Pottering around the UK in Hogwarts Style -
coverage of the HP Fan Trips Summary:
HP Fan Trips ran in the UK from June 1st to the 6th and the New Zealand Herald has an article about it.
Article: Pottering around the UK in Hogwarts Style
A couple of months ago now, news came about concerning
HP Fan Trips in the UK that were to lead fans around the UK, touring where parts of the films were made, riding on the Hogwarts express and attending a feast.
It was also announced that Chris Rankin aka Percy Weasley was to be present at parts of the tour to answer questions and show the fans around certain areas.
This was
very expensive ( £1239 ($3600) for adults (children were cheaper) and the numbers were limited, for obvious reasons. The
New Zealand Herald has an article concerning the HP Fan Trips that have just ended.
More reports and pictures should be on the way shortly. The event was held in celebration of the release of 'Prisoner of Azkaban' in cinemas.
The HP Fan Trips in all were avaliable to all nationalities, although British fans were only allowed to attend the few days trip, whereas all foreign fans had the opporunity to engage in the full experience.
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Harry's home in Privet Drive - or to be more precise the home of his appalling Muggle relations the Dursleys - is set in Picket Post Close, Martins Heron, Bracknell, not far from London.
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Then we move to Bracknell, in Berkshire, for many years a peaceful rural community, but opened up for people such as the Dursleys when the Muggle planners chose it as one of a ring of new towns to be developed around London.
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Off, then, to London Zoo in Regent's Park which, in its secret life as Little Whinging Zoo, was where Harry discovered the ability to communicate with the snakes in the Reptile House.
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Gringott's Bank is the secret identity of Australia House, in the Strand, home of the Australian High Commission - an appropriate choice, you might think, for a place run by goblins - although the vast marble floor where the film scenes were shot is a secure area opened to the public only once a year on a special open day.
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Platform 9 3/4 from which the express departs is, in ordinary life, Platform 4 at London's King's Cross Station but many of the exterior station shots used in the films were of St Pancras Station across the city.
The express runs mainly on the West Highlands Railway Line in Scotland - from Craigendoran (near Glasgow) to Fort William, passing under the shadow of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain - but it also uses the Waterloo and City underground lines.
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The Hogwarts Express does not do regular trips but it will be on display at Britain's National Railway Museum in York later this year and the train will make a special run this month.
Hogsmeade Station is Goathland Station, in the moorlands of Esk Valley, North Yorkshire, part of a line owned by the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust, which runs passenger services with steam and diesel locomotives.
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Alnwick Castle is open daily from April 1 to October 29 so we can follow Harry's footsteps around the ancient building and its beautiful grounds.
The rest of Hogwarts comes from many places. The entrance hall of venerable Christ Church College, Oxford, with its 16th-century staircase and magnificent vaulted roof, was Hogwarts' entrance hall, where Professor Minerva McGonagall greeted Harry and the other newcomers. Christ Church's Great Hall formed the basis of the school dining hall, and its cloisters provided the Hogwarts trophy room where Harry was shown the trophy his father won as a Quidditch seeker.
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The Hogwarts library, with its ancient and sometimes sinister volumes, was a combination of the Duke Humfrey's Library, in the Bodleian Library, also in Oxford, the library at snooty Harrow School, northwest London, and Alnwick Castle's guest hall.
The school sanatorium, where Harry recovered after his battles, was the Divinity School, Bodleian Library. Some classroom scenes were at Durham Cathedral, while others were at historic Lacock Abbey, adjacent to the village we visited earlier. Founded in 1232, Lacock Abbey is now run by Britain's National Trust and is open daily.
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Many of the films' ghostly events were shot at Gloucester Cathedral, notably Moaning Myrtle, many of the talking pictures and the mysterious red writing on the wall.
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The Dean is excited about its involvement and proudly advises in the cathedral website that, "The best shot of the cloisters is from the girls' lavatory door in the troll scene".
Other interesting places we can pop in on include the rambling Weasley home, the Burrow, which was built in Gypsy Lane, Hunton Bridge, by the village of Watford in southwest Hertfordshire.
Hagrid's Hut in the Forbidden Forest was in Black Park, Iver, Buckinghamshire, just outside London. The terrible prison of Azkaban is believed to have been on remote, windswept, uninhabited Huskeiran Isle, off the coast of the Monach Islands, part of the Outer Hebrides.
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Harry's terrifying flight in the Weasley's Ford Anglia mainly happened around the Glenfinnan Viaduct, near Mallaig, in the Highlands, and it ended with a crash landing in the inner bailey of Alnwick Castle.
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You can go to a special Harry Potter weekend hosted by Percy Weasley (actor Chris Rankin).
Tri-wizard tournaments, treasure hunts and magical banquets are also on offer.
But, just to be sure patrons don't get too excited, one tour operator carries the disclaimer, "Please be advised that Harry Potter is a fictional character and that you will not actually be seeing Harry on the tour".
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Unfortunately you've just missed HP Fan Trips special 6-day tour, including a ride on the Hogwarts Express and all sorts of wizard activities, to mark the release of The Prisoner of Azkaban, at £1239 ($3600) for adults (children are cheaper).
Source:
New Zealand Herald via
HPANA.
To see hogwarts, hogsmeade, platform 9 ¾..... That looks like... sooo fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
