Harry Potter Tour Harry Potter Film Locations Tour London Walks

The Harry Potter Film Locations Tours

Okay, this is a big 'un. A big 'un because there's two different kinds of Harry Potter Film Locations Tours. 1) A Harry Potter Film Locations Walk (well, three different walking tours – see below); and 2) The Harry Potter Film Locations Taxi Safari.

And speaking of films, this is just so fine. It's a delightful taster, a little film – it's only two minutes long – of one of our Harry Potter Film locations walks. Like the dozen or so other little London Walks films we've made, it'll give you a very good idea of what the walk's like, Richard, the guide, as you'll see, is, well, "perfectly cast". And, as always, "it all comes down to the guiding". If you compare – and we urge you to – you'll see there's, well, no comparison. Guide who gets it right in every respect – from stylish appearance to the great voice and perfect timing to his interaction with the kids on the walk to his savvy about camera angles (drawing on his experience as an actor of course), etc. etc. You compare you'll see why London Walks is "streets ahead" – the gold standard. The differences are pronounced and they're "across the board". Right down to the filmmaking itself – the shooting, the editing, the score, the special effects, etc. It's a case study in "London Walks integrity" (by that I mean, we've made a film that's all us, from first to last – as opposed to falling back on – "interpolating" – clips from the films themselves. We don't "render away from Warner Bros. that which is Warner Bros." We do our own stuff.

The walking tours are described first – let's call that Part One. Part Two is the description (and other particulars) of the Taxi Safari. A line across the page, like this:

divides Part One from Part Two. So if you want to go directly to the information about the Harry Potter Film Locations Taxi Safari just scroll down to the dividing line and go from there.

Okay, here we go...

Harry Potter: "Can we find all this in London?"
Hagrid: "If yeh know where to go."

Where to go on these three completely different tours. (Tours plural because the film locations are too spread out for just one walk.) Betwixt and between the film locations we hit the sweet spots – the very best of quirky, peculiar, curious, lost old London. It's all very Harry Potter and Co.

For a detailed description of each of the three different tours, see below. But first a word about the guide. Because with this one you've got to get the guide right. You've got to have a guide who's part Lumos, part Mirror of Eristed. Who's got his O.W.L.s and then some. Cornish Pixies* won't do. *Let alone pizza delivery boys, parking lot attendants and security guards.

And that's by way of saying, it takes a very special guide to get this one right. It's a question of range. A gifted actor – like Richard – has got that range. He's instantly likable. But he can also do high-beam intensity. He's got the goblet of fire voice. Got the dynamic personality. Got the past: Himalayas and a raft on the Pacific (London Walks' Action Man, he's earned that nickname of his – "Kontiki"). He's got those actor "gifts" that can't be taught, let alone faked. He's pitch perfect. He's got timing. He's got presence. He's just got it. All of it.

Harry Potter Film Locations in the City takes place on Sundays* at 2 pm and Mondays at 6.30 pm. It goes from BankTube, exit 3. Here's guide Richard taking you through the menu for this one: "This walk 'Potters' through the old City of London. You’ll see most of the great buildings of the ancient City: the Bank of England, Mansion House, the wonderful Leadenhall Market, a close up view of the ‘Gherkin’, magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral, etc. You’ll cross the river by way of London Bridge – natch! You’ll see film locations where Hagrid and Harry make their way to Diagon Alley in the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. You’ll see where Harry, Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks and their friends fly in The Order of the Phoenix. And you’ll see the locations used for the Leaky Cauldron and the Third Hand Book Emporium in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And lots more. What's not to like about a London Walk packed with history and Harry Potter. So come on muggles, it's time to enter the maze. Yes, that time – Portkey time, warp-across-London time!
N.B. There's a 3 galleon** charge for kids as this one's for all ages!

*N.B. this one will NOT take place on Dec. 19 or Dec. 26.

**Oh, okay – if you must put it that way – £3. But not for tinies – under 8s – they go free. It's of course the normal £8 for adults (or £6 for concs.).

And Harry Potter on Location in Londontown takes place at 2 pm on Saturdays* and 6.30 pm on Thursdays. It goes from WestminsterTube, exit 4. Here's Guide Richard again, taking you this time through the menu for the Harry Potter on Location in Londontown tour: "The walk takes in many of the grand sights of London including a terrific view of the river, Big Ben, Whitehall, Downing Street, Scotland Yard, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. And – this should go without saying – you'll get to see some brilliant Harry Potter film locations, including the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, the flight path of Death-Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as well as the flight path taken by Harry, Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks and Co. in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's a treat for Harry Potter fans and indeed for the benighted few who aren't Harry Potter fans. (Works for them because of "the sweet spots – the very best of quirky, peculiar, curious, lost old London.") And if you're not a Harry Potter fan or a London fan – this is the wrong walk for you; and for that matter, the wrong town. *Except Dec. 24.

