Day 2 continues! This is definitely the highlight of my trip – oddly enough, I don’t consider myself a massive Harry Potter fan, but I do love the movies and the universe, products (merch) and experiences tied to it. In the same way that I’m a Star Wars fan – Harry Potter is a franchise that has captured at least part of my imagination!

Just a word of warning – this blog post is definitely photo and video heavy! Please enjoy ♥ everything in it is clickable for a larger size photo

Straight out of the station, we were greeted by a Patronus, so we knew we were in the right place!

The gates were tall iron gates too, keeping out the riff raff. Security was surprisingly tight at the studios – I suppose because of all the authentic, original set pieces, etc.

Walking in, we had to go through metal detectors, bag searches (strictly no extended selfie sticks allowed) and a few other checks, which was very surprising actually…! All under the watchful eye of a dragon (it’s the one that chased Harry, I forget what it’s called)

The tour was actually suggested as being about 5 hours long, which at first, was difficult to believe, but they really meant it when they told us – the tour is FULL of stuff to see, and learn about. To quote the celebrities in the intro video “It’s a love letter to all things about creating the movies and stories from the Wizarding World”.

Beginning the Tour…

There’s only an intro cinematic we’re all forced to watch where they go over some rules about photography (there’s a couple of zones we can’t take photos in) – and then the tour begins. You start by watching things on a cinema screen (which you can’t record of course) – then the screen moves up to reveal the ACTUAL doors to the Great Hall in Hogwarts used in the movies – I asked a nearby staff member and these aren’t the actual doors from the movie sets, but the Great Hall beyond it, IS one of the two actual Great Hall sets used. It’s even real sandstone, I was gobsmacked.

And it was obviously gob-smacking walking through this… (no YouTube upload this time!)

There was a strong focus on the architecture of the movies – with such grand vistas, and epic set pieces, of course – there were SO many whitebox concept models and other things that helped directors, actors and crew alike visualise how they were putting things together, or framing shots, etc.

It was incredibly fascinating checking everything out and there’s FAR too many photos to show off. Here’s a select few especially surrounding the magical staircases at Hogwarts’ student accommodations.

The house common rooms – consisted of actual pieces from the sets – these were NOT recreations.

Annie and I were sorted into house Slytherin actually, so it’s been interesting seeing parts of it across the sets, and merchandise, etc.

I definitely need to buy Annie a Slytherin school cloak 😏

For the Quidditch fans, there was a lot of stuff surrounding the games, and the brooms used in Quidditch.

There was an entire costume section too on the characters both from the Harry Potter series and the Fantastic Beasts series. I wish I had taken more pictures, but due to lighting it was nearly impossible to get photos without the reflections of everybody appearing in the glass. It’s truly awesome seeing the costumes and the styles they designed for various characters, factions and regions in the Potterverse.

Anyone that knows me, is aware that I’m a fan of books, bookbindings, and all such things. We got to see a few pieces in detail, as well as the set pieces used in scenes involving Hermione doing research at times.

And of course, there was an actual costume for He Who Shall Not be Named as well! (1:1 Ralph Fiennes mannequin!)

A break in the tour: halfway point & butter beer!

A brisk, swift walk through the creepy forest bit with Dementors, Spiders and Centaurs (none of which Annie appreciated haha) and we found ourselves at an intermission area, with Hagrid’s hut, and a quick chance to try out some “authentic” Butter Beer.

It was a nice little break! I got to drink Butter Beer, and collect a few mugs for some friends back in Sydney as well 🙂

After a short break – we were ducked into a hall – that had the Hogwarts’ Express. In full size, from the movie sets. Again, this wasn’t a reproduction either, and it was stunning to see at life size – the train itself isn’t actually at full scale of a real train surprisingly, this is one of the ones made for distance shots in the film. Filming and photography wasn’t allowed on board, sadly.

At the end of the train platform/yard building – you take a turn, and get gobsmacked with this…

This again, was not a recreation – but some of the set pieces have been adjoined together due to space constraints. This was part of the Ministry of Magic set, and honestly, jaw dropping.

Further beyond, we got to see Diagon Alley! Some parts of the set were brought in and assembled here too

The amount of detailing that’d gone into the sets, with signwriting, books, ALL the detritus in the film, all of it was made to a fairly high level of authenticity. It was stunning to see!

I’m an enjoyer of maps, coins, medallions, books – anything with sentimental “core memory” triggering properties for me, I try to collect. And now that I’ve seen the above photo of the Marauder’s map again – I think I won’t put up the one I have at home just yet, but rather I should encase it similarly to how it is here – so I’ll need an extra map or two.

The grand finale of the tour

You finally come to a large, darkened hall – and honestly it’s just… so impressive, there’s a full scale model of Hogwarts that they used for concepts and visualization. The model itself was used in the movies as well! This was the absolute finale to the tour, with a catwalk that spirals the model, before leading back to the main food hall, merchandising stores, and entry hall.

We made it! We saw the tour, and it was bright and sunny when we went in, and pitch black night when we went out! The merch store after the tour and the dining hall itself – is an additional hour, EASILY if you’re planning to buy stuff (we did) and look at stuff, in addition to eating food!

Highly, highly recommended, this tour was one of the two highlights of the trip for me (the other being a Mt. Fuji tour!) – and it was a joy seeing all the behind the scenes stuff. I hadn’t even included all the pictures for this of things like the VFX section, the Foley Artists section, sound and audio combinations, the animatronics, and more!

Truly a must see, if you make it Tokyo 🙂