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London walking Tour Harry Potter Walks

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

One of the great aspects of our Harry Potter London Tour and treasure hunt is that you get to do it at your own pace and on a day amd at a time that suits you. It’s the ultimate flexibility because you set your own agenda.

The Harry Potter London walk was written by Richard Jones to provide parents with a great day (or even few days) of exploring London in a way that was both fun and informative.

London is a great City for Walking in and with this free London tour you really do get to see some great parts of the City whilst visiting the various Harry Potter movie locations.

But you also get to see different neighbourhoods on your travels.  You get to walk through the lively and vibrant Covent Garden Market. You get to stand in Trafalgar Square and learn something of its history.

You make your way along Whitehall to see the site of the telephone box via which Harry and Mr Weasley descend into the Ministry of Magic.

You then get to travel over to Southwark to stroll onto the Millennium Bridge and see the soaring former Bankside Power Station, a real London landmark which is now Tate Modern.

To get your free copy of the Harry Potter London Walking Tour you simply have to send an email to harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and within moments to full 30 page pdf will appear magically in your in box.

You then just print it off and away you go.

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London walks and Tate Modern

Monday, September 21st, 2009

When our London walks cross over the River Thames via the Millennium Bridge the view of all those on the tours is captivated, some might even say dominated, by a massive building on the south bank of the River Thames.

This building is Tate Modern but it was formerly Bankside Power Station which closed in 1981 when the price of oil (it was an oil powered power station) rose so steeply that keeping it open simply wasn’t economically viable.

It was a year after this closure that Richard Jones began offering his London walks to the public and the area on the south bank was totally different then.

In those days Bankside was made up of derelict warehouses, dark and sinister little alleyways that snaked behind the warehouses and echoing railway tunnels.

Clink Street, which features on both our Shakespeare and Dickens London walks, was a particularly sinister street. Indeed it was so sinister that in the 1980’s film Murder By Decree, which starred Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes trying to solve the mystery of the Jack the Ripper murders, this area was used to substitute for the streets of Whitechapel.

But then two things happened to change the area. Firstly, Sam Wanamaker realised his life long dream to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse on the south side of the River Thames. Secondly, in 1994, The Trustees of the Tate Gallery, who were looking to establish a new museum to house their modern art collection, acquired the old Bankside Station and launched an international architectural competition for a design that would transform the old Bankside Power Station into a suitable art gallery for their collection.

Their were over 70 entries but a young Swiss company were the winners because they submitted a plan that advocated working with what was left of the Bankside Power Station.

Thus in the year 2000 Tate Modern was opened by Queen Elizabeth 11 and over five million people a year now cross its threshold to admire, criticise, laugh and enjoy their collection.

So when you next join one of our London walks that corsses the Thames via the Millennium Bridge and you look up at the tall building with the soaring chimney, you will now know exactly what it is.

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Tate Modern - Is that Art On Our Walks of London.

Friday, September 18th, 2009

As our Shakespeare and Dickens London walks cross over the millennium Bridge the distinctive chimney of Bankside Power Station, home to Tate modern, looms over us.

Tate Modern is one of London’s great tourist attractions.  It is also one of the most preeminent art galleries in the world.

Since it opened  in the year 2000 over 30 million visitors have passed through its doors, 5 million of them coming in the last year alone.

But from a visual perspective the building that houses Tate Modern is almost a work of art in its own right. Indeed, since the construction of the Millennium Bridge in 2002, our London walks that head south of the river really do get a breathtaking view of it as they cross over the Thames.

It is an enormous structure, 660 feet long, its soaring brown brick chimney stretching some  320 feet into the sky, deliberately just a little shorter than the the golden cross that surmounts the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, which stands across the river from Bankside Power Station. Indeed such are its lofty proportions that Bankside Power Station has been described as an industrial cathedral.

It it was designed by the British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.  There are several examples of his work to be seen across London.  For example, it was he who designed Battersea Power Station. He was also responsible for Waterloo Bridge, and it was he who designed the ubiquitous red telephone boxes that can be seen all over the streets of London and other British towns, cities, and villages.

Bankside Power Station was constructed in two stages between 1947 and 1963.  It is constructed from steel and bricks, 4.2 million bricks to be exact.

It was powered by oil and it was this fact that led to its closure, as in the 1970s oil became so expensive that it was no longer viable to keep the power station open. So, in 1981, The Bankside Power Station closed its doors. The building stood empty as a viable use for it was sought.

Our London walks blog will continue this evening of the story of how the Bankside Power Station, St Giles Gilbert Scott’s industrial cathedral became one of the 21st century is pre-eminent art galleries.

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London walks - Harry Potter Tour

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

The update of our Harry Potter London walk has now been completed and the tour now includes the (limited) number of London scenes featured in the new movie.

