Harry Potter's London

Harry Potter is myth, legend and inspiration to many people, both children and adults alike. The movies have been a phenomena in modern pop culture. I am still amazed how a young single mom would write these stories on a napkin, while writing she was receiving govement assisstance, wrote these magnficent stories for children that turned out to be such an amazing success. Her story inspires me just as much as Harry's story. I only started and finished reading the first book, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.  I have yet to read the others in the series. So, yes, I am still a bit behind in the Harry Potter saga. Still, I was impressed with the storyline, and while watching the movie the settings always seem to transport me to some make believe magical place that only England with all it's grand history, architecture, castles and mystery can evoke.

1. London - Harry communicates with the snake at the Reptile House in London Zoo, Australia House on the Strand was the setting for The Wizard Bank, and King's Cross Station provided platform 9 and 3/4. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are seen on Harry's arrival in London.

Platform 9 3/4 Kings Cross Station. London.

Australia House.Strand, London. Home of Wizards Bank in Harry Potter's Movies.

Reptile House. Regents Park Zoo. London.

2. Black Park, Langley, Berkshire - The 600 acre park was used for the movie's Forbidden Forest on the edge of Hogwarts, and out-of-bounds to the students. Hagrid's woodland home is set here too (now demolished).

3. Picket Post Close, Bracknell - the suburban, mock-tudor home of the Dursley.

Picket Post Close. Home of the Dursley's

4 Privet Drive

4. Lacock, Wiltshire - Harry's classroom friends were filmed around Lacock Abbey, a former monastery.

Lacock Abbey

5. Oxford University, Oxfordshire - the ancient university city provided much of Hogwarts' architecture including the school's library and hospital.

Christ Church. Oxford University. Dining Hall in Harry Potter's Movies.

I did manage to get here. It was a very beautiful experience and I felt very at home at Oxford.

6. Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire - magnificent fan vaulted cloisters - setting for ghost scenes

Inside of Gloucestire Cathedral

7. Alnwick Castle, Northumberland - the exterior of the castle is used for exterior Hogwarts shots, the Quidditch match and broomstick lesson is set within the ramparts.

8. Durham Cathedral, this 12th century cathedral provided one of the Hogwart's classrooms. Harry walks through the cloisters of the Cathedral with his owl, Hedwig.

The cloisters is where Harry and his friends walk through

The cloisters, where the monks of Durham carried out their daily life. The cloisters were added in the 14th and 15th centuries, but were rebuilt in 1828. The roof is all that remains of the medieval original.

9. Goathland Station, North Yorkshire - doubled as Hogwart's local station.

Note Bene: I managed to see all the Harry Potter in London and in Oxford film locations, everything else I got from the internet. Perhaps, next time, in the UK, I 'll get to spend more time outside of London. I still would like to see Northern England, especially the Lake District,and the home of Beatrix Potter. As they say there's always tomorrow to make dreams come true.

Cheers,
love, Sabrina




















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The Last Tuesday Society Shop

Taxidermy was quite popular in the Victorian period.  The Victorians were fascinating with collecting stylish clutter. At The Last Tuesdays Society's Shop and Museum, you can unleash your inner gothic Victorian, and can collect all sorts of curiosities.

Photo of Victor Wynd in front of his shop

 Victor Wynd, Director of  The Last Tuesday Society, oversees the events at the Masked Balls, owns and runs The Little Shop of Horrors in Bethnal Green.


The shop of curiosities sells:
 "A wide variety of curiosities and oddities [...] from human fetuses to shrunken heads, chocolate anuses, carniverous plants, orchids and mutated teddy bears, not to mention a fine selection of speciality teas, broken children’s toys and dead plants."

In the Shops discover all kinds of medicinae, zoology , naturalia, osteology (study of bones), entomology ( study of butterflies). In the zoology department you can see all sorts of dead stuffed animals, including a monkey. LondonAntique Taxidermy, Victorian Taxidermy , Contemporary Taxidermy, including Stuffed Birds and Stuffed Animals, Game Heads, Trophy Horns,Skulls and Skeletons, Pickled Specimens,Curiosities,Glass Domes, Cases, Collector's Cabinets.

An Array of Beautiful Butterfly Species at the Shop. Endomology- the study of Butterflies.

