Visit Harry Potter film locations independently in London and Oxford or take a tour
The Harry Potter™ movies stand as the most successful film series ever made. A significant number of scenes from these films were filmed within London itself.
On this page we identify many of the Harry Potter film locations in London and Oxford, easily reached by train or bus from London.
You can visit these independently using public transport or by a Harry Potter walking tour, Harry Potter Black Cab Tour or Harry Potter bus tour that will save you a lot of time and give you great added insights.
Want to know more about Harry Potter locations in the London area? Check out our blog: Harry Potter attractions in and around London
We start here with probably the most famous of all – ‘Platform 9 ¾’ at Kings Cross Station. Grab your broomstick… let’s fly…
Harry Potter locations in central London
There are many Harry Potter filming locations in both London, used in the Harry Potter film series, as well as many that provided J.K. Rowling with inspiration for her best selling books. Some of the more popular/memorable are listed below.
You really need a good guide book to bring them alive describing their place in the respective Harry Potter films they featured.
Harry Potter tours in London
All the places below are relatively straightforward to visit independently using a good map or guidebook.
However, delve a little deeper into Harry Potter’s world and learn some insider magical secrets from the books and the films, there are many popular Harry Potter walking and coach tours running nearly every day in London.
Guides are Harry Potter experts – so together in a group of fellow Potter enthusiasts you can discover the locations that made the wizarding world come to life through screen and on the page.
Visit our Harry Potter tour pages:
Harry Potter Black Cab Tour, London
Film locations walking tour, London
Platform 9¾ at Kings Cross Station
Kings Cross Station is of course the departure point for students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, of which its most famous student, Harry Potter, attends. The Hogwarts Express departs from Platform 9 ¾.
See the trolley in the wall – in the main hall area
The trolley that transports pupils at Hogwarts to another dimension is located at the station. Half embedded into a wall. Here you can re-enact your own Harry Potter moment.
To save congestion with queues of people, they now placed this in the main hall area of Kings Cross station – not between platforms 9 and 10 as you might think.
Professional photographs
Between the hours of 9am and 9pm you can pay to have a professional photographer and an assistant help you get the best possible photo, complete with Harry Potter scarf and/ or wand. You can still take your own photo here for free.
If you can only visit during peak periods and have money to spare, you may wish to consider purchasing VIP Photo Pass lanyard. This includes a platform 9 ¾ lanyard, your photograph and queue jump, all for £20.
When to visit
However, if this is too commercial for you then it is best to visit outside these hours to avoid the queues. Note: the queues can start before 9am so you will need to be early for this.
Harry Potter gift shop
Nearby is the Harry Potter gift shop selling a multitude of Harry Potter related merchandise; from wands to robes, scarves, sweets, bags, mugs, books and much more. Store opening times are between 8am – 10pm every day except Sunday (9am – 9pm).
Where the actual filming took place
If you wish to visit the spot where the filming actually took place, you will need to go to platforms 4 and 5, as this was where there was a suitable place with a brick wall to film.
For more information visit Kings Cross Station
St Pancras Renaissance Hotel
St Pancras Station and Renaissance Hotel are located next door to Kings Cross Station.
The filmmakers chose the magnificent Victorian (neo-Gothic style) St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel for exterior shots as a stand in for Kings Cross station in the Harry Potter films.
In the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Weasleys parked their magical Ford Anglia in a corner of the courtyard; later shots show the car flying above the Hotel, passing the large clock tower of St Pancras.
The clock is a modern replica of the original, sadly smashed in the 1970s, but like everything about St Pancras, born again new, and now much loved.
The hotel has its own interesting history; in recent times both the authorities neglected the station and hotel and threatened them with demolition. A major renovation project during the early part of the 21st Century saw both these buildings rise like a phoenix from the near flames, now a major hub and one of London’s most celebrated landmarks.
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel is one of London’s most luxurious hotels; guests can buy reasonable rooms from £200 a night, but they can rent three-bedroomed apartments for around £10,000 a night.
Charing Cross Road
People know Charing Cross Road for its second-hand bookshops on the edge of the vibrant theatre district and lively China Town.
The Leaky Cauldron pub and inn for wizards, serves as a gateway between the non-wizarding world and Diagon Alley. You can find one of the film locations on Charing Cross Road – look for a small shabby-looking inn, sandwiched between a record store and a large book shop.
More about shopping in London including Charing Cross Road
Cecil Court
Cecil Court, a charming pedestrian street nestled near Charing Cross Road, boasts a rich history that dates back to the 1600s. People know this delightful Victorian lane to be one of J.K. Rowling’s favourite spots in London, and many believe it inspired the magical Diagon Alley.
This area is also well-known for its charming bookshops, where you can even find first edition Harry Potter books! You’ll discover a variety of unique and rare bookstores here, including, of course, those specializing in witchcraft and magic.
Most Harry Potter walking tours will stop at Cecil Court. The Tour for Muggles (see picture) finishes here so you can spend the rest of your time browsing through the twenty of so antiquarian bookshops to your heart’s delight.
London Zoo
London Zoo is the film location for the scene in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001). The scene is at the beginning of the film in the Reptile House where Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) first discovers his gift for talking with snakes.
