Places in Harry Potter
The Harry Potter book and film series are set in a number of fictional locations.
Azkaban
Beauxbatons
Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (French: Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons) is a fictional magic school, first introduced in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Beauxbatons has a history that goes back at least 700 years, when they began participating in the Triwizard Tournament. Beauxbatons also competes in the Triwizard Tournament in 1994.
Beauxbatons students follow a strict system of protocol concerning their behaviour towards their professors, which is noticeably different from that at Hogwarts, for example, standing when their headmistress enters the room. The school follows a different examination system as well: at Hogwarts, major board exams are taken in the fifth and seventh years, while Beauxbatons students sit for their exams in the sixth year.
The Academy is housed in a glittering palace. The food, at least according to alumna Fleur Delacour, is delicious. Students wear blue and grey silk uniforms, indicating that Beauxbatons may be located in the South of France. Rather than suits of armour, the halls of Beauxbatons are flanked by statues of ice that glitter like diamonds during the Christmas season. While only female students of Beauxbatons are portrayed in the film, the books mention that the school is co-ed, and in fact a Hogwarts student Parvati Patil briefly dates a Beauxbatons boy.
Alumna Fleur Delacour competed in the 1994 Triwizard Tournament and finished last, after failing to complete the second round.
The Burrow
Diagon Alley
Durmstrang
Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning is a fictional magic school. The school has existed for at least 700 years when they began participating in the Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore welcomes Durmstrang's students as "our friends from the North." Durmstrang students wear heavy furs with blood-red robes.
Durmstrang is known for placing an emphasis on the study of the Dark Arts. While other schools of magic in the series limit the study to Defence Against the Dark Arts, Durmstrang students actually learn them. Krum explains that a thorough knowledge of the dark arts is necessary in order to defend against them. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald attended Durmstrang before being expelled for delving too deeply into the Dark Arts.
Godric's Hollow
Godric's Hollow is a fictional village.[1] With Hogsmeade established as the only remaining all-magical community in Great Britain,[2] Godric's Hollow has a Muggle population.[3]
Godric's Hollow was the final hiding place of James and Lily Potter prior to being murdered by Lord Voldemort on 31 October 1981.[4] It was at this same time that their son, Harry, was left with his lightning bolt-shaped scar.
Godric's Hollow was the home of James Potter's family, and the home of long-dead Hogwarts founder Godric Gryffindor.[3] At the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry says he plans to visit the village and his parents' gravesites after attending Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding at The Burrow during the summer of the seventh book.[5]. This takes place during the final book, though it turns out to be a trap, and Harry only just escapes Lord Voldemort. Godric's Hollow's cemetery is the resting place for many personalities, the most famous being Ignotus Peverell, Lily & James Potter and Kendra & Ariana Dumbledore.
J. K. Rowling was questioned in an interview for CBBC Newsround and implicitly confirmed the connection between Godric's Hollow and Godric Gryffindor.[6] In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is confirmed that the village was in fact named after Godric Gryffindor, one of the noted founders of Hogwarts.
Hogwarts
Hogsmeade
Knockturn Alley
Knockturn Alley is a fictional location leading off of the more savoury Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley is a dark and seedy alleyway in London to which muggles have no access, and which is frequented largely by Dark Wizards. Many of the shops in Knockturn Alley are devoted to the Dark Arts; the most notable is Borgin & Burkes, which sells sinister and dangerous objects.
Little Hangleton
Little Hangleton is a fictitious village. It enters the story at several points, but is notable as the place of origin of Lord Voldemort's maternal and paternal ancestors, and as the place where he was restored to bodily form in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Although the village first appears in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth volume in the series, it is not described until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth volume.
The village occupied the floor of a valley, bounded by steep hills. Above the village on one side of the valley were a Church and cemetery, and higher still the imposing Riddle House, the home of the Riddle family who were the chief landowners in the area. On the opposite side of the valley, the only dwelling appears to have been the dilapidated cottage which was the home of the magical but anti-social Gaunt family, set in a copse alongside the winding road which climbed out of the valley. [7]. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,Voldemort and Harry fight in the graveyard of Little Hangleton.
Little Whinging
Little Whinging, Surrey, England, is a fictitious town to the south of London. Rowling supposedly designed this place to be a bland, stereotypical town in London's commuter belt, in order to contrast it with the unique and spectacular Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The name "Little Whinging" is a pun on the word whingeing, which has the same meaning as whining.[citation needed]
Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, is Harry Potter's home, where he lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin, the Dursleys. He has lived there since the age of 15 months, having previously lived with his parents in Godric's Hollow. However, since beginning at Hogwarts, he spends little time here, returning only during the summer holidays. In the novels and films, the Dursleys' home is in a respectable and deeply boring neighbourhood where the neighbours ostracise Harry, who despises Little Whinging because of his memories of his cruel treatment there. Mrs Figg, who lives two streets away from 4 Privet drive in the novels, but just across the road in the films, knows of Harry's magic as she is a Squib member of the Order of the Phoenix, placed in Little Whinging by Dumbledore to keep an eye on Harry. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Albus Dumbledore reveals that there is a reason why Harry must return there at least once a year.
The owner of the house used in filming the Harry Potter films, 12 Picket Post Close, Bracknell, Berkshire, in July 2003 had difficulty selling it, despite hoping its status would command a massive premium.[citation needed] However, it eventually sold on 2 April 2004 for £239,950.
