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Last updated: 5/19/2026
A Guide to Harry Potter locations in England and Scotland
If you’re a Harry Potter fan headed to England, Scotland, or Wales, chances are good that you’re looking to visit some sites connected with J.K. Rowling’s Potterverse.
Whether you’re a fan of books or movies, you’ll find locations connected with the Harry Potter all over the United Kingdom. Even the UK’s number one tourist destination, London, is filled with Harry Potter adventures. Of course, you’ll find the most incredible Pottermore locations if you include farther reaches of Great Britain in your itinerary.
I’ve rounded up places that J.K. Rowling specifically mentions in her books (here’s looking at you King’s Cross Station), filming locations, and other Potter-centric destinations like the Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour up in Leavesden and the Edinburgh cafes where Rowling penned the first book.
By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly where to head in England for all the Hogwarts and Diagon Alley feels. While I sadly can’t hook you up with an owl and your Hogwarts acceptance letter, I can help you escape the Muggle world by whisking you off to the most magical Harry Potter locations in London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Yorkshire, Wales, and beyond.
Alohamora! Let’s get exploring the original Magic (United) Kingdom!
Why this blog: I’ve been an expert on the role of location in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series for decades. Seriously; I did an independent research project on Harry Potter locations in college and not to date myself, but this was before the final book was released! In addition, I’m a frequent visitor to the United Kingdom having most recently visited London and York in November 2025 and Oxford (while hiking the first half of the Thames Path) in April 2026.
London
Westminster Tube Station
After you’ve gotten yourself situated in London, I think your first stop as you start exploring the city should be the Westminster Tube Station regardless of if you’re Potter fan or not. Happily for Potter fans, it happens to be the station Harry and Mr. Weasley disembark at in the Order of the Phoenix film.
Lambeth Bridge
Just south of the Houses of Parliament, you’ll find Lambeth Bridge spanning the Thames River. The Knight Bus hurtles across this bridge at the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban.
Entrance to the Ministry of Magic
Back in the day, you could walk into any phone booth in the Whitehall area of London and claim you’d found the Visitor’s Entrance to Ministry of Magic. But like magic, phone booths have rapidly disappeared from British life. For their purposes, Harry Potter filmmakers brought in a prop phone booth and placed it at the corner of Scotland Place and Great Scotland Yard.
A careful reading of the entrance’s location in Order of the Phoenix, references a pub, an overflowing dumpster and quite a hike from an underground station to reach the entrance.
If you do find a phone booth in the general vicinity of Parliament, don’t dial “62442” to try to gain access to the Ministry. Save those shenanigans for a visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.
King’s Cross Station (Platform 9¾)
King’s Cross Station is by far the most noteworthy real-life Harry Potter location. Rowling likely selected this London train station simply because it services northbound trains. You yourself could depart from King’s Cross Station if you’re headed to York or Edinburgh!
Obviously, there’s no Platform 9¾, but King’s Cross wasn’t going to sleep on this business opportunity. Walk to the far end of the lobby to find a trolley disappearing into a brick wall under a “Platform 9¾” sign for a perfect Potterhead photo op. The station is also home to two Harry Potter gift shops.
While you can opt to have your photo taken professionally at the Platform 9¾ sign, it’s perfectly okay to queue and take a selfie or have a friend snap a pic. Just be patient (or go early or late in the day); it can be a 30-60 minute wait to reach the front of the line.
FYI: Filmmakers used one of the barriers between platforms 3 and 4 in the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry Potter isn’t the only British legend with a connection to King’s Cross. It’s said that the Celt queen Boudicca, who revolted against the Roman troops around 62 AD, is buried and/or fought her final battle beneath platform 8.
Reptile House at the London Zoo
The Reptile House at the London Zoo plays a pivotal role in Harry realizing he’s no Muggle. Located in the northern reaches of Regent’s Park, London Zoo is the oldest scientific zoo in the world. The Reptile House, with its classical Italianate exterior, is a distinctive feature of this beloved zoo.
Today the building houses an extensive variety of both reptiles and amphibians, but you won’t find Harry’s Brazilian boa constrictor friend among them. In the Sorcerer’s Stone film, director Chris Columbus substituted the Reptile House’s resident Burmese python for the book’s boa and the enclosure used in the film is home to a black mamba.
