Sixteen Harry Potter filming locations, thirteen kilometres of London and a single tube fare. This is the self-guided walking tour we have now done five times, in the order that actually works.
Put your comfy shoes on folks, because this Harry Potter walking tour of London will, we 100% guarantee, make you feel like you have just stepped into one of the films. OK, maybe not 100%, but at least like 56%.
London happens to be a rather magical place for Harry Potter fans, and there are few destinations with so many cool Potter-related locations (believe us, we have looked). As people who burrow down on the sofa to watch the films every year and have reread the books a rather obsessive number of times, we cannot tell you how exciting it was to put this route together. The first time we walked it was for “research”. By the fifth, there was no point pretending it was for anything other than the joy of it.
The route takes in the locations used in the film series along with a few of the spots that gave Rowling her ideas in the first place. You get the Muggle entrance to the Ministry of Magic, the bridge the Death Eaters tear apart, the real-life Diagon Alley and the hidden base of the Order of the Phoenix.
Fun as it would be to hop on a Nimbus 2000 and speed around the city ticking off all of the Harry Potter London locations, chances are you do not have a magical flying broomstick hanging around. So here is the self-guided version instead. It is a biggie, and we would take all day over it, though you can split it across two days if that suits you better.
If you would rather someone else did the navigating and the talking, there is a guided version of roughly this route that runs at about two and a half hours from £20. Doing it yourself is free, takes longer and gets you more.
Now it is your turn. If you would rather see the whole thing plotted out first, it is all on our London tourist map too.
Practical information
Starts
King’s Cross railway station
Finishes
Lambeth Bridge, Westminster
Distance
13km, plus a short underground hop between Angel and Bank
Time
Walking time: 3 hrs 15 mins
Suggested time to allow: 5 to 6 hours
Difficulty
Medium: Flat terrain but it covers a reasonable distance.
Admission fees
Nothing on the route charges admission, so a single tube fare between Angel and Bank is the whole cost of the day.
Places visited on the tour
- King’s Cross – Home of Platform 9 ¾
- St Pancras Station – The Setting for the Flying Car
- Claremont Square – The Order of the Phoenix HQ
- Leadenhall Market – Diagon Alley and The Leaky Cauldron
- Tower Bridge – The Backdrop to the Order’s Flight Through London
- Stoney Street – The Entrance to the Leaky Cauldron
- The Millenium Bridge – The Site of the Attack by the Death Eaters
- St Paul’s Cathedral – Part of Hogwarts
- Australia House – AKA Gringotts
- Goodwin’s Court and Cecil Court – Diagon Alley
- The House of MinaLima
- Piccadilly Circus – Part of the escape to London in the Deathly Hallows
- Great Scotland Yard – The Ministry of Magic
- Westminster Station – Closest tube to the Ministry
- Lambeth Bridge – Where we witness some of the Knight Bus’s frantic journey
Accessibility
- There are a number of cobbled streets on this walk that may be difficult to navigate by wheelchair or with a pushchair.
- There’s no lift access at Angel Station to access the Northern Line. Instead, you can miss stop three (Claremont Square) and get the Circle or District Line to Liverpool Street Station for Leadenhall Market.
- If you don’t want to miss Stop Three, you could consider starting the tour at Claremont Square, then doing Stop Two (St Pancras) followed by Stop One (King’s Cross) and then getting the underground to Liverpool Street for Leadenhall Market.
- There are stairs between Leadenhall Market and Tower Bridge and again between Tower Bridge and Stoney Street but you can take a less direct route to avoid these.
- There are stairs to descend from the Millennium Bridge but there is also a wheelchair accessible lift as an alternative.
The stops
Stop one: King’s Cross Station
Address: Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London N1 9AL
All aboard the Hogwarts Express. We start at King’s Cross, the very station the Hogwarts Express departs from in both the books and the films, and beyond daydreaming about whizzing away to Hogwarts yourself there are three things inside it you will not want to miss.
The first is the actual spot between platforms 4 and 5 where Platform 9 ¾ is supposed to reside, and there is honestly not much to see. Much more exciting is the trolley half-buried into the wall, poised for you to take that classic shot, and it sits right next to the Harry Potter Shop where you can pick up your very own wand. Cos #wizard life.
