety bridge to Hogwarts was such a laugh for my son to run down.

Now we enter creature effects, this room was brilliant, showing us concept images of the creatures we could only imagine in the books and loved in the movies, cabinets full of goblin heads line the walls and Grawp. Our favourite part of this section was the animation cameras, you could stand in front of them and see yourself move at various stages of CGI animation.

Gringotts bank is one of the newest set additions, you get to feel exactly like Harry as you slowly walk down past the marble pillars towards the goblin set up high at the front, behind him is the staircase hidden in the floor that takes you into the vaults below. In the darkness, you’ll be confronted with the Lestrange family vault and have more fantastic pictures opportunities whilst surrounded by knuts, sickles and galleons. We won’t spoil the very last surprise that awaits you as you leave Gringotts.

Take a wander through the cobbled street of Diagon alley now, gazing in the shop windows of establishments such as Olivander’s, Flourish and Bolts and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. The Detail in this set made it our favourite of all the ones we saw. On to the art department where scale models of some of the most exciting sets can be seen in ridiculous detail. You get a sense for the work and planning that goes into every location.

The last room you’re lead into the Model Room. This contains a huge scale model of Hogwarts itself. You start at the tips of the turrets winding down the room around the castle until you finish at the bottom entrance. As we visited in December it’s lightly covered in snow making this breath-taking sight even more enchanting. We’ve never seen anything like it and every single person on the tour with us day were completely blown away.

The last stop of the day is the gift shop, this is more impressive than any gift shop we’ve ever seen and you’re so in love with Harry Potter again you want to buy it all but it isn’t cheap. We came away from the day with a Hufflepuff Keyring and Sugar Quill from the Honeydukes selection of sweets.

Overall we’d give this day a 10/10. If I were to go back I’d probably leave my baby at home, it was a long time for this new walker to be sat in his pushchair so ultimately I had to let him out to explore which meant I feel I missed a few bits. Saying that he loved the day as much as the rest of us except for the cinema where he did scream a little.

Under 5s enter the attraction for free although it should be noted that they still need to have a ticket booked for them. If you are visiting with your family then the Family ticket is great value at £150 for 2 adults and 2 children. Get tickets here! They must be pre-booked.