The silver "The Making of Harry Potter" sign, with a lightning-bolt P, on the studio's ribbed beige wall

The Making of Harry Potter sign on the studio building.

The Harry Potter studio tour is on the expensive side, but it’s good and worth visiting so long as:

  • your kids aren’t too little - it’s not really suitable for kids under about 7 or 8, because they’ll get bored and maybe frightened by some of it and they’d have more fun in a playground or a sandpit,
  • you and the other people in your group have seen at least one of the Harry Potter movies. It’s very focussed around the movies - if you’ve read the books then great, that’ll help, but it’s having seen the movies in advance that really makes this a cool and fun outing, because you can recognise sets and costumes and creatures from the movies.

Dumbledore's long pale robes on a stand beside his carved wooden desk, with a lamp, a tall chair and spiral staircases up to shelves of books behind

Dumbledore’s office, with his robes beside the desk.

So what is there to see?

Broadly speaking,

  • sets,
  • props including animatronics,
  • costumes.

The giant hairy spider Aragog, its long legs spread, clinging to a huge tree trunk in a dark forest set

Aragog, the giant spider, in the Forbidden Forest.

The red and black Hogwarts Express steam engine, number 5972, beside a brick wall under an arched station roof

The Hogwarts Express at Platform 9¾.

The purple triple-decker Knight Bus parked outside the studio buildings

The Knight Bus, a purple triple-decker, in the tour’s outdoor area.

The big round Chamber of Secrets door, with carved snakes coiled across it, on a stand under studio lights

The Chamber of Secrets door, with its coiled snakes.

The studio itself is in a series of different large rooms (different sets from the movies):

  • The Great Hall. Pretty interesting, look for the graffiti in the tables. The hovering candles in the movies were added by CGI.
  • Gryffindor common room and boys’ dormitory. Includes costumes worn by the three principal kids (young adults by the time they were wearing these costumes). Look out for the invisibility cloak.
  • Dumbledore’s office. Includes the Sorting Hat (we like the Sorting Hat).
  • Potions Classroom.
  • Hagrid’s Hut. Small on purpose, to make Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) seem large.
  • The Weasley Kitchen including the Family Clock (“Find My” for wizards).
  • The Ministry of Magic. Big fireplaces.
  • The Forbidden Forest including Aragog (big spider).
  • Platform 9¾ and the Hogwarts Express. One of the best parts, this contains an actual steam engine. You can get into the carriages.
  • The Backlot including Privet Drive (the Dursleys’ House) but more importantly the three-level Knight Bus!
  • Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse. This is a new addition, we haven’t seen it yet.
  • Creature effects. One of the most interesting sections for adults, this shows you how the animatronics and other creature effects were built. Buckbeak is a highlight.
  • Gringotts Wizarding Bank. New section, haven’t seen it yet.
  • Diagon Alley. Pretty interesting, fun to spot which movie scenes it was used in. In the first movie they also used Leadenhall Market.
  • Hogwarts Castle. A very large and detailed model of the exterior of the school.

A long wooden broomstick with a bicycle-style seat, a backrest and foot stirrups, on a green stand in front of a green screen

A broomstick with a seat and footrests for the actors, in front of a green screen.

There’s also a gift shop and a cafe where you can get ‘butterbeer’ (doesn’t contain alcohol, more like rootbeer, too sweet for me). The gift shop will try to sell you so much really expensive stuff, so cut that short if you can.

And there’s a green-screen section where you can ride a broomstick and see yourself on-screen swooping around the castle, which is fun.

Getting there

The Harry Potter studio is a little way outside of London - it’s in the northern suburb of Watford which is absolutely gettable-to by public transport.

You could get a direct coach to the studio from Victoria coach station, but you shouldn’t because it’s ludicrously overpriced at £55 return per adult and £50 return per child - which is just ridiculous. If money is no object then you can buy those tickets here with the studio entrance ticket bundled in or here for just the coach journey.

So don’t do that.

What you should do instead is go by public transport. It’s pretty easy and our page Travelling around London will help you.

  1. Go to London Euston railway station and from there get a train to Watford Junction:

    You can use the Transport for London journey planner to help you: this link automatically fills out the destination as Watford Junction, so you just need to put in your starting location.

    There are lots of trains from Euston to Watford Junction, you want the fast train which will take about 20 mins.

    You can pay using contactless (your phone or your credit/debit card) to swipe in and out of the ticket barriers at Euston and Watford Junction. Or you can buy a paper ticket which will cost £15.20 return per adult at off-peak times. You can also buy tickets online from Trainline, Uber or National Rail. Assuming you’re travelling after the morning rush-hour (leaving Euston after 9:30), the ticket you want is an Off-Peak Day Return.

A black double-decker bus painted with Harry Potter scenes, its sign reading "Watford Junction & Warner Bros. Studio Tour London", at a bus stop

The free bus between Watford Junction station and the studio.

  1. From Watford Junction, get the free bus to the Warner Bros Harry Potter studio. The bus is free if you’ve already bought your tickets online for the studio tour - show your tickets to the driver.