Back to that photo of you running through the wall at Platform 9 ¾. We will not lie: unless you get there first thing in the morning, you are going to queue for it, and not for minutes. We are not saying it is not worth it, only that forewarned is forearmed. What we will say is that if you are also planning on the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden, do not bother queueing at King’s Cross at all. There are several spots in the studio’s reconstruction of King’s Cross where you get the same shot and, oh blessed day, no queue whatsoever. You are welcome.
Two things nobody tells you about the trolley. It is free and there is no ticket, so ignore anyone implying otherwise, and there is an official photographer on it from 9am to 9pm daily who will hand you the scarf and sell you the print next door. Turn up outside those hours and the trolley is still there, unstaffed, and yours to photograph on your own phone.
Watch The Scene: Harry Finds Platform 9 ¾ in The Philosopher’s Stone
→→ →→ 6 minute walk. From The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 ¾ to St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
Walk south-west towards Pancras Rd (the nearest exit from King’s Cross), turn left onto Pancras Rd, turn right, take the stairs and the St Pancras Renaissance is on the right.
Stop two: St Pancras Renaissance Hotel
Address: Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London N1C 4QP
After King’s Cross it is a simple matter of strolling across the road to St Pancras International, flying cars unfortunately not included. St Pancras doubles as the exterior of the station the Hogwarts Express leaves from, and it is the front of the building we are interested in: now the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, once the Midland Grand, and designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
We completely understand why the filmmakers went for this rather than King’s Cross. Who does not want an eyeful of that Gothic frontage? It also makes it considerably more dramatic when Harry and Ron purloin the Ford Anglia and fly to Hogwarts after missing the Express in The Chamber of Secrets.
Watch the Scene: Harry, Ron and the Flying Car in The Chamber of Secrets
→→ →→ 17 minute walk.
From the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, walk north-east and take the stairs, turn right onto Pancras Rd and shortly after turn left onto Euston Rd/A501. Walk along Euston Road for 130 metres, then take the left hand fork onto Pentonville Road. Carry on along Pentonville Road for 800 metres before turning right onto Claremont Square. Follow the square to turn left and numbers 23-29 are across the road.
Stop three: Claremont Square
Address: 23 Claremont Square, Islington, London N1 9LX
Claremont Square is one of the more tucked-away stops on the walk, about fifteen minutes from St Pancras. A quiet terrace of Georgian houses in Islington might not look like much, but this is the film location for 12 Grimmauld Place. Still not ringing any bells? Make your way to numbers 23 to 29 and all will become clear.
It is the home of the Order of the Phoenix, the Black residence that Sirius kindly donates to the order in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and that the trio use again in The Deathly Hallows Part I. It was a neat fit, because the books describe Grimmauld Place as close to King’s Cross and set on a small square of terraced houses, which is check and check. Luckily for all of us, the Fidelius Charm that stops Muggles seeing number 12 does nothing at all to stop you seeing numbers 23 to 29.
Watch The Scene: Harry Arrives at Grimmauld Place with The Order of The Phoenix
→→ →→ 5 minute walk to Angel Station from Claremont Square, 5 minute underground ride to Bank Station, 6 minute walk from Bank Station to Leadenhall Market.
Walk east on Claremont Square, turn left to stay on Claremont Square. At the end of the road, turn right onto Pentonville Road. After 250 metres, turn right onto St John Street – Angel Underground Station is on your left.
Take the Northern Line to Bank.
Exit Bank Station and turn onto Cornhill, walk along Cornhill for 300 metres, turn right onto Gracechurch Street where you will find the entrance to Leadenhall Market on your left.
Stop four: Leadenhall Market
Address: Gracechurch St, Langbourn, London EC3V 1LT
The next stop is a fair way off, around 45 minutes on foot, so we are going to hop on the tube from Angel to Bank and cut the transit time to about fifteen. Where are we going? Leadenhall Market.
