If you and your child are Muggles and are headed to England, there are must-do walking or taxie tours for the sites made famous in the Harry Potter films by Warner Brothers.
These tours are not to be confused with “The Making of Harry Potter” walking tour at Leavesden, England, which is currently being developed by Warner Brothers and will be available in 2012, these are tours that will take you to the actual sites that were captured in the Harry Potter films. Along the way you will discover everything you ever wanted to know about London and the environs.
Operated by one of the best-guided tour companies in the United Kingdom, London Walks, provides special affordable memories that last a lifetime. The three different Harry Potter Walking Tours that are available need not be booked in advance and conveniently meet up as designated tube stations.
The video below, just one example of the many tours London Walks offers, will give you a good idea about how a typical tour works.
For further information and current pricing please visit the London Walks website.
Hundreds of tours are operated each year by London Walks, the three Harry Potter location tour the guides are a wealth of engaging informationare run by one of the best special film set tours that are currently being constructed being constructed avaiable plural because the film locations are too spread out for just one walk.)
1) A Harry Potter Film Locations Walk 2) The Harry Potter Film Locations Taxi Safari.
Okay, this is a big 'un. A big 'un because there's two different kinds of Harry Potter Film Locations Tours. 1) A Harry Potter Film Locations Walk (well, three different walking tours – see below); and 2) The Harry Potter Film Locations Taxi Safari.
The walking tours are described first – let's call that Part One. Part Two is the description (and other particulars) of the Taxi Safari. A line across the page, like this:
divides Part One from Part Two. So if you want to go directly to the information about the Harry Potter Film Locations Taxi Safari just scroll down to the dividing line and go from there.
Okay, here we go...
Harry Potter: "Can we find all this in London?"
Hagrid: "If yeh know where to go."
Where to go on these three completely different tours. (Tours plural because the film locations are too spread out for just one walk.) Betwixt and between the film locations we hit the sweet spots – the very best of quirky, peculiar, curious, lost old London. It's all very Harry Potter and Co.
For a detailed description of each of the two different tours, see below. But first a word about the guide. Because with this one you've got to get the guide right. You've got to have a guide who's part Lumos, part Mirror of Eristed. Who's got his O.W.L.s and then some. Cornish Pixies* won't do. *Let alone pizza delivery boys, parking lot attendants and security guards.
And that's by way of saying, it takes a very special guide to get this one right. It's a question of range. A gifted actor – like Richard – has got that range. He's instantly likable. But he can also do high-beam intensity. He's got the goblet of fire voice. Got the dynamic personality. Got the past: Himalayas and a raft on the Pacific (London Walks' Action Man, he's earned that nickname of his – "Kontiki"). He's got those actor "gifts" that can't be taught, let alone faked. He's pitch perfect. He's got timing. He's got presence. He's just got it. All of it.
Harry Potter Film Locations in the City takes place on Sundays from Bank Tube, exit 3. Here's guide Richard taking you through the menu for this one: "This walk 'Potters' through the old City of London. You’ll see most of the great buildings of the ancient City: the Bank of England, Mansion House, the wonderful Leadenhall Market, a close up view of the ‘Gherkin’, magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral, etc. You’ll cross the river by way of London Bridge – natch! You’ll see film locations where Hagrid and Harry make their way to Diagon Alley in the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. You’ll see where Harry, Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks and their friends fly in The Order of the Phoenix. And you’ll see the locations used for the Leaky Cauldron and the Third Hand Book Emporium in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And lots more. What's not to like about a London Walk packed with history and Harry Potter. So come on muggles, it's time to enter the maze. Yes, that time – Portkey time, warp-across-London time!
N.B. There's a 3 galleon* charge for kids as this one's for all ages!
*Oh, okay – if you must put it that way – £3. But not for tinies – under 8s – they go free.
And Harry Potter on Location in Londontown takes place on Saturdays from WestminsterTube, exit 4. Here's Guide Richard again, taking you this time through the menu for the Harry Potter on Location in Londontown tour: "The walk takes in many of the grand sights of London including a terrific view of the river, Big Ben, Whitehall, Downing Street, Scotland Yard, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. And – this should go without saying – you'll get to see some brilliant Harry Potter film locations, including the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, the flight path of Death-Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as well as the flight path taken by Harry, Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks and Co. in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's a treat for Harry Potter fans and indeed for the benighted few who aren't Harry Potter fans. (Works for them because of "the sweet spots – the very best of quirky, peculiar, curious, lost old London.") And if you're not a Harry Potter fan or a London fan – this is the wrong walk for you; and for that matter, the wrong town.
N.B. There's a 3 galleon* charge for kids as this one's for all ages!
*Oh, okay – if you must put it that way – £3. But not for tinies – under 8s – they go free.
And Deathly Hallows – The Quest Very definitely Harry Potter for grown-ups! takes place every Monday evening at 6.30 pm from TempleTube. Heeeeeeeeeeeere's the blurb: Celebrate the release of the thrilling seventh film with London Walks' very own Harry Potter expert, let alone uber fan! Kontiki Richard leads you through the most magical bits of old London. The wizard's bank. A fantastical mansion where we'll relive the last tortured moments of Charity Burbage. A gas-lit courtyard packed with Potter atmosphere and twice used by the Harry Potter production team. It's a walk laced with tales of good and evil, magic and legend. all of it wovenround the elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone and, of course, the Horcruxes. Where will it end? At the home of the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Naturally. N.B. this one's for grown-ups so any and all kids go free – if they're accompanied by their parent(s)!
"Nothing like a...stroll to give you ideas"
The Harry Potter Film Locations Tours take place
every Monday evening at 6.30 pm from TempleTube
every Saturday afternoon at 2 pm from WestminsterTube, exit 4
and every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm from BankTube, exit 3.
YOU'VE SEEN THE FILMS,
NOW VISIT THE SET!
Ok, the London [and Oxford, etc.] Film Locations
Okay, now let's turn the page. Turn the page because London's by no means the whole story.
Which is by way of saying, if you really want to amp it up, there are some outriding combinations Richard's put together that'll knock your socks off.
For example:
1) The London stuff and Lacock, Lacock Abbey & Hog-' inthingies';
2) Or the London stuff and Blenheim Palace & Oxford(for Hog-'thingie's' Hospital, the Great Hall and Library) |
There are several other versions of Labyrinth, each slightly different, and each carrying different pricing. The Duel, based on the original game is available through Amazon.com for $15.99 and where you will be able to view a video of the game in action.
There also is the Labyrinth Card Game for $9.40 through Amazon.com, and Labyrinth Jr., a version that is perfect for children under the age of seven.
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