Ministry of Magic
Number 12, Grimmauld Place
Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London is the address of a fictitious house. This house was formerly the home of the Black family, an ancient, pure-blood line of wizards. It first appears in the fifth book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. "Grimmauld Place" is a pun on "grim, old place", and possibly also "Grim's old place", referring to the fact that Sirius Black was thought in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to be the Grim, a black dog. Grimoald was also a personal name. Number 12, Grimmauld Place is a Georgian terraced house.
Number 12 houses the Black family tree on a wall tapestry, and an enchanted portrait of Walburga Black,
Many security measures are in place at Grimmauld Place. It is disguised from Muggles and other
interlopers. It is as secure as any magical dwelling can be and can accommodate a large number of people. For this reason, it was
chosen as the headquarters of the reconstituted Order of the Phoenix when Sirius
offered it to the Order. Only magical persons can see it and only if told the location by the Secret Keeper himself. Because Sirius was incarcerated in
The Riddle House
The Riddle House is the former home of the Riddle family, the paternal relatives of Lord Voldemort (Tom Marvolo Riddle). It first appears in the opening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as the location of Frank Bryce's murder. The Riddle House is located in the village of Little Hangleton, and was at one time the finest house in the village. Tom Marvolo Riddle murdered his father and grandparents here. Voldemort was later restored to full bodily form in the nearby graveyard.
Shrieking Shack
The Shrieking Shack is on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, the only entirely wizarding settlement in Great Britain, a village close to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Shrieking Shack is believed to be the most haunted building in Great Britain. This, as we find out in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is not true. The Shrieking Shack was built so that Remus Lupin, who is a werewolf, could go there at the full moon to transform without harming his fellow students or any others. The villagers heard the noise and mistook it for violent spirits. This rumour, encouraged by Hogwarts' Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, led to the Shrieking Shack being officially regarded as the most haunted building in Britain.
In Prisoner of Azkaban the Shrieking Shack becomes
part of the dramatic conclusion of the book when
Spinner's End
Spinner's End is a fictitious place that is first mentioned in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It is a street, on which sits a house that is the summer home of Severus Snape. It is described as one of several streets of identical brick. It is located near a dirty river, the bank of which is strewn with litter. A mill with a tall chimney is close by.
Snape's front door opens directly into a sitting room that has the feeling of a dark, padded cell, containing walls filled with books, threadbare furniture, and a dim, candle-filled lamp that hangs from the ceiling. A hidden door leads to a narrow staircase. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that Snape lived at Spinner's End as a child and that Lily and Petunia Evans lived in the same town.
St. Mungo's
St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is a fictional hospital. Medics at the hospital are not called doctors, but are known as Healers or Mediwizards and wear lime-green robes. Founded by famous wizard Healer Mungo Bonham, St Mungo's is located in London. To enter the premises, one has to step through the window of what appears to be a derelict department store called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The exteriors of the hospital are red-bricked and dirty, which is the complete opposite of the interiors. Inside, everything is very neat and looks exactly as a hospital should. There are six floors. The emblem of St Mungo's is a magic wand crossed with a bone.
Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes
Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is a fictional business. It was founded by Fred and George Weasley around 1994 or previous and they started selling, or at least advertising, in the summer of 1995. The following summer they opened premises at 93 Diagon Alley. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes sells joke and trick items, useful novelties and Defence Against the Dark Arts items.
Fred and George started using the name "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes" in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for mail orders. To run their own joke shop had always been their life ambition, and this ambition was finally realised when Harry Potter, a good friend of theirs, gave them his Triwizard Tournament winnings of a thousand Galleons. After departing from Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the two Weasleys set up their shop in Diagon Alley, which quickly became very successful.
Filming locations
Australia House , The Strand, London (Gringott's Bank)- Alnwick Castle, Northumberland (Hogwarts, outside scenes)
- Bodleian Library, Oxford (Hogwarts interiors)
- Martins Heron, Berkshire (Privet Drive)
- Christ Church, Oxford (Hogwarts interiors)
- Durham Cathedral (Hogwarts interiors)
- Gloucester Cathedral (Hogwarts corridors)
- Goathland railway station, Yorkshire (Hogsmeade Station)
- Kings Cross Station, London (Kings Cross interior)
- Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire (Hogwarts interiors)
- Leadenhall Market, London (Diagon Alley)
- London Zoo (Reptile House)
- St Pancras railway station, London (Kings Cross exterior).
References
- ^ Rowling, J. K.. Section: F.A.Q. (English). J.K. Rowling Official Site. Retrieved on 2006-08-30.
- ^ Rowling, J. K. [1999-07-08] (2001-09-11). "THE DEMENTOR", Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Scholastic. DOI:10.1223/0786222743. ISBN 0-439-13636-9.
- ^ a b Rowling, J. K. [2007-07-21] (2007-07-21). "GODRIC'S HOLLOW", Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0-747-59105-9.
- ^ Rowling, J. K. (2001-09-11). "THE BOY WHO LIVED", Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Scholastic. ISBN 0-590-35342-X.
- ^ Rowling, J. K. [2006-07-16] (2006-07-25). "THE WHITE TOMB", Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Scholastic. ISBN 0-439-78596-0.
- ^ JK interview Part 4 - questions and queries (English). CBBC Newsround. BBC (2002-10-23). Retrieved on 2006-08-30.
- ^ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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