The London Traveler

I must admit I’ve never been that turned on by Harry Potter. I was brought up on Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy, with a much smarter, much more interesting wizard, Ged, or ‘Sparrowhawk’. Yes, I did read the Harry Potter books- but I was soon back in Earthsea.

Still, there’s no denying that Harry Potter has a huge fan club. The other day I was going through King’s Cross Station and saw a load of people photographing a wall. Then I saw the sign they were photographing - platform 9 3/4, the platform from which Harry takes the Hogwarts Express.

You can now take a tour of Harry Potter’s London with London Taxi Tours. I can imagine this is something that will make a lot of kids happy. All the film locations are pointed out - though not all can be visited. The same outfit also does tours to other Harry Potter locations in the UK, at Oxford and Lacock.

The tours don’t come cheap, at £190 for up to five people sharing a taxi. But you do get 3 1/2 hours for that - and no hassle trying to find the sites or struggling on public transport.

There’s also a guide to the film sites on London Taxi Tours’ web site, if you want to try discovering London’s wizard wonders on your own.

Photo credit: Ann Biddle on Flickr