Leadenhall is one of London’s most beautiful markets. It was originally built in the 15th century as a wool, leather, meat and fish market, though the current architecture dates to 1881. Does it look familiar? It was used as the area of Muggle London from which you access Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Cast your mind back to the first film. There is a lot of excitement, Harry having just found out he is a WIZARD after all, and the tone is upbeat and fun, so the gorgeous gold and red of Leadenhall fits perfectly.
The Philosopher’s Stone was directed by Chris Columbus, who also made Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and The Chamber of Secrets, and he imagined the world of Harry Potter as one of wonder and discovery. Like Harry, Hermione and Ron, we are all being thrust into the hubble and bubble of the wizarding world and its immense promise.
Exit the market onto Lime Street, but before you set off and away, walk down Bull’s Head Passage (the entrance is on the right).
Walk down until you see the white bow-fronted shopfront with a slim white door beside it, pictured above. Look at the number on that door and you will see it is 4, not 42. The 42 picked out in gold belongs to the red shopfront next door, which is how half the internet ended up giving the Leaky Cauldron’s address as 42 Bull’s Head Passage. You can see both in the photo.
What was then an empty optician’s was used as the entrance to the wizarding pub in The Philosopher’s Stone. The passage has caught up with itself since: House of Wonders, an officially licensed Harry Potter shop, opened here in October 2025, so there is now a wand shop about ten feet from the door they filmed. Worth knowing the other way round too, because The Glass House opticians a few doors along is shut every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which is exactly when most people come. Beyond the door, of course, the Leaky Cauldron is the way into Diagon Alley, where Potter gets all excited and spends his galleons on everything he needs to start at Hogwarts.
Watch the Scene: Walking to The Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley
→→ →→ 16 minute walk from Bull’s Head Passage to Tower Bridge.
Walk south-east from Bull’s Head Passage onto Lime Street Passage. Turn right onto Lime St, then left onto Fenchurch St. Walk for 50 metres, before turning right onto Rood Ln. Continue for another hundred metres to turn left onto Eastcheap, which turns into Great Tower Street. Near the end of the road, take a slight right to cross onto Byward Street and turn left onto Tower Hill Terrace, follow the terrace then turn right onto Tower Bridge Approach. Take the stairs up to Tower Bridge.
Stop five: Tower Bridge
Address: Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP
From Leadenhall it is a relatively short zip to Tower Bridge. We will be honest, the bridge only makes a fleeting appearance in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and another in The Half-Blood Prince, but it is always worth a look while you are this close, and we have two dozen facts about it if you want the rest of its story.
Remember the scene in The Order of the Phoenix when Harry flies past Tower Bridge on his way along the Thames with the rest of the order? Of course you do. They make their way from here, following the river under London Bridge and past the Houses of Parliament.
Away from Harry Potter, Tower Bridge has had a long and eventful history. Want an example? The two walkways that now form the Tower Bridge experience used to be one of London’s informal red light districts. Not only that, in the fifties a bus had to jump between the opening sections when the bridge started to lift with it still on top. Turns out Tower Bridge is pretty magical even without wizards zipping around it.
From here you can also glance over to City Hall on the left, the glass asymmetrical globe that looks like it is leaning away from the river. City Hall pops up at the beginning of The Half-Blood Prince when the Death Eaters cause havoc, the office workers, filmed inside the building, standing up to watch the destruction outside. How different it is from the cheery tones of the first films. By this point things have taken a much gloomier turn, Voldemort is definitely back, and the films have evolved to be darker in both events and aesthetic.
Watch the Scene: Death Eaters Attack London in The Half-Blood Prince
→→ →→ 15 minute walk from Tower Bridge to Stoney Street.
Walk over the bridge to cross onto the South Bank of the Thames. Take the stairs on the right, then turn left to walk next to the water. Carry on for 400 metres, then turn left onto St Olaf Stairs to emerge onto Tooley Street. Continue onto Montague Close for 200 metres, then turn right onto Winchester Walk and left onto Stoney Street.
Stop six: Stoney Street
Location: 7A Stoney Street, London SE1 9AA (entrance to Tacos El Pastor)
Cross Tower Bridge and head for Borough Market, about fifteen minutes once you get to the other side. Borough is London’s best-known food market, with a bounty of fresh produce and street food that pulls people from far and wide, and it is mentioned as early as the 13th century, though historians believe it is older still. It is the perfect place to stop and refuel. That is not what we are here for, though.