Leadenhall Market (Diagon Alley)
It does feel like magic feeling to discover Leadenhall Market tucked amid endless City of London office buildings. This Victorian market is well worth a visit even if you’re not a Potterhead for its excellent upscale shops and restaurant. Filmmakers had Hagrid and Harry stroll through Leadenhall on their way to Diagon Alley in Sorcerer’s Stone.
Turn just past the Bibimbap To Go restaurant to find 42 Bull’s Head Passage where Hagrid and Harry access the Leaky Cauldron. (In the movie, the facade is painted black.) While I can’t tell you which brick to tap to get you inside, if you’re looking for a quintessential British pub meal, hit up the nearby Lamb Tavern.
Millennium Bridge
While the Millennium pedestrian bridge which runs between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern is featured in the opening scenes of the Half-Blood Prince, I’m loathe to include it because it’s a glaring anachronism! By Rowling’s timeline, the events of Half-Blood Prince went down in 1996 – well before construction on Millennium Bridge began!
Even though this footbridge has no business being in the films, you shouldn’t miss taking a stroll across the Thames on it. If you’re coming from the City of London (north) side, you can use it to access one of my favorite sections of the Thames Path through Southwark.
Lincoln’s Inn Fields (12 Grimmauld Place)
Many people point to Lincoln’s Inn Fields as Rowling’s inspiration for 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius Black’s ancestral home which is used for the Order of the Phoenix safehouse. Famous architect Inigo Jones (you can also find his handiwork in Greenwich and Covent Garden) designed this grassy square on the edge of the City of London.
It’s easy to imagine the Black family among the 18th century notables who called Lincoln’s Inn Fields home. Those notables included surgeon John Hunter and architect Sir John Soane. You can visit the Lincoln’s Inn Field homes of both Hunter and Soane as they are now two of London’s most interesting free museums.
London is literally teeming with Georgian terrace houses in the style of 12 Grimmauld Place. Filmmakers used Claremont Square, farther northeast in Angel, for their 12 Grimmauld Place.
Australia House (Gringotts Wizarding Bank)
Although edited significantly in post-production, Australia House in the City of London is immediately recognizable as the building’s striking Beaux-Arts façade as Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Sadly, the only way inside is if you’re an Australian citizen with an appointment.
House of MinaLima
While Harry Potter gift shops are quite common, the House of MinaLima is different. Here you’ll find artwork from the two main artists (Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima) behind the graphic design and artwork of the eight Harry Potter films.
With books, art prints, stationery, and so much more, it’s the perfect place to get a very special magical souvenir. You’ll find their flagship store at 157 Wardour Street in Soho. They also have shops in Edinburgh, New York, Chicago, Japan, and Korea.
Georgian House Hotel
One of the most whimsical ways to incorporate some Hogwarts style magic into your London trip is to stay at the Georgian House Hotel. This 19th century Pimlico hotel offers Harry Potter inspired rooms. A stay in their Enchanted Chambers is about as close as you can get to staying in the Leaky Cauldron!
Enhance your stay is their Wizard Afternoon Tea. They also offer a “potions class” – really just a mixology experience rather than a full-blown class – where you make two cocktails (or mocktails) that you can pair with your afternoon tea or enjoy independently.
Leicester Square
While I generally recommend avoiding Leicester Square, it’s worth popping in briefly to visit the sweet statue of first-year Harry Potter (depicted by Daniel Radcliffe) riding his Quidditch broom.
Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour
If you can only in fit one Harry Potter experience into your London itinerary, it should be a trip to the Warner Brothers Studios out in Leavesden for the Making of Harry Potter tour.
The tour is self-guided through a 150,000 square ft exhibit located in the studios used for the 10-year + production of the eight Harry Potter films. You’ll see original sets, props, costumes, films about production elements, short theatrical performances, green screen experiences, and of course, a lot of gift shopping opportunities.
While it looks very similar because the sets are modeled after those in the films, this is a very different experience from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. It’s a perfect “all-in-one” Harry Potter experience if you don’t feel like traipsing around London looking for filming locations.
I have a full blog post about my experience at the Making of Harry Potter Tour London, including detailed directions on how to get there, when and how to book tickets, what to expect, what you can skip, and a lot more!
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I don’t think any trip to London is complete without including a West End show and happily you can keep the Harry Potter theme rolling right into London theatre district with J.K. Rowling’s play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, at the Palace Theatre.
The play premiered in 2016 and is shown in two parts, so keep in mind that you’re either spending most of your day at the Palace, or you’ll need complete thhe story.
