and welcome to my Harry Potter guided tour of London

in which I shall visit some of the principal locations connected with Harry Potter

and what better place to start than Kings Cross

not only because that's where you get the Hogwarts Express from

but I've got to go and get my friend and cameraman Simon

But first thing first. I need to go and get my school uniform

I don't know which house to get can I go on my personality or should I go on which one suits me better ?

It's said to be a bit of both

That's what the sorting hat takes into account: your preferences and your personality

if you're cunning and like the colour green you can always go for a Slytherin

or if you're very brave and adventurous then Gryffendor is for you

Oh well, looks like they put me in Slytherin

at least it goes with my eyes

It goes with your attitude

Looks they've even got a hawk here. I think it escaped from Hogwarts

I thought you were something to do with Harry Potter for a second

It's actually to catch the pigeons

I was just watching the film the other day and this is exactly where Hagrid and Harry Potter are walking along

He gives him his ticket for the Hogwarts Express here

Looks slightly different in the film though

Go on, off you go, you'll be late for school mate

excuse me can you tell me where platform 9 and 3/4 is please ?

muggles like Simon can't see the entrance because it's between platforms 9 and 10

but in the actual film they used platforms 4 and 5

and I think this is the actual spot here but they've got bins here look

maybe I can try a little bit further along.......

worth the try

in the in the Chamber of Secrets that does actually happen to Harry Potter Ron Weasley

and they end up having to fly to Hogwarts in a magic car

from over there which is where we're going next

a lot of the exteriors for Kings Cross station in the films are actually St. Pancras hotel

which is over here built in the 1800s

this is the spot where their car's parked they get in and then it flies over this building

as they fly their way to Hogwarts

but we're flying down to the River Thames

now this is Lambeth bridge and the reason it's painted red is to match

the seats in the House of Lords because

Westminster Bridge over there is painted green to match the House of Commons

this is the one that's featured in the beginning of the prisoner of azkaban

he gets picked up by the night bus and comes haring around this corner

and it has to shrink in order to get between two double-decker buses

I was watching Fast and Furious 6 the other day

and this was supposed to be doubling up as Moscow

that they'd had all those kind of Kremlin type domes and stuff at the end of the bridge

but I definitely recognize those two buildings over there it was totally London

makes me feel very professional walking along this bit because this is where all the

news broadcasters and stuff stand when they're on the TV

we're heading to Westminster Bridge over there

because in the order of the Phoenix you see them fly over Parliament on their broomsticks

I find these shadows on the ground quite amusing

I wonder if they did that on purpose.

sorry I'm rather childish

Now she's got a connection to Harry Potter up there on her chariot that's Queen Boudicca

or Boadicea depending on what school you went to and she was Queen of the icy

and she was Queen of the Icene who were a Celtic tribe who defeated the Romans

and according to the 1930s historian, Louis Spence

they buried her under Kings Cross station

and where was she buried? Under platforms 9 and 10! And that was in the 1930s !

it's a bit of a myth that she had swords on her chariots. Everyone thinks she did because of this statue

but there's no real evidence for it

it's a pity also about all the renovation work going on on Big Ben but

with a flash of my magic umbrella

I can just get it to all disappear

EVANESCO!!

after you've been to Westminster Bridge you can pop down here to Westminster station

because this is where, in the order of the Phoenix, Harry comes with Arthur Weasley

to face the tribunal for having used magic in front of muggles

poor old Arthur Weasley doesn't understand how to use the ticket gate

He ends up walking through the ticket barrier backwards

I suppose he's a typical tourist who stands in the way at the last minute getting out his ticket

this is Whitehall and over there behind those black gates is where our muggle Prime Minister lives

and of course this is where all the governmental buildings are

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Transport, The Ministry of Silly Walks

and of course the Ministry of Magic which is down here down here is

Down here is Scotland Place and Great Scotland Yard where the Metropolitan Police Headquarters used to be

in the order of the Phoenix he comes here with Arthur Weasley

and they walk along here, don't they like this

and there's a telephone box just over here in the corner

and they've put up a bridge there in the film, it's not there in real life

but they enter a telephone box which is just about here

I think he dials six two four four two which dials magic if you've spell it out

and Arthur Weasely says " this should be interesting I've never used the visitors entrance before"

and they descend down here into the ministry

and then in the Deathly Hallows Part one, that corner over there

is where Ron is keeping an eye ou in the film for Mafalda Hopkirk who he's gonna zap

and then they drag her over to that gate over there

which in the film is actually a nice wooden gate

but now it's just a place where builders spit and smoke cigarettes

then they emerge having drunk Polyjuice potion

and come around the corner here to Horse Guards Avenue

they've erected a fake public toilet in the film

and they walk down into the public toilets, and then they flush themselves down the toilet, don't they?

And it's right here - and it's a perfect place because it all looks like kind of

ministry buildings .......

Someone told me that JK Rowling used to work for Amnesty International somewhere around here

and she would have been very familiar with these areas

and they said that her inspiration for Diagon Alley was possibly this little alleyway over here

because if you look carefully it does run

diagonally to this main street

and this pub here is just by Charing Cross Road

just like the leaky cauldron in the books and it even has a convenient back door

excellent .....you come out the back, tap the bricks

and you're in Diagon Alley

This is actually.... Bridges Place is the second narrowest street in London

Will he make it? Will he be able to squeeze through?

Then in Deathly Hallows, the apparate from the wedding to Piccadilly Circus

Here I go!

I hate doing that!

It's like Piccadilly Circus around here!

Have you seen American Werewolf in London?

You know that scene when he runs out of the cinema the werewolf starts chasing everybody ?

