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Just off Charing Cross Road , behind the Leaky Cauldron , a enchantress or wizard only postulate tap a very special brick three times to uncover a secret worldly concern . Behind this special paries is Diagon Alley , J. K. Rowling ’s Wizarding World harbor for shoppers .
Diagon Alley was a staple land site in theHarry Potterseries , with Rowling regularly give her role to its shop , emporium , and iconic bank . Here , chemise in mood reflected change time , with posters of Azkaban ’s most desire seem as early as book three and shops closing by book seven .
For the most part , though , Diagon Alley was a place for joy . This was the locating that contribute Harry Potter – and hundreds of millions of readers across the domain along with him – his first experience of the Wizarding World . Here , Harry drive his first wand , first fulfill Hedwig , and first find out he was the inheritor to a Brobdingnagian fortune .
Shops on the street range from purveyor of books , cauldron and ice - cream to provider of tailoring , healing and luck telling . you could even hide your illegal possessions , as the Malfoy family does , in the grim corners of off - shoot street Knockturn Alley .
And yet , those facts are well known to even the most passing ofHarry Potterfans . In this list , we ’ve assemble the fact that only hard - corePotterfans know about Diagon Alley . Those enigma enshroud within the pages of Rowling ’s books and the movie , musical theme park and product they inspired .
Without further hustle , here are21 Things Only TrueHarry PotterFans Know About Diagon Alley .
Diagon Alley Sets Were Redressed For Hogsmeade
Not only canHarry Potterfans bring down a refreshment of Diagon Alley at Universal ’s theme park , but it is also potential to explore the actual set that was used in the films . restore and displayed at the Warner Bros. Studio in Watford , the set throw rooter the opportunity to see the street ’s shop class for themselves .
But did you bonk that the canny product squad behindHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabansought to relieve money by repurposing the Diagon Alley sets to create Hogsmeade , the Wizarding village just a stone ’s throw from Hogwarts ? All it took was a coating of Scottish granite on the honest-to-god buildings , some roofing tweaks , and a sprinkling of coke . Magic .
Florean Almost Play A Larger Role
Florean Fortescue ’s ice cream parlour was a must - see for those visiting Diagon Alley . Before his disappearance in the Second Great Wizarding War , that is . During Harry ’s first visit to the street , Hagrid buy him a chocolate and raspberry flavoured ice - pick with chopped nuts there and , in his third , the parlor was where Harry did his preparation .
InThePrisoner of Azkaban , it is reveal that Florean has a astonishingly extensive cognition of mediaeval account . This advert to a subplot that wasoriginally supposed to make out to fruitionin the last book . Florean was to have help oneself Harry learn more about the elder verge and Ravenclaw ’s diadem .
In the end , he did n’t make the cut .
Harry Potter Hardback Books Can Be Seen In The Chamber of Secrets
Here ’s a cheeky Easter testis that only trueHarry Potterfans will have pick out in the films . Specifically , in Christopher Columbus’Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , a good deal of hardbackHarry Potterbooks can be spied as Hagrid escorts Harry from Knockturn Alley .
It ingest eagle eyes to espy them - peculiarly believe how dark Diagon Alley ’s murky sister street is - but book one to four in the series can be found on cut-rate sale in a Wizarding bookshop .
We ’d be fain to calculate that this is n’t the only clip a J. K. Rowling book wound its direction into the film so , next meter you ’re having aHarry Pottermovie marathon , keep your eyes peeled .
The Hungarian Horntail Makes A Reappearance
Hungarian Horntails are read to be among the most dangerous dragons in the Wizarding World . Black scale , yellow-bellied eyed and with a deadly fire throw of up to fifty feet , it was a Horntail that Harry had to face up as his first project in the 1994 Triwizard Tournament .
In the film adaptation ofHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , our first introduction to the Horntail is through a miniature – very realistic – modelling , give to Harry by Barty Crouch Snr . What you might not have noticed , however , is that this was n’t the last clip the model appeared in the moving-picture show . Two films subsequently , the micro - Horntail can be seen blackguard chestnuts for a retailer in Diagon Alley .
Not that the Horntail is the onlyspecies of dragon in the Wizarding World , of course .
Where Did Harry’s Gringots Fortune Come From?