Stoney Street, right beside the market, is the second place to feature as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, the first being Bull’s Head Passage back at stop four. Head underneath the railway bridge and look at what is now the entrance to Tacos El Pastor: that is it, the Leaky Cauldron from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
The Prisoner of Azkaban is the third film in the series and the first directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who built a much darker, dirtier world to reflect the growing malignancy in the books. Gone are the bright colours of Leadenhall; this entrance is all grimy Victorian railway brickwork. It looks a good deal nicer these days thanks to the artwork El Pastor added, but picture it without any of the colour and you will see why it was perfect.
The Knight Bus drops Harry here after that memorable ride, the one involving squeezing through a narrow gap between two other buses and very nearly flattening an old lady on a crossing. His journey ends with a sharp stop in this exact spot, and the bus setting off a car alarm as it goes.
Speaking of the Knight Bus, it was not a special effect. It was a real bus, built by slicing two Routemasters apart, splicing them together and rejigging the structure to give it three decks. The filmmakers could not drive it across London because it was too tall for the city’s low bridges, so it was transported in pieces and assembled on location for each scene, with eight tonnes of weight added to the bottom to stop it toppling over. These days it lives at the Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden.
When Harry wakes the next morning in the Leaky Cauldron, he looks out of the window onto some of the defining features of this corner of London: Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, the river beyond and the mish-mash of buildings around them. Next door at number 8 Stoney Street you will find the Market Porter, one of the few pubs in London licensed to serve in the early morning to cater for Borough’s market workers. Can you guess where you have seen it before? It is the Third Hand Emporium in The Chamber of Secrets, and the very place where Harry meets the vain charmer Gilderoy Lockhart.
Watch the Scenes: The Knight Bus and the Entrance to the Leaky Cauldron
→→ →→ 9 minute walk from Stoney Street to Millennium Bridge.
Walk north on Stoney St back towards (but past) Winchester Walk.
At the end of Stoney Street, turn left onto Clink St. At the end of Clink Street, turn right onto Bank End, which becomes Bankside.
Continue alongside the river for 400 metres before turning to walk onto the Millennium Bridge.
Stop seven: Millennium Bridge
Address: Thames Embankment, London SE1 9JE
Now we are on to the Millennium Bridge, which you should walk over, though be warned that it wobbles a bit. We think we can all agree that those Death Eaters are a right nasty lot.
It is a pretty bad sign of things to come for poor Muggle London when they destroy the bridge in The Half-Blood Prince, plunging everyone walking along it into the Thames. Perhaps do not think about that too much while you are crossing.
The name might be a giveaway, but the bridge was built to commemorate the millennium. Things did not quite go to plan. When it opened in 2000 it became an object of ridicule because it wobbled so much that it was deemed structurally unsound, knocking over a fair few pedestrians in the process, and it had to close for another two years while engineers made it safe.
Like Tower Bridge and London Bridge, it first appears in The Order of the Phoenix when Harry flies through London to Grimmauld Place. But it is the scene of the Death Eaters striking the bridge and ripping it apart, toppling pedestrians into the river, that really sticks with you. In the story, Voldemort has told Cornelius Fudge to step down as Minister of Magic, and when he refuses the Dark Lord attacks London, spreading the Dark Mark across the sky and setting the Death Eaters loose. It is a chilling start to the film and a sure sign that things are getting out of hand.
It is interesting that the filmmakers used the Millennium Bridge as a stand-in for the fictional Brockdale Bridge the Death Eaters attack in the books. The sight of it twisting and writhing in the air strikes terror partly because it is such a familiar view, and partly as a cheeky nod to the bridge’s real early problems. Remember how it wobbled and sent people stumbling? What if that was never structural at all. It cannot be true, and it is not, but it is a nice thought to carry across.
Watch the Scene: Death Eaters Attack London in The Half-Blood Prince
→→ →→ 5 minute walk from the Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral.
