Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios Tour London- Dumbledore’s office, Snapes Potion Class, Hagrid Hut, Quidditch Green Screen and Ministry of Magic

Dumbledore’s office
Dumbledore office is one of the few highlights and one of the better exhibits on display at this early stage of the studio tour. There is hidden snitch here too. The Headmaster’s office is the place where the final scene of the final book in the series takes place.You will enjoy full 360 view of the office upon entering the Headmaster’s office, it is a large two level circular room perched on a high tower in Hogwarts, complete with an astronomy viewing area on the upper floor of the office.

Everything here is all about detail, from the coloration of the stair rails, the wall library to the arrangement of items on Dumbledore’s desk. Many portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses dot the walls, which are actually portrait paintings of several film crew members.. You may also be able to spot the sorting hat as well as the sword of Gryffindor here on this live movie set as well. Commentary here will tell you about the various conceptualization which went into the design of the office plan itself, comprising of two overlapping circle as a floor plan which sets the double floor office we come to know perched at the top of one of Hogwarts high towers (and offering of course great views required for the astronomy viewing deck too).

Potions Class
One of the few memorable scenes in the movie is the potions class itself. A class taught by Snape (the Potions master from Slyderirin house). The place echoes in all things which makes Snape, well, Snapes. The Potions class takes place in the Hogwarts Severus Dungeons, which is portrayed through a dark, cold and clammy set complete with stone covered walls with minimal lightning and faint light rays peaking from through the Dungeon’s small window slits.

The Dungeon walls themselves are lined with containers of all things imaginable in a wizard’s kitchen cabinet, such as an assortment of plant and reptile parts just to name afew. Taking center stage on the potions class is the self-stirring cauldron, complete with lighting and smoke effects to begin with. This sets very well the atmosphere well-fitting for a potion class.

Hagrid Hut
Hagrid Hut is laid out with a variety of messiness as even in the movie. It is a small wooden cabin located outside of Hogwarts Castle with only one room inside, with hams and pheasants hanging from the ceiling. There is also a fireplace with copper hot water kettle. In the movie, it was located on the edge of the Forbidden Forest and served as a home to Rubeus Hagrid and some of his pets, including Fang during his years as gatekeeper and teaching at Hogwarts. It is detailed complete with pumpkins and working farm wheel barrow right outside his house. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were amongst the Hogwarts students who regularly visited Hagrid in his hut. A live-sized scale figure of Hagrid resides in the Hut too, offering a live comparison of size of his size to his minute-sized Hut.

No magic school is complete without the presence of animal partners. Harry potter itself owns parts of its success to invaluable contributions by animal actors themselves. A lists of animal actors used over the films were commemorated in a section itself dedicated to our furry actors. On average, over 4 different similar “animal doubles” were recruited to play the role of our on-screen animal actors, each with their very own personalities for specific roles. Hegwig and Pigwidgeon for instance are played by 4 different animals each, with their own favorite part in the film.

The Burrow
The Burrow was the family home of the Weasley family and second home to Harry Potter, located on the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, England. It is an architecturally impossible magical dwelling held up completely with magic. The cluttered home was used as a Headquarters during the Order of the Phoenix, but was abandoned due to the Death Eaters during the Second Wizarding War. Magic of course runs everything in the home, from automatic cutting knife and self-knitting needles. These can be all activated by touch-sensitive display stands on the exhibit.

Moving on the exhibits will bring you the large prop store area, comprising mostly of large structural and building elements seen in the movies such as the Hogwarts door, moving staircases and Gringotts vault door (Chamber of Secrets) up close, allowing you to view the hand crafted details such as the door’s inter-locking mechanisms details up close.

Following the large prop store area is the Green screen “movie magic” area, consisting of several Quidditch broom-mounted and hydraulically-actuated stewart platforms which the actors have to ride on like a remote-controlled kiddy ride machine. The machines movements here are matched to the film’s flying sequences employed in the Quidditch matches.

Spoilers aside, you will (especially the kids) never see Quidditch the same way again after knowing this. There are of course several significant engineering elements to it as well. Comprising of several intricately hand-made jigs, platforms and robotics capable to mimic any desired flying motion (even mechanical bull-erratic moves) typically seen in a heated neck-to-neck Quidditch match.

Broom flying try-out areas
Knowing the “true magic” of Quidditch matches, visitors can have a go on the “flying” the brooms themselves at the green screen tryout areas. This try out zone will put you through the paces of movie magic by subjecting users through a variety live fly-through renders using different backgrounds while seated in their flying vehicle of choice. Long queues here are expected, but you have a choice of riding a Ford Angelia (best suited for families), Hargrids motorbike or the more traditional flying broom.

A Hogwarts house robe of your choice will be loaned to you to wear for the duration of the flying broom flight. Here, you will be put through a fixed set of fly-through scene sequences in London, Hogwarts, etc, as recorded by a video camera with active blanking of all green colours, just try not to wear green or risk looking like having an invisible cloak wrapped you! An on-ride photo of your green experience will be taken by a dedicated DSLR camera at the end of the flight. The crew on hand will guide you on the appropriate cameras to look at. You have a choice a variety of backgrounds for your on-ride still photo which is pretty unique for this attraction.

Are you familiar with all the spells used in all the Harry potter movies? Pit your verbal skills in the spell try out zone, allowing you to test your spell casting actions as tied to a demonstration screen and facilitate by an attraction helper.

Ministry of Magic
Exiting the broom flying area will bring your straight in the distinctively pink office set of Dolores Uxbridge in the Ministry of Magic. Her office is lined up with a variety of ornamental plates including those featuring kitten art works. Visitors with the multimedia guide can view a complete photo gallery of all the feline photos taken for the plates as well as the cats who played Crookshanks and Mrs Norris.

Nearing the end of this studio’s exhibit will be a live-sized display of the movie sets used in the Ministry of magic scene. Only a few of the actual sets built are on display here, with the rest completed using computer generated graphics. Items on display here will of course be the working red-tiled offices as well as the green fire-places in the Ministry of magic. Taking center stage here will be the “Magic is Might statue” located in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic Headquarters. A variety of official uniforms of the officials in the Ministry of Magic are on display here too.

Various robed costumes used for the movie’s main protagonist Lord Voldemort are on display here as well as a combination of face masks which did not see the light of being used in the film itself. Here, conceptualizations of a strikingly scary face was shared through the multimedia guide to determine the ultimate look of Voldemort himself, with aims of making it memorable and unique without potentially of course giving nightmare to kids.

» Next up, The Backlot, Butter beer, Creature Lab and Hogwarts Castle