Harry Potter Filming Locations

The most iconic Harry Potter location in London. King's Cross Station is where Harry first boards the Hogwarts Express by running through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. The station's Victorian Gothic architecture features prominently throughout the series, serving as the gateway between the Muggle and wizarding worlds.

Today, a permanent Platform 9¾ installation with a half-vanishing luggage trolley allows visitors to recreate the famous moment. The adjacent Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9¾ sells official merchandise.

This stunning 14th-century covered market in the heart of the City of London doubled as the entrance to Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The ornate Victorian ironwork, painted shopfronts, and cobblestone walkways provided the perfect magical atmosphere. The optician's shop at 42 Bull's Head Passage was used as the exterior of the Leaky Cauldron, through which Hagrid leads Harry into the wizarding world for the first time.

The grand marble interior of Australia House, the Australian High Commission on the Strand, served as Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The building's Exhibition Hall, with its soaring columns, crystal chandeliers, and marble floors, was the perfect stand-in for the goblin-run bank. As a working diplomatic building, interior access is limited, but the exterior is publicly viewable.

One of the most dramatic sequences in the entire series: the Millennium Bridge is spectacularly destroyed by Death Eaters in the opening scene of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The sleek, modern pedestrian bridge, designed by Norman Foster, provided a striking visual contrast to the magical chaos as it twisted and collapsed into the Thames. The bridge connects St Paul's Cathedral on the north bank to the Tate Modern on the south bank.

The Reptile House at London Zoo in Regent's Park is where Harry first discovers he can talk to snakes in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. During a visit with the Dursleys, young Harry has a conversation with a Burmese python and accidentally vanishes the glass, setting Dudley's cousin free. The real Reptile House is still open to visitors, and the exact tank used in filming is marked with a plaque.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was relocated from Leadenhall Market to the area around Borough Market. The third-floor flower shop on Stoney Street, adjacent to the market, served as the exterior of the wizarding pub. The atmospheric railway arches and Victorian architecture of Southwark provided a grittier, more atmospheric feel befitting the darker tone of the third film.

Although the interior platform scenes were filmed at the real King's Cross, the dramatic Gothic exterior shots of the station are actually St Pancras International, King's Cross's next-door neighbour. The filmmakers chose St Pancras's ornate Victorian Gothic Revival facade, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, as it appeared more visually dramatic and magical than King's Cross's plainer exterior. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron fly Mr Weasley's Ford Anglia over this iconic building.

The bright neon lights of Piccadilly Circus feature in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 during the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione narrowly escape Death Eaters after the fall of the Ministry of Magic. The trio apparate into the busy junction and are nearly hit by a London bus, highlighting the collision between the wizarding and Muggle worlds. The sequence was filmed during a late-night closure of the area.

Lambeth Bridge, which crosses the Thames between Lambeth Palace and the Houses of Parliament, is the bridge squeezed between by the Knight Bus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In the film, the magical triple-decker bus compresses itself to fit between two double-decker London buses on the bridge. The surrounding views of Westminster and the Thames make this one of the most visually recognisable London locations in the series.

This elegant Georgian square in Islington served as the exterior of 12 Grimmauld Place, the ancestral home of the Black family and headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. In Order of the Phoenix, the hidden house magically appears between numbers 11 and 13, pushing the neighbouring buildings apart. The effect was achieved by building a facade that could be mechanically expanded. Claremont Square remains a residential area and visitors are asked to be respectful of the residents.