Walk north on Millennium Bridge and continue onto Peter’s Hill, which turns into Sermon Lane. At the end of the lane, turn left onto Carter Lane and turn left onto St Paul’s Churchyard.
Stop eight: St Paul’s Cathedral
Address: St. Paul’s Churchyard, London EC4M 8AD
We are not going into St Paul’s Cathedral on this walk, because the part used in the films is only reachable on one of the Cathedral’s own guided tours. If you do want to see it, the useful thing is that one of those tours is free: the Cathedral Floor and Crypt tour runs Monday to Friday at 11am and 2pm, takes about ninety minutes, covers the Geometric Staircase and costs nothing on top of the £27 admission, and you book it on the day at the desk. The paid Treasures Tour is £16 on top and gets you 141 steps and the nave from above the Great West Doors, which is not one for anybody with dodgy knees.
You can read the rest of this as you walk past one of London’s most recognisable buildings. St Paul’s was designed by Sir Christopher Wren as part of the reconstruction of the city after the Great Fire. Inside, the Geometric Staircase, or the Dean’s Stair as it is officially named, was used as the spiral stairs up to Professor Trelawney’s Divination classroom in The Prisoner of Azkaban, and again in The Goblet of Fire as the stairs to Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Walking from St Paul’s to Australia House takes you along Fleet Street, historically the heartland of the British media. There may be fewer journalists around today, but much of the history still shines through, from the glimpse of St Bride’s Church as you pass St Bride’s Lane to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a Sam Smith’s pub dating to 1667 that Dickens and Conan Doyle both drank in.
Further along you will see a statue in the middle of the road, a monument flanked by Queen Victoria on one side and Edward VII on the other. That spot marks the boundary between the City of London and the City of Westminster, where the rest of this tour takes place. Continue on past the Royal Courts of Justice to Australia House.
→→ →→ 15 minute walk from St Paul’s Cathedral to Australia House.
Continue along St Paul’s Churchyard, which turns into Ludgate Hill and stay on here for 200 metres. Cross the road and continue straight onto Fleet Street. Walk for 500m to the beginning of The Strand. The High Commission of Australia sits within the roundabout.
Stop nine: Australia House
Address: Strand, London WC2B 4LA
Time to withdraw your galleons, for which you will need Australia House, which doubles as Gringotts. It was the inside of the building that was used as the filming location, but take a close look at the outside too, because it clearly influenced the design of the bank in the film, which was built as a set at Leavesden. The triangular shape and imposing architecture of both is no coincidence. This is indeed the wizarding bank, just missing a few bells and whistles.
Australia House is the longest continually occupied diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom, and its exterior was built with marble shipped from Australia. Inside it is no less striking, so it is no wonder the filmmakers wanted it.
You cannot simply walk in. The interior that serves as Gringotts in both The Philosopher’s Stone and, as the backdrop to the trio’s antics, The Deathly Hallows Part II has exactly one public opening: Open House, every September, when the Exhibition Hall opens for self-guided visits on timed tickets. You need photo ID and to have booked in advance. Tickets for 2026 went live at midday on 19 August and the festival ran from 12 to 20 September, so this one is a diary job for next year.
It is the Exhibition Hall rather than the lobby that appears in the films anyway. Imagine row after row of goblins tapping, calculating and keeping themselves busy around it, jazz it up with a few props, and there is your Gringotts.
Watch the Scene: Harry Visits Gringotts Bank in The Philosopher’s Stone
The Trio Break into Gringotts in The Deathly Hallows Part II
→→ →→ 12 minute walk from Australia House to Goodwin’s Court.
Walk west on Aldwych towards Melbourne Place. Take a slight right onto Kingsway and cross the road. Turn right onto Drury Lane, carry on for 160m then turn left onto Russell Street. Walk straight for 140m, through Covent Garden Market and turn right towards King Street. Turn left onto King Street, continue straight ahead as it turns into New Row and turn left onto Bedfordbury before turning right into Goodwin’s Court.
