The trip to Leavesden Studios where the Harry Potter films were actually made, 15 minutes outside of London even felt a bit like the Hogwarts trip as we took the train to Watford Junction and were picked up by one of the special Harry Potter Tour buses and driven to The Making of Harry Potter Tour over a small rise.

Writing about my visit to The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter was a bit of a challenge. Firstly I do not have the faculties to adequately describe just how wonderful the Harry Potter Tour is, or how to condense the scope of what can be seen and experienced without a book like thesis accompanied by a 1,000s of illustrative photos to do it justice (I ended up with 720 photos and a gig of video).

I’m pretty sure that if most of you were to read the glowing and emotion inducing endorsement of The Making of Harry Potter Tour that I had originally planned you would be suspicious that such a cynicism free recommendation from me. So rather than an adjective rich and spoiler laden walk through of the Harry Potter Tour in which there are lots of surprises. I thought showing you some of the magic would be a better way to go and decided to collate a list of the Top 10 things to do on the Harry Potter Tour as chosen by myself, people who visited the Harry Potter Tour and the stars and team behind the Harry Potter films.

I can only imagine that the title The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter means a lot more to those with a broader overview but it doesn't really flow off the tongue easily so I refer to it as The Harry Potter Tour in this post.

Just to set the tone I have never read a Harry Potter book, I have had a bit of a love hate relationship with the films ranging from - wondering what on earth I was doing sitting in the cinema watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone through to the frustration of wishing that all the Harry Potter films had the same level of detail and care put into them as with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – which I absolutely loved. But I do not for one second not think of the legacy of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series as anything less than a British institution, part of popular culture and the actors we saw grow up on screen - National Treasures. 

The Harry Potter Tour is a fitting testament or rather celebration of not only of the actors of Harry Potter series but more so for the many unknown and unsung craftsmen working behind the camera & scenes to make the Harry Potter films as loved as they are. As with the last Harry Potter film the overriding sense that I got from the Harry Potter Tour is that is has been designed and put together by people that really cared about what they were doing. The amount of care and attention and though that has gone into the detail of designing The Harry Potter Tour is significant. It is a landmark destination for not only Harry Potter fans, families but anyone interested in the making of film and there is nothing like it in the UK or elsewhere.

We spent 4 genuinely magical hours exploring the Making of Harry Potter tour. The Harry Potter tour is split between 2 staggeringly giant sound studios (Studio J & Studio K - pure coincidence as mentioned to us on a number of occasions) and an outside area on the Leavesden lot. All of this comprised of 11 large sub areas; The Lobby (tickets, posters and some props - find the ),


The Studio Café (Snacks & refreshments), Cinema area (brief introduction), The Great Hall, Interior Sets, Quidditch Photo Experience (also flying car), Exterior Sets & outside refreshment area, Creature Shop, Diagon Alley, Model Room (& concept art) and finally the Studio Shop leading back to the Lobby.

Part museum housing an absolutely ASTONISHING collection of pieces from across the Harry Potter films including props, costumes, sets and concept art. Part interactive playground – complete with magically moving items and animatronics characters, green screen Quidditch & flying car photo or video opportunities or replicas of Hagrids bike, the flying Anglia or even the Knight Bus that can be sat in.

 All the time being guided by interactive installations or helpful tour guides I was encouraged to challenge their knowledge which wasn’t necessary as on two occasions they appeared out of nowhere to offer up some insight into the items of interest. The third time I needed help identifying an almost hidden golden centaur statue - it was from The Fountain of Magical Brethren. I did notice that the kids visiting the tour each received a passport that they could stamp at certain points during the tour so I presume that you are directed to all the good bits of the tour, but here is my second half of my 12 Top must do or see things at The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter.

7-12 of The Top 10 things to do on The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter Tour
Bear in mind there is some grouping here a there is just too much to list or take in on a single visit. Also bear in mind that these are my 10 favourite things from the tour and I am a grown man but there are many, many other things to see and do

7. Find all of Voldemort's Horcruxes
At the crux of Voldemort's power are the 7 Horcruxes in which he hides bits of his soul.Harry Potter spends considerably more of his time searching for the Horcrxes than you'll have to.

I only found 4 of the 7 Horcruxes in the Interior Set area and another in The Creature Shop. The 2 I didn't see were Harry himself (might not be possible) and Nagini, but I'm pretty sure Nagini is in there somewhere.

A Horcrux is a powerful object in which a Dark wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality. Creating one Horcrux gives one the ability to resurrect oneself if the body is destroyed; the more Horcruxes one creates, the closer one is to true immortality. Creating multiple Horcruxes is suggested to be costly to the creator, by both diminishing their humanity and even physically disfiguring them. - From Harry Potter Wikia:

1-5 of my Top 10 Things to do on The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter tour can be found here: http://www.theestablishingshot.com/2012/04/establishing-shot-top-12-1-6-things-to.html

Our full photo set from The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter Tour on Flickr is over here! Or you can view our slideshow below.

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter tour slideshow

For more info on The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter tour head ove to: http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/