The Harry Potter film franchise is something that no one needs an introduction to! The fantastical realm of magical spells, stories, twists, and brilliant performances with incredible backdrops and settings. Even after over a decade, people still consider it their all-time favorite movie genre and have it on their watchlist.
The cast of the films includes Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Julie Walters, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, David Thewlis, Robbie Coltrane, Mark Williams, and Tom Felton. But one question remains unanswered for some fans: where are all the Harry Potter films? This post will reveal every location used to film the films in the year they came out.
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All Harry Potter filming locations
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
The first installment of the Harry Potter series was shot in various locations throughout England, establishing the tone for an excellent family picture with enough scene-stealing British character actors to keep adults interested. It combines scattered locations located all over the United Kingdom.
For instance, although much of the elaborate “Hogwarts School entrance” is generated by computers, scenes inside the educational institution were shot in at least five distinct locations, from Wiltshire in the west to County Durham in the north of England.
The house of the evil Dursleys, at “4 Privet Drive,” is located at Picket Post Close in Martins Heron, Berkshire (train: Martins Heron, from London Waterloo), just one train stop from Bracknell. This is a private residence. Daniel Radcliffe’s character, Harry, discovers he can communicate with snakes at the Reptile Home at the London Zoo in Regent’s Park, London NW1. The “Gringott’s Bank” is undoubtedly a set.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Victorian mock-Gothic St Pancras Station and its platforms are again visible as Harry, Hermione, and Ron miss the Hogwarts express. Weasley’s Ford Anglia departs in front of St Pancras. The Weasley residence was constructed on Gypsy Lane, close to the community of Abbots Langley and directly across from the film’s Leavesden Studios location in Hertfordshire.
The Ford Anglia arrives at Glenfinnan Viaduct on the West Highland route between William Fort and Mallaig in Scotland as it travels to Hogwarts. There is a daily diesel service, but West Coast Railways runs the Jacobite Steam Railway during the summer if you want to pass the viaduct in a vintage steam locomotive. The breathtaking scenery surrounding Hogwarts was shot in the Glencoe region of Scotland.
And while most of the Hogwarts shots develop digitally, some well-known locations are viewed for specific scenes. Alnwick Castle in Northumberland serves as the setting for Harry and Ron’s entrance to the school in the battered Ford Anglia. The cloisters of Gloucester Abbey in Gloucester serve as the magical school’s hallways once more.
Durham Cathedral makes a second appearance as the Hogwarts quadrangle, where Ron regurgitates slugs after his spell goes awry. Its Chapter House serves as the classroom where Dr. McGonagall teaches younger wizards how to turn animals into water goblets and explains the Chamber of Secrets’ history.
The Gloucester Cathedral’s cloisters are transformed into Hogwarts’ halls, where Harry discovers “the Chamber of Secrets has been opened” scrawled in blood on the wall. You may recall from the previous movie that the quiet classroom where Harry finds himself the target of suspicion after conversing in the Chapter House of Lacock Abbey, and the hallway outside is the Cloister of the Abbey.
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hagrid’s hut, which originally stood next to Pinewood Studios of Buckinghamshire on the safe, flat outskirts of Black Park, is now perched on a steep slope. This time, Loch Shiel was used as “Hogwarts Lake,” and the locations for Hogwarts were shot in Scotland.
However, Harry encounters the dementors in Virginia Water in Surrey and then witnesses the hippogriff. Some places can be found in and around London that are used for filming. Harry is taken up by the triple-decker Knight Bus running on Dowding Way, away from Aerodrome Way, a brand-new housing development next to the Leavesden Studio of Hertfordshire, after escaping “Private Drive.”
On its journey to deliver Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, the bus careens wildly south across Green Lanes in Palmers Green, north London, before swerving sharply left into Park Avenue.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Ashridge Estate’s Ashridge jungle, located between Hemel Hempstead and Aylesbury in Hertfordshire, is where Cedric Diggory and his date encounter Harry and the Weasleys. At the same time, they travel to the Quidditch World Cup.