Stop ten: Goodwin’s Court
Address: Goodwin’s Ct, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4LL
Strolling the narrow passageways around Charing Cross Road, we would not blame you for getting the distinct feeling that the next two stops are a part of the city Harry himself would know. Crooked old buildings overhang the walkway of Goodwin’s Court, one of two spots in the area said to have inspired Diagon Alley, and its delightfully quaint bow-fronted shops transport you to another age, their iron-barred windows and dingy brickwork thought to date to 1690.
Plenty of people are convinced Goodwin’s Court was the basis for the Diagon Alley set at Warner Bros, and the two do look convincingly alike. Rumour has it the only reason it was not used in the films is that it was too narrow for the filming equipment. What do you think?
Before you get too carried away, others champion the next stop, Cecil Court, as the real inspiration. Let us go and look.
Watch The Scene: Harry and Hagrid go to Diagon Alley in the Philosopher’s Stone
→→ →→ 1 minute walk from Goodwin’s Court to Cecil Court.
Walk to the other end of Goodwin’s Court. Turn left onto St Martin’s Lane, cross the road and turn right onto Cecil Court.
Stop eleven: Cecil Court
Address: 2 Cecil Ct, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4HE
Just around the corner is the other contender. Cecil Court is slightly bigger and much better known than Goodwin’s Court, and it sits just off Charing Cross Road, which is the place Rowling chose as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron in the books.
Charing Cross Road turns up several times, both when Harry and Hagrid walk down it in The Philosopher’s Stone and when the Knight Bus takes a jaunt along it in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Rowling herself has said that “Charing Cross Road is famous for its bookshops… This is why I wanted it to be the place where those in the know go to enter a different world”. Nifty.
Back to Cecil Court, which is lined with antiquarian and occult booksellers behind quaint Victorian shopfronts, each promising a passage into somewhere else. In other words, it is totally on point for Diagon Alley. We half expect to find Ollivanders tucked among the shops every time, and you will see why.
Watch the Scene: Diagonelly to Diagon Alley in The Chamber of Secrets
→→ →→ 6 minute walk from Cecil Court to the House of MinaLima.
Walk to the other end of Cecil Court. Turn right onto Charing Cross Rd and walk along for 300 metres. Turn left onto Moor Street, then after 70 metres, left onto Old Compton Street and left onto Greek Street. The House of MinaLima is on your left.
Stop twelve: The House of MinaLima
Address: 157 Wardour Street, Soho, London W1F 8WQ
Our next stop is not a filming location, but it is one of the coolest Harry Potter shops in town. It is on Wardour Street, a couple of streets west of where a lot of guides still send you, it opens every day from 11am to 6.45pm including bank holidays, and you walk in for nothing.
Part exhibition, part shop, this multi-floored Soho space was started by two of the graphic designers who brought the books to life on screen. Eduardo Lima and Miraphora Mina met working on the films, and between them they designed so many of the graphics you will remember: the striking covers of the Daily Prophet, the wanted posters from which Death Eaters’ faces stare out malevolently. Even thinking about Bellatrix’s twisted features gives us the creeps.
Visiting is a pretty big deal, and you can pick up limited edition prints, badges and your very own potion books to take home. If that does not make you go all heart eyed emoji, we do not know what will.
Watch the Scene: The Daily Prophet Exonerates Harry in The Order of the Phoenix
→→ →→ 7 minute walk from the House of MinaLima to Piccadilly Circus.
Walk south-east on Greek St towards Romilly St. Turn right onto Shaftesbury Ave and continue for 450 m. Turn right onto Piccadilly Circus.
Stop thirteen: Piccadilly Circus
Address: West End, London W1J 9HP
Piccadilly Circus is terrifying enough at the best of times, the thronging crowds and neon lights a recipe guaranteed to set your teeth on edge. Imagine how stressful it would be if you apparated into it only to be nearly hit by a bus and then chased by Death Eaters trying to kill you.
Sound familiar? That is exactly what happens to Harry, Hermione and Ron in The Deathly Hallows Part I. They apparate into the bright lights, duck into a café and end up in a wizarding fight with two Death Eaters. Swing by, but keep your eyes open, because you never know who is on your tail.
Watch the Scene: The Ministry has Fallen and the Escape to London
→→ →→ 12 minute walk from Piccadilly Circus to Great Scotland Yard.