N.B. There's a 3 galleon** charge for kids as this one's for all ages!
**Oh, okay – if you must put it that way – £3. But not for tinies – under 8s – they go free. It's of course the normal £8 for adults (or £6 for concs.).

And Deathly Hallows – The Quest takes place every Wednesday evening at 6.30 pm from TempleTube. Heeeeeeeeeeeere's the blurb: Celebrate the release of the thrilling seventh film with London Walks' very own Harry Potter expert, let alone uber fan! Kontiki Richard leads you through the most magical bits of old London. The wizard's bank. A fantastical mansion where we'll relive the last tortured moments of Charity Burbage. A gas-lit courtyard packed with Potter atmosphere and twice used by the Harry Potter production team. It's a walk laced with tales of good and evil, magic and legend. all of it wovenround the elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone and, of course, the Horcruxes. Where will it end? At the home of the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Naturally.

N.B. There's a 3 galleon* charge for kids as this one's for all ages!
*Oh, okay – if you must put it that way – £3. But not for tinies – under 8s – they go free. It's of course the normal £8 for adults (or £6 for concs.).

"Nothing like a...stroll to give you ideas"

The Harry Potter Film Locations Tours take place:

every Wednesday evening at 6.30 pm from TempleTube

every* Saturday afternoon at 2 pm and every Thursday evening at 6.30 pm from WestminsterTube, exit 4

and every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm and every** Monday evening at 6.30 pm from BankTube, exit 3.

*except Dec. 24

**except Dec. 19 & Dec. 26

Guided by Richard

DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter Film Locations Tour is not an official 'Harry Potter' event. (For the record, London Walks doesn't do "official" – we value our independence waaaaaaaaay too much for that.) Nor is it endorsed, sanctioned or in any other way supported, directly or indirectly by Warner Bros Entertainment Inc, the Harry Potter book publishers or J.K.Rowling and her representatives. All rights to the series of “Harry Potter” books are the property of J.K. Rowling and her publishers including Scholastic Press, et al. Film rights and image trademarks are the property of Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.

YOU'VE SEEN THE FILMS,

NOW VISIT THE SET!

Ok, the London [and Oxford, etc.] Film Locations

What's this? It's stardust on wheels. that's what it is. It's a taxi tour of London and its history that includes oodles of Harry Potter film locations: Gringots Bank, The 'Cracked' Cauldron, the Knight Bus Bridge, the Flying Car crime scene, Platform 9 3/4, etc.etc. etc. Yes, heaps of etceteras are called for because to date there are 23 London scenes that appear in the series!

(And as long as we're at it, please also do bear in mind the Sunday afternoon Harry Potter walking tour!)

Cue an opening salvo of disclaimers:

DISCLAIMER: Richard's Harry Potter Film Locations Taxi Safari is not an official 'Harry Potter' event and is not endorsed, sanctioned or in any other way supported, directly or indirectly by Warner Bros Entertainment Inc, the Harry Potter book publishers or J.K.Rowling and her representatives.

All rights to the series of “Harry Potter” books are the property of J.K. Rowling and her publishers including Scholastic Press, et al. Film rights and image trademarks are the property of Warner Bros Entertainment Inc.

Want more? Okay, let's hear it from Richard himself (ok, hand on heart, I subbed it a bit – but basically it's his words, his game plan).

Okay, now let's turn the page. Turn the page because London's by no means the whole story.

Which is by way of saying, if you really want to amp it up, there are some outriding combinations Richard's put together that'll knock your socks off.

For example:

1) The London stuff and Lacock, Lacock Abbey & Hog-'thingies';

2) Or the London stuff and Blenheim Palace & Oxford(for Hog-'thingie's' Hospital, the Great Hall and Library)

3) Or the big enchilada: the London stuff and Lacock Abbey and Oxford

And that's all ye need to know. Except to tell you that Richard's a multi-tasker par excellance. Yup, you got it: he's a licensed London cabbie* and a top flight, professionally qualified Blue Badge and City of London Guide.

So drop on by if you're interested. Ring Mary, Fiona, Susan or Noel on 020 - 7624 3978 and let's have a chat. Or drop us an email: london@walks.com

*And when you remember that "doing the knowledge – learning to be a cabbie – is, they reckon, the intellectual equivalent of memorising the complete works of Shakespeare...well, you'll get my drift.

And now for an update:

Okay, wrote the above – and put it up here on the London Walks website – back in 2007. Came back to it a few months later because there was a bit more that I could add to what I said then. Namely that this one has been hugely popular – there's a booking virtually every day – and, what's really to the point here, the feedback has been uniformly good. Really good. Not one single negative – and just a ton of rave reviews. Over the last three years we've got to know Richard – and indeed what he's doing with this one – a lot better. And given that much fuller picture we're not at all surprised that his HP safaris have gone down so well. I suppose if you twisted my arm and said "distill it into one word" that word would be "professionalism". He's very very professional.