Although I haven't shown a lot of the tour (footage was banned...), I made a short vlog about our trip out. If you're into Harry Potter at all, then you really should go and visit. The £28 entrance fee might seem steep but for what you're getting and seeing I don't think it's overpriced at all!
The trip started on a train down to Watford Junction, where I legged it from the train and met Cara in the queue for the bus. We got to Leavesden Studios (impressive enough from the outside!) and waited in a queue for somebody to print out many individual tickets before getting ours.
Inside were many photos of the cast and crew and the main three at different ages. There was where the nostalgia began. Even at the age of 20 both Cara and myself felt totally excited to be there. The queue was a bit long inside but we weaved our way past the cupboard under the stairs and into a cinema room, before watching a short clip about the history of the Potter films. And then they let us into the Great Hall for a few minutes (which was a shame, you didn't get to take everything in as a massive fan) before moving us on to the self-guided bit of the tour.
This bit had all kinds of things: wigs, costumes, tattoos, hair pieces, sets, props, moving props, interactive tables and screens and more. I think my favourite was probably the Potions classroom, just because of the detail in it. Or maybe the Gryffindor common room. Or maybe Dumbledore's office. I DON'T KNOW, OK?
Outside brought the only other disappointment - the opportunity to buy Butterbeer. In the books, I am adamant that it's warm, and not a fizzy mixture of coke and ginger beer with floaty creamy stuff. So that was sad. But then there was Privet Drive, and the Knight Bus, and the giant chess pieces and James's and Lily's house in Godric's Hollow. This is an awfully rambly description but it had that effect upon me.
Back inside again were all the prosthetics with entertaining videos with some of the crew and Warwick Davis. I'm not giving you details because it's impressive all on its own! Following that was DIAGON ALLEY!! Diagon Alley!! Supposedly modelled on Gandy Street in Exeter (my university city) but far more impressive, I was just delighted to see it. (See right.)
The best thing about the whole trip came next though. A walk through a corridor lined with detailed graphic designs and stunning paintings (some of which I'd have happily had on my wall) and card models lead us to the real treat: the complete scale model of Hogwarts. It was beautiful, a real work of art, and I'd honestly have paid the money to go in just to see it. They lit it both as if it were night and day, and it was just gorgeous.
After more than three and a half hours at the tour and some searchng for the names of famous cast members on wand boxes at the end, we left for London. We wandered down from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus for some food and then sleepily ended up at Trafalgar Square. We did some filming and met a couple of tourists who wanted their photos taken. Then we had a laugh trying to get in front of the lions which all the tourists were managing to do. I didn't put that in the video though. Unwisely, we finished off by walking down to Westminster where we had time to see absolutely nothing as we made a mad dash into the tube at 21.25 to get my train at 21.43 and Cara's 21.46. Thank you to everyone who got out of my way on the Underground. No thank you to Euston Station for switching off the escalators.
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