Turn from Piccadilly Circus and walk east onto Coventry Street. Turn right onto Haymarket and walk straight for 300 metres. Cross Pall Mall and bear left onto Cockspur Street and continue for 200 metres. At the roundabout, walk across to Whitehall, continue along Whitehall for 150 metres and cross the road to enter Great Scotland Yard. The filming location is on the right.
Stop fourteen: Great Scotland Yard
Address: Great Scotland Yard, Westminster, London SW1A
Meander to Great Scotland Yard to hunt for the two entrances to the Ministry of Magic, the Muggle and the wizard versions. It looks innocuous enough: some rather beautiful buildings just off Whitehall, the heart of British government, with 10 Downing Street round the corner and the Houses of Parliament at the far end.
Nothing incredible to see here, then. Wrong. Great Scotland Yard was used to represent the heart of the wizarding world, which neatly reflects the area’s importance in the real one.
Cast your mind back to The Order of the Phoenix, when Arthur Weasley takes Harry to the Ministry for his hearing on performing underage magic and they enter through a red telephone box beneath a stone archway. You will have to picture the telephone box and the archway near the junction of Scotland Place, and there is your entrance. The bridge in the scene is a duplicate of one just around the corner on Scotland Place, added in CGI to cover up some of the uglier doorways.
The exterior of the Ministry on Great Scotland Yard pops up again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I when Harry, Ron and Hermione lie in wait for Mafalda Hopkirk and the other wizards they impersonate using polyjuice potion. We see it again when they’ve transformed and are making their way to break into the Ministry.
Watch the Scenes
Harry & Mr Weasley go to the Ministry
Breaking into the Ministry of Magic in Deathly Hallows I
→→ →→ 8 minute walk from Great Scotland Yard to Westminster Station.
Retrace your footsteps along Great Scotland Yard back to Whitehall. Turn left onto Whitehall and follow it along. There is an entrance to Westminster Station is on Whitehall.
Stop fifteen: Westminster Underground
Address: Westminster, London SW1A 2JR
Make your way from Great Scotland Yard along Whitehall to Westminster Station. It might look like any other tube station from the street, but the beady-eyed among you will spot that there is more to it than that. This is the very station Harry uses in The Order of the Phoenix on his way to his disciplinary hearing, the one where Mr Weasley struggles with the ticket barriers, which is an experience we can all relate to.
Westminster Station was closed for a whole day in October 2006 to film those scenes, and they chose a Sunday because the weekends are relatively quiet. Even so, closing it had never been done before, given that thousands upon thousands of people pass through even on a slow day. If you ever needed proof of how important the films had become, that is it.
Watch the Scene: Harry & Mr Weasley go to the Ministry
→→ →→ 9 minute walk from Westminster Station to Lambeth Bridge.
From Westminster Station, cross the road to walk towards the Houses of Parliament on Parliament Square. Continue along Abingdon Street and Millbank to reach your final destination, Lambeth Bridge.
Stop sixteen: Lambeth Bridge
Address: Lambeth Bridge, London SE1 7SG
We are guessing that by this point you are pretty tired. It has been a lot of walking, and a lot of magic, for one day, but there is one last stop before we hop on our broomsticks and fly home. It is only ten minutes from Westminster Station to Lambeth Bridge, where you can relive the antics of the Knight Bus.
Cast your mind back to The Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry storms out from the Dursleys and is rescued by the totally fabulous Knight Bus. Careering through central London at what is, quite frankly, a rather irresponsible speed, it hurtles about narrowly avoiding old ladies and causing destruction. With us now? Then you will certainly remember the bit where the bus squeezes between two Muggle London buses on a bridge. Lambeth Bridge is that bridge. You will not see any optical illusions here, but it is a good spot to finish on, if only for the views of the Thames, Parliament and beyond.
Watch the Scene: The Knight Bus Ride to the Leaky Cauldron
And with that, it is a simple matter of saying Mischief Managed, putting away your Marauder’s Map, or the Google Map on your phone if we are being realistic, and giving yourself a huge pat on the back. Thank you for walking this one with us, and we hope you have a brilliant time finding all of it.