(If you don’t want to faff about with a two-part play, you can head to New York’s Broadway, where the story has been condensed into one part.)
Other Harry Potter activities in London
Oxford
Just 70 miles northeast of London, Oxford makes a great London day trip, regardless of your Harry Potter fandom level. Made up of 39 (or 45 . . . depending on how you count) independent colleges, it only makes sense that this ancient bastion of higher education has all the Harry Potter feels.
Christ Church College
Christ Church College on the southern edge of the University of Oxford was used extensively in Sorcerer’s Stone. Most notably, its dining hall served as model for the Great Hall set built at the Warner Brothers London studios.
During your visit to the dining hall, look for the stained-glass window filled with Alice in Wonderland characters. Author Lewis Carroll worked at Christ Church as a math instructor and told the stories that would become Alice in Wonderland to the dean’s daughters during dinner in the dining hall.
You’ll also want to poke around Christ Church’s corridors and passageways. Professor McGonagall stands on the staircase leading into the dining hall when she welcomes first-year students to Hogwarts. The college’s dimly lit cloisters also provided the perfect backdrop for suspicious encounters, like when Professor Snape confronts Professor Quirrell.
Bodleian Library
A tour of Bodleian Library is a must see for an Oxford visitor, but Harry Potter fans will especially enjoy touring this historic research institution. In Sorceror’s Stone, the Hogwarts Library scenes were shot amid the Bodleian’s bookshelves, while the Divinity School served as the Hogwarts Infirmary.
Although there are limited tour slots available online, these fill up quickly so if you missed the memo, plan to queue at the Weston Library ticket office at 11 a.m. to snag day of tickets. About 80% of tours are sold this way. To lock in your spot on the popular 90-minute tour (Saturdays and Sundays only), book online exactly one month before.
If you’re not interested in the rest of library, you can book a 15 minute time slot to stick your head inside the gorgeous Divinity School.
New College
The cloisters of New College (this is England so the college is circa 1379, natch) were featured in several outdoor Hogwarts scenes in Goblet of Fire. The beautiful holm oak tree in a corner of the cloisters garth is especially memorable from an encounter between Harry and Malfoy that ends with Mad-Eye Moody turning Malfoy into a ferret.
While the college is included in most (all?) Oxford Harry Potter tours, you can also do a self-guided tour of the college most days of the week, which I recommend! Just enter via the New College Lane entrance to pay your admission fee. You’ll be given a visitor guide and can tune into audio guides at various points of interest around the campus. (Don’t forget your Airpods like I did!)
The college’s picturesque dining hall, chapel, and gardens are all well worth a visit. I especially enjoyed seeing part of Oxford’s 12th century city walls (which are part of the gardens) as well as where the college’s women rowing team had painted their coat of arms and rosters to commemorate significant wins.
Yorkshire
Malham Cove
As the tone of the series got darker, filmmakers naturally starting incorporating more dramatic and wild landscapes. In Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Harry and Hermione dash across the Malham Lings (limestone pavements) on the top of the Malham Cove cliffs. You can learn exactly how this scene was created using CGI at Making of Harry Potter Tour.
Malham Lings also featured in the start of the 2020 All Creatures Great and Small series based on the writings of rural veterinarian James Herriot. Whether you’re a Harry or Herriot fan, Malham Cove is considered a Yorkshire must-see.
Goathland Station
Filmmakers choose charming Goathland Station to serve as the Hogsmeade Station where Hogwarts students disembark at the end of their journey from King’s Cross at the start of term.
Located less than 10 miles southwest ofWhitby in North Moors National Park, Goathland Station dates back to the 1860s. You can have yourself a whole Hogwarts Express experience by taking a steam train on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway from Whitby to Goathland.
York
While I don’t really consider York an official Harry Potter destination, this Viking city with its striking minster has no shortage of magical feels. It’s said that filmmakers drew inspiration for the Diagon Alley set from York’s famous medieval shopping street – the Shambles. I have a full blog post on the best things to do in York.
Greater England
Alnwick Castle
The largest inhabited castle in England after Windsor, Alnwick Castle served as Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films. The castle is located in Northumberland, north of Newcastle upon Tyne, near the Scottish border.
DeVere House
This half-timbered house was a focal point in the Godric’s Hollow scenes from Deathly Hallows – Part I. Originally owned by the Earls of Oxford, this historic hunting lodge from the 14th and 15th century is now a bed and breakfast if you fancy a stay in “the Harry Potter house.”