Everything is for sell if your interested.

The shop is dedicated to all sorts of weird science and there is a charge to the Museum.

The Little Shop of Horrors Holds a Lecture Series . There you will find classes such as  HENDRICK'S QUARTERLY SEANCE with Richard Wiseman. " Why let Death get in the way of a good conversation."


Enjoy !

Viktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors & Museum.
11 Mare Street
Hackney, London E8 4RP
 and is currently open 12-6pm, Friday to Sunday.











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re: PART 1: Tips on Visitors coming to London: Transportation

PART 1: Tips on Visitors coming to London: Transportation

A great way to see London would be just buying an Oyster card for 3 £ and then topping up as you go along. You can register your card online, just in case it gets lost. When you aer done using your card your £3 deposit will be given back to you. Your Oyster Card is King in the travelling business in London. The bus is the cheapest route to see London, it's just £1 one way. It's also the the best way to see London, high on the second floor of the double decker buses you can see all of London. Here you can see the architure, people, fashionistas, tourists,great monuments, parks and more people. You can just sit back and relax and see it all from the vantage point of the big double decker bus!!! You can also use the tube to get around the only thign is tube can be quite expensive, usually £2.00 one way. Also, the tube is hectic and cumbersome, they are high traffic areas. During rush hour it's hard to get a seat, so what you do is pretend like you are a Londoner and always always carry a book. This way you can pretend your deeply entranced in your book and can avoid any eye contact with people. Just in case, if they want to ask you where you are from, or ask you for directions or maybe complement you or strike up a conversation. If you hide behind your book, you look chic, intellectual. Reading a book on the tube is the height of sophistication. And,like you can't be bothered.

Another key note, many major cities in the world have the exact time arrival of the trains and departures, here in London, all you have to do is stand by the platform, and look at the screen as a guide. As far as schedule times, forget it. Just know that each tube takes about 2-3 minutes between stops. So, let's say if you are going to Oxford Circus on the Picaddily Line and you start at Greenpark. You'll arrive in just 2 minutes. Those trains are bloody fast. If you are changing lines, you have to allot for time travel inside the tube station itself, that could take another 10 minutes depending which tube station you are at. If you are at the major stations where other trains go outside London, it might take you ten minutes to go from one side of the station to the other. The major train stations are Waterloo, Paddington, Kings Cross, and Victoria.

Also, these train stations are enormous by the time you reach your destination, you'll probably have to use the loo at this point you'll want to make a beeline to the bathroom. They weren't kidding when they said London is an expsensive city, because once you get to the Bathroom or as the English say TOILET( taken from the French, as an American I still think the word bathroom is more elegant, I detest saying the word Toilet), there is gate that will charge you 30 pence each way. If you have to go to the bathroom on your way to depart the train station and then upon arrival, that could cost you just 60 pence just to pee. Multiplied by 5 days a week, that could be £3 a week. Multiplied by the many weeks in a year, that 's about roughly £10 a month. That's about £120 a year in Bathroom usage. (That's enough money to buy a one way ticket from LA to NYC) See, I told you London was expensive. Anyway, keep a lot of spare coins just in case you have that irrisistable urge. On a positive note, it's a good thing they also have showers just in case you want to be fresh for your next meeting or hot date. I think that cost about 1£. But, on a positive note, the pound you spend on a good old fashioned shower, is probably worth it because by the time you are done running around the tube and train stations like a chicken with your head cut off, dodging stressed out people with their luggage, handbags and big umbrellas, not only are you ready for a pint of Guinness you are ready for your second shower. of the day !!

http://www.megabus.com/
http://http//www.tfl.gov.org
http://http//www.nationalexpress.com/







Next London Diaries
Harry Potter's London
Dating in London Part 2

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Shakespeare: Contribution to the English Language

This is my favorite of all the favorite quotes in the world.
"All the world's a stage"..

Meaning

Life is like a play - we merely go through the stages of our life acting it out.

Origin

From Shakespeare's As You Like It, 1600:

JAQUES:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

MORE IN SABRINA'S LONDON DIARIES
- Harry Potter in London
- Fashion in London
-Dating in London: Part 3. How to Cause a Stir