England · London

Day 13 | Harry Potter and the British Library

We were up bright and early this morning to catch our tour bus to the WB Studio to see the Harry Potter sets, costumes, special effects, and other assorted production goodies.

 

Keeping ourselves occupied while we waited to board the bus.

 

We had a really good time seeing how certain special effects were done, and many of the costumes and sets used during the production of the eight films.

 

This was the fountain/faucets used in the prefects’ bathroom in the Goblet of Fire film. Included in the blog because it’s pretty.

 

This is Adam’s contribution to the testing of Dobby’s special effects. Can anyone figure out what it is?

 

Adam and I are both headed to Hogwarts for the first time.

 

The Hogwarts Express!

 

Diagon Alley! The stores had a lot of visible detail within, so it was pretty cool to roam the street.

 

This was a pretty awesome room. This was the set for Ollivander’s wand shop. Each wand box has a different name on it, for someone who was a part of the making of the films. One of the plaques said that over 4000 people were a part of making the films, in totality.

 

We were able to try Butterbeer for the first time! It tasted quite a bit like cream soda, which is fine for me. I like cream soda. Adam wasn’t a big fan. We also had Butterbeer ice cream, which was okay.

Back to the city for the afternoon and evening. We headed to the British Library.

 

This work of art is in the foyer to the library. The inspiration of the piece came from the end of James Joyce’s book, ‘Ulysses,’ when Molly Bloom keeps repeating, “Yes, yes, yes…” in the closing words of the novel.

 

There were a few cool exhibits in the library, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures of them. There was a huge exhibit of old stamps and papery money from around the world, which was pretty cool. There was also an exhibit of rare, one-of-a-kind, and old books, documents, and papers from across the world. We saw one of the four existing copies of the original Magna Carta; Shakespeare’s folio, created after he died by two of his close friends (it was described that we wouldn’t have many of his works today if it weren’t for this folio); documents belonging to Da Vinci; really old bibles and pages of a bible, some as old as being from the 3rd and 4th centuries (that’s almost 2000 years, people!); there were also a lot of old Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist texts as well. It was pretty amazing to see some of these relics from 1000-1500+ years ago.

We then headed to Albertini for dinner, as I have been craving Italian food for a while. After dinner, we went on another hunt for the blue plaques. Once we were content with our finds, we headed home.

 

Bonus picture: Puppy taking the subway (the “tube”) with his owner.

 

Blue Plaques of London for today:

  • Hugh Price Hughes – A Methodist preacher that lived and died in the marked residence. He lived from 1847-1902.
  • John Maynard Keynes – Lived 1883-1946. He was an economist that lived in-residence from 1916-1946. Several of his concepts and teachings are still used today in the study and application of economics.
  • A plaque that stated: Here, and in neighbouring houses, during the first half of the 20th century, there lived several members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell, and the Stracheys.
  • Lytton Strachey – Lived 1880-1932. A critic and biographer in his lifetime.
  • Robert Travers Herford – Lived 1860-1950. He was a Unitarian minister, scholar, and interpreter of Judaism. He lived and worked in the church the plaque was found on.
  • Christina Georgina Rossetti – A poetess that lived in and died on-site. Born 1830, died 1894.
  • George Dance (the Younger) – Lived 1741-1825. He was an architect that lived and died on-site.
  • Charles Darwin – Lived 1809-1882. A naturalist that lived in the marked house from 1838-1842. (P.S. Who’s this dude?)
  • Sir Victor Horsley – Lived 1857-1916. He was a pioneer of neurosurgery and was also a social reformer.

Total steps: 13,861

 

ttfn

Emily and Adam

One thought on “Day 13 | Harry Potter and the British Library

  1. Had to be a lot of fun to see all the Harry Potter stuff! Great shots going ‘through’ the wall to Hogwarts! And to think my generation only had the mysteries of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew!

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