Seven Sisters Cliffs
These dramatic chalk cliffs in South Downs National Park were featured in the portkey scene from Goblet of Fire. You’ll be forgiven if you mistook them for the more famous White Cliffs of Dover; filmmakers often substitute the Seven Sisters because they’re actually a much brighter white than Dover’s.
(You can see these same chalk cliffs on the other side of the English Channel in northern France.)
Black Park
This woodland in Buckinghamshire, just north of Heathrow Airport, was used for Forbidden Forest and Hagrid’s Hut scenes.
Gloucester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, and Lacock Abbey
These were all used for Hogwarts interior scenes.
Hardwick Hall
This Elizabethan manor house was used for Malfoy Manor in Deathly Hallows – Part I.
Hatfield Park
The scene between young Snape and Lily in Deathly Hallows – Part II was filmed under the 1000-year-old oak tree that grows in the park of this Jacobean era home built by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury.
Edinburgh
Elephant House and 2 Nicholson St.
It’s well-known that Rowling often worked on Sorcerer’s Stone in cafes while she lived in the Scottish capitol, usually on the first floor of Nicholson’s (now a Chinese restaurant located at 2 Nicholson St) and sometimes Elephant House. You’ll find a small plaque commemorating J.K. Rowling on an exterior wall of 2 Nicholson St.
Greyfriars Kirkyard
Wander through Greyfriars Kirkyard after visiting Rowling’s café haunts, and you’ll spy a few familiar last names on the tombstones including Riddel, McGonagell, Moodie, and Scrimgeour. Maybe Rowling absorbed these names into her psyche and later used them for Harry Potter characters. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.
Heriot’s School
Just kitty-corner from the kirkyard, you’ll find Heriot’s private day school. Many people argue Rowling based Hogwarts on Heriot’s. It’s a tempting conclusion. Heriots . . . Hogwarts . . . . She did write that first draft within spitting distance . . . .
But despite the fact that Heriot’s is also divided into four houses and those houses’ colors happen to correspond with Hogwarts’ houses, Rowling claims that she’d imagined Hogwarts long before she ever laid eyes of Heriot’s.
Greater Scotland
Glenfinnan Viaduct
This is the distinctive viaduct on the West Highland Lines that the Hogwarts Express is crossing when Harry and Ron catch up to it in their flying Ford Anglia in Chamber of Secrets.
Loch Shiel
Near the viaduct, beautiful Loch Shiel provided filmmakers with the perfect stand-in for the lake near Hogwarts. The West Highlands lake features prominently in both Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire.
Glencoe
By Prisoner of Azkaban, filmmakers had ditched the cozy “you’re a wizard, Harry” vibes of the first two films to reflect the growing darkness of the plot lines. One of these stylistic choices included moving Hagrid’s Hut to Glencoe Valley in Scottish Highlands.
Wales
Freshwater West Beach
One of the most poignant Harry Potter places you can visit is Dobby’s grave on Freshwater West Beach in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. What was originally a filming location has turned into a full blown memorial where visitors often leave pebbles and painted stones to pay their respects to the brave house elf.
In the interest of protecting the environment and wildlife, officials have requested that if you visit, you please refrain from leaving socks! Dobby already has the one and only sock he needs.
While I haven’t made to this special spot, I did once spend a lovely time in nearby Pembroke while in route to Ireland via the ferry. I highly recommend a visit, if only to tour the impressive medieval castle where Henry VII was born.
Conclusion: No Magic Needed To Find Harry Potter in the UK
You’d be hard pressed to get to all of the Harry Potter places I’ve included in this post in a single visit to the United Kingdom! However, I hope this impressive list gives you some ideas of where to get started finding Hogwarts style magic around Great Britian.
Whether you’re visiting London, Scotland, Wales, or other parts of greater England, you can easily fill your days with familiar settings from both J.K. Rowling’s books and the Warner Bros. films.
My personal must-sees for Harry Potter fans are King’s Cross Station, the Making of Harry Potter Tour, Oxford, and Leadenhall Market. While those are your most accessible options, you’ll never regret a trip to the Scottish Highlands or Wales to find some of the farther flung locations. Personally, I really fancy a stay at De Vere House and a walk through Hatfield Park.
Whatever places you decide to visit, you’re in for a magical experience in the United Kingdom. If you think I missed some important Harry Potter UK places, shot me an email and I’ll get them added tout de suite!
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