What is your Harry Potter House?
True Harry Potter fans can’t visit London without visiting the iconic Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. While the actual platforms 9 and 10 exist behind pay wickets, a nearby location has been dedicated to those eager to snap a fun photo of themselves heading to the Hogwarts Express.
And the best part: You can take a photo for free! While the line of young wizards can be long during peak hours, we were pleasantly surprised to see no money is necessary to hang off the luggage cart disappearing into the wall. The folks there are even cool about giving you a chance to take a picture with your own camera before they take an official one (which you can then, of course, buy).
They have scarves and wands from all houses and wizards to choose from as props, and others in line are happy to play temporary photographer in exchange for your doing the same.
This also naturally entices visitors to enter the adjacent store, packed tighter than Ollivander’s Wand Shop with paraphernalia, including shirts, bags, house scarves, wands (of course), and the books, themselves.
And while you’re at it, take the small trip across the street to the beautiful St. Pancras Station, which was used for filming Platform 9 3/4.
Harry Potter hadn’t been published when last I visited London, so I enjoyed this new element. While we totally could have geeked out and bought one of everything, we restrained ourselves. I did, however, pick up a Slytherin patch… gotta represent!
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Wow. Definitely sounds more built-up than when we visited several years ago. If I remember correctly, there was just the cart in the wall. It wasn’t even very busy.
The husband always says I’m a Hufflepuff, which drives me crazy.
Haha! Have you been officially sorted? It fortunately wasn’t terribly busy when we went, but there was a bit of a wait. I just dread the time when they switch it over to a paid attraction… We had fun doing it, as silly as it was!
What fun! We just watched a couple Harry Potter films with my grandson. His mother’s the big fan.
It truly is great for all ages! We can all dream of getting our owls calling us to Hogwarts, even if we’re well past 11 years of age!