Warner Brother's Studio Tour: Behind the scenes of Harry Potter

If you’re a Harry Potter fan like myself, then the Warner Brother’s Studio Tour is an absolute must-visit venue to indulge in all your Hogsmeade fantasies and take a glimpse behind the scenes of your favourite books; brought to life for the silver screen.

If you love J.K. Rowling’s fictitious wizard world then you can’t fail to fall in love all over again with Harry, Ron, Hermione and company.

Locations

The tour allows you the chance to get a hands on experience of some of the most famous interior scenes and set locations – with the likes of the Great Hall, Gryffindor Common Room, The Weasley’s house, Hagrid’s hut, the Potions classroom and Dumbledore’s office to see where all the action took place. 

The teacher's table in The Great Hall

Gryffindor Common Room

Weasley's House

There’s also the chance of visiting Privet Drive and the Potter’s Godric’s Hollow cottage.

Potter's Cottage

Costume

Throughout the tour you’re able to view some of the most recognisable costumes from the films, including the day-to-day robes, the teachers costumes such, the final scene costumes and more fancy outfits such as the sickly pink hued dresses that adorned Professor Umbridge and the Yule Ball costumes.

Props and Design

There's the chance to sit in the blue Ford Anglia car used in The Chamber of Secrets which is a real thrill (as well as the option for an official photograph in there) and there’s plenty of other vehicles to take a look at too – from the Hogwarts Express and the Knight Bus (both of which you can hop aboard), to plenty of different broomsticks and Hagrid’s motorbike and side car. 

Hogwarts Express

The Knight Bus

The Sorting Hat, items from the Room of Requirement and wands galore can be seen up close too plus much, much more.

The Sorting Hat

The intricate white card builds of sets that happens before filming is completely spellbinding too – it’s amazing to see some of the incredibly clever and hard work that goes into each and every scene and location/set build. 

White Card Building of Hogwarts

Immersive Experience

There are some really great opportunities to feel like you’re fully immersed in the Potter experience – sitting in the Ford Anglia, riding a broom, taking a seat on the Hogwarts Express and running into Platform 9 ¾ with a trolley and a trunk – and an official photographer to capture all of these. These are priced at £14 a pop though – so be warned.

There’s also the chance to buy Butterbeer halfway through the tour at the Backlot Café which is fantastic. It tastes like an ice cream soda – utterly sweet and delicious – it’s £3.95 for a small plastic cup or another £3 to have your own plastic tankard or stein that you can take away with you. The café also serves hot and cold food if you need some sustenance.

Butterbeers

My favourite part of the tour was taking a walk along Diagon Alley – it truly felt magical and transported me to this fictitious place that I’d viewed on film but more importantly to me that I’d read about. The cobbled street and olde world shops of Flourish & Blott’s and Olivander’s is simply enchanting. 

Diagon Alley

The shop at Warner Brother’s Studio Tour has every kind of Harry Potter merchandise, from hoodies, wands, keyrings, mugs and soft toys to a designated Honey Dukes area where Chocolate Frogs and other sweet treats from the series can be purchased.

Details

The Warner Brother’s Studio Tour is located in Watford and we journeyed by coach from London Victoria via Golden Tours and the cost including entrance for myself and my friend Larni was £132 (or £66 a head) which was a gift at Christmas from Larni’s Mum (thanks Debs!). The price at the studio for entrance is £35 and you can also get the train into Watford and then jump onto the free shuttle buses that run every twenty minutes. There’s also a huge car park.

The tour is in designated time slots and whilst this may seem annoying, it’s incredibly busy with tourists, Potter fans and school trips so it’s necessary and actually we found it was ample time to journey round the tour at our own pace, taking in everything as well as stopping for our own photos.

If you’re a Potter fan and haven’t visited – book your tour now: https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/