The morning after our trip to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour we left our hostel at about 9am and ventured into London. First we walked about a mile down Oxford Street to the Primark which has a Harry Potter section. Nikki wanted to see what sort of stuff they have on sale etc, she needed to buy things as part of this research.
We then walked to Greek Street (about 10 minutes) and visited the House of Mina Lima.
This was a real highlight of the day. Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima met in 2001 during the filming of The Chamber of Secrets and went on to produce a lot of the art and graphic design work for Harry Potter films. They have the best names for the job, she actually has a wizard name!
The gallery is set over 4 floors in a really cool townhouse that sets off the style of their work perfectly. We spent about 45 minutes looking around and it was very enjoyable. The kids were also happy and wrote a note in the visitors book. There were lots of books, limited edition prints, fantastic wallpaper etc.
From MinaLima we carried on to find three film locations and inspirations. First we visited Cecil Court and Goodwin Court which were both believed to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley and Nocturn Alley before catching the tube to Leadenhall Market (featured as the entrance to Diagon Alley / Leaky Cauldron entrance in the Philosophers Stone.
Interestingly Cecil court contains Watkins Books which claims to be the oldest mystical bookshop in the world.
We managed to get out of London by about 3pm after a very satisfying day. The only hiccup was when Joe and I managed to get on a tube whilst Nikki and Hattie missed it. Joe wanted to rush back to the car and leave them in London as a joke!