Harry Potter has so much money that he has no clew of its full value – in either muggle or wizard up-to-dateness . Indeed , it was only when , accompanied by Hagrid , Harry come at Diagon Alley ’s wizarding coin bank Gringots that he see of the vast fortune bequeathed to him by his parents .
Neither the books nor films ever in reality explain how the Potter ’s came by so huge a pile of galleons but – as truePotterfans well recognise – an explanation has been provided . consort to J. K. Rowling , an ancestor of Harry ’s , Linfred of Stinchcombe , launched a pharmaceutical business in the twelfth 100 and made it bragging .
hundred subsequently , Harry ’s maternal grandfather Fleamont Potter quadrupled the syndicate fortune with the invention of a hairsbreadth potion – an advert for which can be caughtin the hatchway newspaper montage ofFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them .
You Can Exchange Muggle Money At Gringots
stick with Gringots , another surprising fact known only to trueHarry Potterfans is that the bank ’s many goblin - foot race services include alien currency exchange . What this means is that muggles – such as Hermione ’s parents – can switch their British pounds and US dollar for reap hook , knuts , and galleon .
There are twenty - nine knuts in one sickle , and seventeen sickle make up a galleon , which is allegedly worth about £ 5 or $ 6.48 . By that logical system , a transcript of The Daily Prophet – useable for leverage on Diagon Alley – cost bare pittance at about five cent and ten cents . By dividing line , the UK ’s Daily Mail cost 70p an issue , with The New York Times at $ 2.50 . evidently , thaumaturgist really care a bargain .
Diagon Alley’s Shops Took A Lot Of Filling
With Diagon Alley being the go to location for worldwide wizarding supplies , there ’s very little that ca n’t be purchased in one of its many shops and department store . To ensure the Diagon Alley store all come out well - stocked , production decorator Stephenie McMillan scouted antique shops , auction houses , and flea market for gifts and goods .
As McMillan ’s team were foreclose from let out what the purchases were for , one crew extremity was noted to inform a shopkeeper that the grounds she ask so many broomsticks was because she had a lot of sweeping to do .
On top of the commodity that were corrupt in , a further 20,000 packages were produced by the props department to occupy the Alley ’s many nooks and crannies .
It Was Inspired By The Shambles in York… Or Was It Victoria Street?
By our reckoning , J. K. Rowling will have received at least fourteen inquiries after her inspirations forPotterbefore you ’ve finished show this time . She happily answers a vast number on Twitter alone . When it come to Diagon Alley , however , dozens of locations across the globe seem to have been identified as the ‘ material Diagon Alley ’ over the years .
The internet ’s two most pop campaigner are York ’s The Shambles and Edinburgh ’s Victoria Street . Each one brag historic architecture and an pertinent sense of magic but neither has ever been confirmed as the inspiration .
The Shambles is the more likely of the two . Dating back to the fourteenth - century , this cobbled , wonky street is even home to aPotterretailer : ' The Shop That Must Not Be Named ' .
You Can Travel Down Diagon Alley On Google Street View
Strictly speak , Google allows avid Harry Potterfans the opportunity to trip down three different Diagon Alleys , each in the UK . One , in Rotherham , is really a retailer claiming to mimic the iconic street ’s merchandising style . The second – in a foxy reference to the intake disputation above – is really Edinburgh ’s Victoria Street .
It ’s the real Diagon Alley we ’re concerned in though . By which we stand for , the real film set in Watford ’s Warner Bros. Studio . circumscribe to just one stretching of the street – that leading up to Weasley ’s Wizard Wheezes – the view only gives a modest taste of the conjuration but , hey , it beats spying on an old exposure of your own home any solar day .
Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes Wasn’t The First Joke Shop Diagon Alley
When Fred and George Weasley made their spectacular exit from Hogwarts inHarry Potter and the social club of the Phoenix – much to the consternation of Dolores Umbridge – they made a beeline for Diagon Alley . There , they founded Weasley ’s Wizard Wheezes , the joke shop so popular that even war could n’t shut it .
But , as only trueHarry Potterfans will remember , Weasley ’s Wizard Wheezes was n’t the only jocularity shop in the Alley . Mentioned as early on as the second Bible , Gambol and Japes was the Weasley ’s own go - to joke retailer . While Gambol and Japes never made it to the films , the video secret plan version ofHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secretsgave fan the hazard to search .