A few more stops worth adding
None of these are filming locations, and none of them are far off the route. Bolt on whichever fits the day you are having.
The World of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Fetter Lane
Address: 86 Fetter Lane, EC4A 1AD
You walk down Fleet Street between stops eight and nine anyway, and Fetter Lane is the turning just before you get to Chancery Lane. Enigma Quests runs a wizarding-school escape room on it, in which you play a recent graduate being interviewed by the Magical Division and end up investigating the disappearance of one Professor Thistlewick. It is £35 a head for sixty minutes, teams of two to five, six if you ask nicely, and they never merge you with strangers. Two-player teams pay a surcharge on Saturdays, so go midweek or bring a third.
The Harry Potter shop on Oxford Street
Address: The Ribbon, 134-140 Oxford Street. Opens 4 November 2026
The UK’s first proper Harry Potter flagship opens on Oxford Street in November, and at more than 21,000 square feet over two floors it makes the King’s Cross shop look like a kiosk. There is a Ukrainian Ironbelly hanging over a Gringotts section, a full-size Knight Bus to be photographed in front of, and a Leaky Cauldron counter pouring Butterbeer and selling Butterbeer ice cream. It is a ten-minute walk north from MinaLima at stop twelve, which makes the two a sensible pair if you are doing the Soho end in the afternoon.
The Georgian House, Pimlico
Address: 35-39 St George’s Drive, SW1V 4DG
The walk finishes at Lambeth Bridge, which puts you within striking distance of the one hotel in London that has gone properly all in. You do not have to stay to get at it: the Wizard Afternoon Tea runs Friday to Sunday and takes ninety minutes with 48 hours’ notice, and the potion making is £25 for the cocktail version, £20 for the mocktail, twenty to forty minutes, and combines with the tea into a two-hour sitting. The rooms are down a candlelit portrait corridor on the lower ground floor, which is either marvellous or a fire drill waiting to happen depending on your temperament.
Eat, drink and visit along the way
- Borough Market makes the perfect lunch stop as it’s right next to Stoney Street. As one of London’s best-known food markets, you’ll have plenty of choice.
- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – A cute old-school Sam Smiths pub on Fleet Street.
- This tour takes you to Tower Bridge and past St Paul’s (which contains another filming location but you have to pay for a tour to access it) – if you have the time, they’re worth visiting in themselves.
Practical tips
We hope it is clear by now that there is a great deal of magic in London and it is mostly a matter of knowing where to look. A couple of practical notes before you set off, and if you get a taste for covering the city on foot, our guide to the best walks in London has 28 more routes.
- Wear comfortable shoes to go and do the London Harry Potter walking tour and allow yourself all day to do it, it is a biggie.
- If you don’t live in London, the Georgian House in Pimlico has a set of Harry Potter themed rooms a short walk from where this walk finishes. We have written up all three of the city’s options in our guide to Harry Potter hotels in London.
- Nothing on this route charges admission, so the walk itself costs you a single tube fare between Angel and Bank.
Map
Everything else Harry Potter in London
This tour is just the walking half of it. The studio tour, the wizard afternoon teas, the escape room, the themed hotel rooms and the shops that have opened since are all rounded up in our guide to Harry Potter in London, which is the one to read if you want the whole city rather than one day of it.
The one thing worth booking before you come, though, is Leavesden. The Warner Bros Studio Tour sells out weeks ahead in school holidays and you cannot buy tickets at the door. If you would rather not work out the trains, there are packages that bundle the ticket with return transfers, and one that leaves from King’s Cross, which is where this walk starts anyway.
The London x London Take: There is a genuine trade-off on which day to do this. Go on a weekday and St Paul’s free Cathedral Floor and Crypt tour is available, at 11am or 2pm, which is the only way to see the Geometric Staircase without paying extra. Go at the weekend and Leadenhall Market is almost empty, which is when Bull’s Head Passage photographs the way you want it to and the Platform 9 3/4 queue is at its worst. We would take the weekday and accept a busier market. Either way the walk itself costs one tube fare, which makes it the best value day in London for anyone who has reread the books more times than they would admit in public. We have done it five times. The first was research.
