Oxford, England is a town
dedicated to higher education of a very exclusive sort. Everywhere you look,
there are turrets, bell towers, twisting staircases, and elaborate iron gates.
Also tea shops, bicycles careening down the High Street, and charming little
establishments vending fountain pens. and vellum notebooks. It all looks like a
medieval theme park, crossed with a swath of Victorian kitsch. Or, of course, a
page out of Harry Potter.
I’ve read that J.K. Rowling,
as a young woman, applied for admission to Oxford but was not accepted. If so,
writing a series of internationally top-selling books has certainly been her
best revenge. When the seven Harry Potter novels were filmed, the
stately halls of Oxford were chosen to fill in for Hogwarts School of Wizarding
and Witchcraft as well as its neighboring village, Hogsmeade. Theoretically,
these key Rowling locations are supposed to be found somewhere in Scotland. But
filmmakers know that you can’t do better than Oxford when it comes to quaint
and musty medieval-looking structures. (It also is a mere two hours from London.)
Today’s Oxford tourists—of
whom there are many, from all over the globe—are so attached to the Harry
Potter universe that gift shops display
Potter memorabilia and there are walking tours dedicated to pointing out which
college building is featured in which scene from which of the Potter films.
Though I didn’t spring for any of these specialized tours, my own wanderings
still put me in contact with the wonderful world of Harry and Ron and Hermione
and Hagrid and Dumbledore. My guide at the venerable Bodleian Library, which
dates back to at least 1602, announced with some pride that the ancient hall
known as the Divinity School—noted for its spectacular fan vaulting—was used in
one film to stand-in for the Hogwarts Infirmary. When I toured Oxford’s Christ
Church College, founded by King Henry VIII in 1546, I learned that a certain
noble staircase was the spot where Harry and friends had a key conversation with
Professor McGonagall. And there was more: the Christ Church dining hall, with
its long rows of banquet tables and an impressive dais for faculty members,
became the model for the dining hall that plays such a key role in the first
Potter film. Christ Church is served by a so-called Custodial Team, fitted out
in bowler hats and formal uniforms, who explain to visitors the college’s long
and illustrious place in history. They’ll grudgingly discuss the Harry
Potter phenomenon, but woe to the kid who innocently asks to be shown
Harry’s regular seat, or inquires about his favorite foods. When a tyke dared
to ask such a question in my presence, the custodian snapped out his answer:
that Harry Potter is not real. .
Try telling that to the Oxford
shopkeepers who supply visitors with wizard robes, wands, and Gryffindor hoodies.
.One sidewalk placard announces its shop’s allegiance as follows: Wizards
Welcome. Muggles Tolerated. Of course, the rest of England is trying hard
to jump on the lucrative Potter bandwagon too. A throwaway London travel guide
announces (just above an entry for Westminster Abbey) family tours of Warner
Bros. London studio, where you can see the sets representing Diagon Alley,
Hagrid’s Hut, and the brand-new Gringott’s Wizarding Bank. And London’s King’s
Cross Station now boasts its own Platform 9 ¾, to reflect the famous magical
platform where Harry and his peers board the train to Hogwarts. It started out
as a mere sign, but now has its own memorabilia shop, complete with a
professional photographer to deck you out in appropriate Potteresque garb.
For Roz Arnold, my fellow Oxford explorer.
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| A Christ Church College custodian |
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| The Divinity School, which morphed into an Infirmary |
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| Dining Hall, Keble College, Oxford |
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