The hill where the manky old boot, the Portkey, is discovered is also on the National Trust’s property. Beacon Hill is located in the Ivinghoe Hills, close to Berkhamsted. They are instantly taken to the coast, where they can see the stunning Seven Sisters white cliffs in East Sussex, between Seaford and Eastbourne.
However, the Glastonbury-like encampment was shot at the Leavesden studio. On the coast of Virginia Water and Surrey, around the Cascade and the Roman ruins, sequences with Hermione acting as a messenger between Harry and Ron and Moody confronting Barty Crouch are shot.
The Cascade is the miniature waterfall that served as the backdrop for the Princes’ duet in Rob Marshall’s 2014 adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim show Into the Woods when Hagrid reveals Harry’s dragons in their containers in Black Park, a well-known Buckinghamshire site near Pinewood Studios.
The woodland served as the eerie setting for numerous Hammer horror movies. The monastery of New College, Holywell Avenue, is where Malfoy is transformed into a ferret by Mad-Eye. The hallways are where everybody seems to be wearing “Potter stinks” insignia.
Ron is taught to dance by Professor McGonagall in preparation for the Yule Ball in the lavishly domed Divinity School of Oxford University’s renowned Bodleian Library, which served as “Hogwarts hospital” in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The opening match of the Tri-Wizard Tournament takes place in Scotland against the striking backdrop of Steal Falls of Glen Nevis. In the Scottish Highlands, approximately fifteen kilometers north of Inverness, Harry is pursued into the breathtaking Black Rock Gorge at Evanton.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Once more, the setting for Hogwarts is the Scottish Highlands, with Hagrid’s hut located in a nearby gully and the powerful mountain background of Glen Etive not far from Glencoe. The renowned Clachaig Inn is featured in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor, which occurs here again.
Filming for the memory scene depicting Harry’s father torturing Severus Snape as a child took place on the premises of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock. The Duke of Marlborough resides on the opulent estate, the location of Sir Winston Churchill’s birth.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The office building is London’s City Hall, Queen’s Walk, SE1, the headquarters of the Greater London government and office of the mayor of the city, located on the south bank of the Thames next to Tower Bridge.
The railway cafe can be found on Platform 1 of Surbiton Station, on the Southern Western Main Line, about 11 miles southwest of London, where Harry is slumped over a copy of The Daily Prophet.
It’s different from how the movie portrays it. There isn’t a real café here, but there was a tiny café and coffee shop in the waiting area with no tables.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The Granger residence is Heathgate at Meadway, located in London’s verdant NW11 Hampstead Garden Suburb. The Suburb, which social activist Henrietta Barnett designed, was constructed in the early 20th century and is centered on the cathedral of St. Jude-on-the-Hill, which has a stern spire at the summit of Hermione’s Road.
As Voldemort and his minions prepare to move Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) to a safe place, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) appears outside “Malfoy Manor.” Hardwick Hall is a house in Derbyshire, about eight miles southeast of Chesterfield.
One of the most important Elizabethan country homes in England was built in the late 16th century for the fearsome Bess of Hardwick, Baroness of Shrewsbury, the most wealthy lady in England after Queen Elizabeth I.
Hagrid descends into the southern entryway of the Dartford Tunnel, which travels beneath the River Thames alongside the massive concrete pillars of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in Kent while being pursued by Death Eaters.
However, the tunnel’s core is located in the north-western region of England, beneath the River Mersey, in the Queensway Birkenhead Tunnel. It was the largest underwater tunnel in the world when it was opened in 1934, connecting Liverpool to Birkenhead. Additionally, it is simpler to shut down for shooting than the congested Thames crossing.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Neville Longbottom guarded the entry to the Hogwarts Bridge, which was constructed in Swinley Forest, a small Berkshire town south of Bracknell.
Despite King’s Cross Station’s substantial renovation, the elaborate Victorian Gothic frontage of St. Pancras International is still visible 19 years later as a new generation enters Platform 9 3/4.
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