That was in Piccadilly Circus

Speaking of werewolves ...

did you know .... that I did the audition to be the werewolf in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ?

and you had to be really strong and you had to wear this really heavy wolf's head outfit thing

and it weighed a ton and I remember that's the reason why I didn't get the job

I was just too weeding

but over here, in Harry Potter and the Hallows Part 1

when they're under attack from the Death Eaters at Bill and Fleur's wedding

They apparate don't know when they reappear just over here, don't they?

Just in front of Gap there were railings

and they just narrowly avoid getting hit by a 19 bus - oh this is a 38

Then they end up walking up here, don't they?

Hermione goes on about how they're in Shaftesbury Avenue, she used to come here with her parents

they walk underneath these columns

and then they end up in a cafe don't they

then you see them just walking under there

Do you remember , this used to be the Tracadero. It was really manky

but now it's pretty decent, I really like it. I'm a member ....

It's right here that Hermione turns to Harry and says

"Oh, I just remembered it's your birthday and we didn't even celebrate"

..and he's like, "I think we just got attacked by a bunch of Death Eaters so I've got other things on my mind

At the other end of Shaftesbury Avenue you can even take in a show

Harry Potter and the Cursed child is showing right here at Cambridge circus

In the book JK Rowling has the leaky cauldron in Charing Cross Road

And it's been famous for its bookshops for over a hundred years I mean there aren't so many these days

Just opposite the porcupine pub just next to this number 12 on the wall

this is where, in Harry Potter and the half-blood Prince

the Death Eaters come flying in before they destroy a millennium bridge

they come all the way down over Trafalgar Square, up Charing Cross Road

up great Newport Street and down this alleyway straight into the front of the leaky cauldron

There he is again . Was that Simon Callow?

Just one of many famous stars who trying to get into a Joolz Guide. Desperate!

It's definitely worth popping your nose here into Goodwin's court if you're in the area

because I really love this beautiful authentic seventeenth-century alleyway

Now when you do the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio tour

Draco Malfoy says the set designers for the film

wanted Diagon Alley to look like it was lifted from the world of Charles Dickens

and it doesn't get much more Charles Dickens than this!

I mean it looks kind of Harry Pottery

I mean it's quite conceivable that she would have been inspired by a street like this

Look at those original gas lamps too- I really love those

Gosh!! From 1690... and it hasn't changed

This street looks tremendous

This is another one of those streets that people say inspired JK Rowling

It's full of book shops, it's off Charing Cross Road, so it would make sense

There's quite a few of the shops down here sell Harry Potter related things

Look you can even buy magic money. Harry Potter and friends.

There you go there's a Voldemort on that one. I should probably get that one with a scarf like this

First editions which cost quite a bit of money

I must come back to this shop actually and get myself a new cravat

I just want to do a quick shout out to Joshua Gutierrez who was with me when I lost my old cravat

and he actually gave me some money to put toward a new cravat

Got my eye on this one actually so thanks Joshua

Next it's off down there to St Paul's Cathedral

As if anyone cares about st. Paul's Cathedral

it being our greatest Cathedral and all

it did take only 35 years to build it. Quite impressive

given that Notre Dame took about 130 years

in that clock tower there, I think that's where in the Prisoner of Azkaban stairway is

that they knock the crystal ball down

they're coming down from their divination class

sadly it's not open to the public

fans you know.... What can I say!?

oh I should say this is the school where Daniel Radcliff went

So this the real Hogwarts then...

but he not really ...I mean apparently everyone was a bit mean to him - all his fellow pupils

but he didn't attend it much - he was only there for about four months or something

because he was constantly out filming - he had to have private lessons

this is the Millennium Bridge - actually called the wobbly bridge to us Brits

It certainly wobbles in Harry Potter and the half-blood Prince when Death Eaters swoop down and

destroy the whole bridge and then they fly off over Tate Modern

Well it's nothing to do the Harry Potter but it's a pity can't see the chewing gum

There's a famous chewing gum painter of old London town

called Ben Wilson and he paints all the chewing gum

unfortunately it's a bit dark so you can't see them

but fear not because I think all I have to do is a Lumos spell and we can switch to daylight

LUMOS!!

Oh look - Lucy Worsley trying to get into my Joolz Guide

The shadows grow tall, the sky bruises and we must be forced to camp

This is borough market

It's not really happening at the moment because it's quite late and everything's closed

It's the oldest fruit and veg market in London I mean it's been here for about a thousand years

but just over there where it says El Pastor

is where the leaky cauldron is in the Prisoner of Azkaban

The night bus comes hurtling down here and he goes inside and he stays here in room number eleven until the new term

are you drinking butter beer or gilly juice?

Always butter beer...always.

sounds revolting !

It's actually that one right up there. I don't know if you can see it

just the window on the left at the top because you can see looks over Borough Market and a train goes by

and that's the train track that right there

I love markets when they're opening up and closing

I love it. It's so atmospheric you know...

It always makes me think of My Fair Lady

This is the delightful London Bridge

over there actually in Order of the Phoenix that's Canary Wharf that's where they appear on their broomsticks

flying from little whinging,

over theTower Bridge down the Thames towards 12 Grimmauld place

but 12 Grimmauld place in muggle world

That's Claremont square up in Angel Islington which is miles away

So I'm gonna have to swiftly apparate there. I don't like doing this ..

Apparating can be kind of disorientating and I seem to have landed on the wrong side of these bars

This gate is unlocked in the film but don't go calling on the houses because you'll just really annoy them

12 Grimmauld place actually emerges between two other properties in this street

it's actually the family home of Sirius Black

and also the headquarters of the order of Phoenix

but then Harry goes on to inherit the property

well I think I better grade out of here before I get picked up by the police

That building over there, the curved one that's City Hall, where the mayor works

in the Half Blood Prince they were looking out of the office window

and it's the DeathEaters coming to destroy this millennium bridge that's where they filmed it from