Here, Harry speaks in parseltongue, and magically the glass wall disappears; releasing the giant boa constrictor.
More about London Zoo and book tickets here
Leadenhall Market
Leadenhall Market is one of London’s oldest and most magnificent Victorian covered markets in the City of London, near Liverpool Street Station and the Tower of London.
It was used for exterior shots of Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. At Bull’s Head Passage you can find an opticians that was used as the entrance to the wizard’s pub, the Leaky Cauldron.
A self-guided walk round City of London including Leadenhall Market
Award winning Tour for Muggles including Leadenhall Market
Borough Market and Stoney Street
Located on the south bank of the river is one of London’s oldest food markets, dating back to the 13th century.
Borough Market was used as a film location in Harry Potter and the Prince of Azkaban, where the triple-decker Knight Bus is shown speeding down the main street. Eventually stopping at the Leaky Cauldron.
The entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was relocated to Stoney Street after the first film, and that’s where you’ll find Leadenhall Market.
Additionally, right next to the Leaky Cauldron, you can spot the shop that served as the set for The Third Hand Book Emporium.
London’s vibrant markets including Borough Market
St Paul’s Cathedral
The dome of St. Paul’s was used as the backdrop in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in the scene when the Death Eaters attack the Millennium Bridge. In addition interior shots of the Geometric Stair were taken in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as the staircase to Professor Trelawney’s Divination Tower.
St Paul’s Cathedral – home of the Whispering Gallery
Goodwin’s Court
Goodwin’s Court is a gem of a place in London with much medieval character. Goodwin’s Court is a narrow alley running between St. Martin’s Lane and Bedfordbury, a busy area in the West End, just north of Trafalgar Square.
The narrow lane dates back to 1627, and features old tall houses with Georgian bowed windows, once a line of shops.
At night it really displays its past as it comes to life with three large original gas lamps.
Like many of the places in London, Goodwin’s Court was visited by J.K. Rowling herself and provided her with the inspiration for the darker destination of Knockturn Alley in her books.
This is one of the places you will visit on the Tour for Muggles in London.
London’s bridges
In the opening sequence of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince the Millennium Bridge is shown swinging wildly before collapsing into the river.
There is a scene with a Harry and his friends in a broomstick chase in The Order of the Phoenix where Harry flies past London’s most iconic bridge, Tower Bridge.
Finally Lambeth Bridge (west of Tower Bridge) is featured in The Prisoner of Azkaban where the Knight Bus squeezes between two regular London buses whilst crossing the bridge.
Australia House, The Strand
Scenes for Gringotts Wizarding Bank (the only known bank of the wizarding world) in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone were filmed in the grand interior of Australia House on the Strand.
Harry Potter walking tour in Oxford
Oxford is another much used location for the Harry Potter films. Like London, nearly all the locations are attractions in themselves without the Harry Potter connections and there are other attractions very close by. Ideal to keep both parents and kids happy at the same time.
There are official Harry Potter walking tours that operate out of the tourist office – some of them are also free!
Oxford is very easy to travel to from London by bus or train or there are of course tours too.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour and Oxford in one day
Harry Potter locations in Oxford
Oxford is another much used location for the Harry Potter films. Like London, nearly all the locations are attractions in themselves without the Harry Potter connections and there are other attractions very close by. Ideal to keep both parents and kids happy at the same time.
There are official Harry Potter walking tours that operate out of the tourist office – some of them are also free!
Oxford is very easy to travel to from London by bus or train or there are of course tours too.
For more information see Visiting Oxford
Warner Bros. Studio Tour and Oxford in one day
Christ Church
Perhaps the most visited college in Oxford. Also home to the Tudor Great Hall – inspiration for Hogwarts’ own Great Hall dining room. From photographs of this hall a studio set was built with many similarities!
You can also view the grand stairway where Professor McGonagall meets Harry, Ron and Hermione and the others in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Cloisters or hallways were used for the scene where Hermione shows Harry the Quidditch trophy his father had won.
For more information visit Christ Church Oxford
New College
Used as a location in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, you can visit the south cloisters walk where in the film young wizards wear ‘Potter stinks’ badges.
Also see the northwest corner of the cloisters grass quadrangle where under the great Holm Oak scenes of Mad-Eye Moody turning Malfoy into a ferret were filmed.
Bodleian Library
The Divinity School with its Gothic vaulted ceiling served as Hogwarts infirmary in four films, and where Professor McGonagall taught students to dance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The Duke Humphrey’s Library was Hogwarts library. Both are located at the Bodleian Library, where tours can be booked.
Tours and Tickets
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
From £130pp
Multi award winning and Tickets valid for both parts of the play
Harry Potter Film Locations Walking Tour London
Harry Potter film locations – 3-hr walking tour in London plus Poppies Fish & Chips
Adult from £53pp
- Guided walking tour of Harry Potter film locations
- Poppies Fish & Chips • Morning and afternoon departures
- London in your pocket app access
Harry Potter Walking Tour Oxford
Harry Potter walking tour of Oxford with entry to Divinity School
Adult £39
- 1.5 hr family-friendly Harry Potter guided walking tour
- Includes entry to Divinity School at the Bodleian Library
- Old Oxford colleges
- Insider gossip on the movies
- Learn about Oxford University