You can receive the tour by emailing us at

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

and the tour will be in your in box within about 5 minutes.

London’s appearances in the film are confined to the opening sequence which sees the Death Eaters swoop down over the streets of the capital leaving a trail of havoc and devastation in their wake.

The locations that we have included in the updated version include Trafalgar Square, St Martin In The Fields, Leicester Square Underground Station, The Gherkin, Tate Modern, and a particularly chilling and thrilling scene of the Millennium Bridge.

It is when you see London from the air, as you do in the opening sequence of the new movie, that you really appreciate what a stunning a breathtaking City it is.

Of course, those who join us on our London walks see this for themselves at every twist, turn and road fork that they take.

As has been said in previous blogs London is truly a city of surprises  and our Harry Potter London tour shows you just what an easy to walk through place London is.

We’ve put up some great London stories on the new Harry Potter Tour. You’ll learn about the different plans for Trafalgar Square before it was decided to site Nelson’s Column there. You’ll learn about the London church that caused an absolute sensation when it was first built.

You’ll learn how the City of London, the one square mile where it all began, is in fact guarded by a ring of dragons. We tell you how these supposedly mythical beasts are alive and well and the reason Muggles don’t believe in them is because of the efforts of the Ministry of Magic to keep these fire breathing lizards hidden from the prying eyes of Muggles!

In addition the new Harry Potter London walk includes  visit to the National Portrait Gallery to view the recently acquired photograph of the Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

So don’t delay email us at

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

for a free PDF download version of the Harry Potter Tour and set off into the magical world of wizards and legendary beasts that these London walks open up for you.

To order your copy simply send an email request to

harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com

You can then print of what is now a 30 page booklet and enjoy a magical London walk through places and buildings that are steeped in history and mystery.

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Harry Potter Walk - London

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

We’re about to make the necessary amendments to our Harry Potter London walks and treasure hunt to take in the locations used in the new film Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

To be honest London doesn’t feature that much in the film, apart from a thrilling sequence at the beginning which is guaranteed to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who decides to take a stroll over the Millennium Bridge!

The film begins with a wonderful ariel view over London and at first it is the City that those who have joined us on our London walks will instantly recognise.

But all is not well in the world of the Muggles. No sooner do you recognise familiar landmarks than dark shadows come shooting down from the sky. They are the Death Eaters en route to wreak havoc on Muggles London.

Walks that feature the locations that are used in this first scene are plentiful. Suffice it to say that there is a wonderful view of Trafalgar Square, after which the Death Eaters race past the Church of St, Martin in the Fields, past Leicester Square Underground Station and onwards and upwards.

The next scene shows a long view of St Paul’s Cathedral looking over the Millennium Bridge. The shadows come up from behind the dome and then swoop down onto the bridge itself causing it to twist and buckle before it breaks up and falls into the River Thames.It really is an exciting sequence.

The last view shows the Death Eaters flying over  Tate Modern, which looks particularly good in the scene.

Thereafter the rest of the film takes place way out of London as Harry and his friends do battle with all manner of enemies both within and without Hogwarts.

You can get your free PDF of our Harry Potter London walks by emailing us at harry-potter-pdf@discovery-walks.com and we’ll respond within five minutes attaching a copy of our 28 page PDF booklet of the Harry Potter London walks.

Whilst we’re on the subject of our Harry Potter London walk, one of the people who did the tour at the end of June got a really nice surprise as they were following the route. We’ll tell you what it was in Friday’s Blog.

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Coming Soon - Harry Potter London walk update

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Not long to go now before the new Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince makes its appearance, and our London walks around the Harry Potter film sites will, of course, be updated accordingly.

What we can report is that two of the locations that we include on our Harry Potter London walk will feature in extremely dramatic fashion in what is destined to be this summer’s blockbuster movie.

The Death Eaters will be launching an attack on London in the upcoming film and the locations singled out for this will be Trafalgar Square and (gasps of utter horror!) the Millennium Bridge.

Since it is on the Warner Bros trailer it’s not giving too much away to say that the Millennium Bridge might have  wobbled a great deal when it first opened, but it wobbles a whole lot more in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince when the Death Eaters come a calling!

The film Premiers on 15th July 2009 and I’ve had the chance to see it I will update the London walks PDF of the Harry Potter film sites.

Until then you can get a taster of just how dramatic the Death Eaters attack on London is going to be by dropping by the Warner Bros Harry Potter website.

But be warned. It might make you a tad nervous about crossing the Millennium Bridge!

In the meantime you can still receive your free copy of the Harry Potter Tour PDF by filling in the request form at the top right of the page.

We will then send you our exciting 27 page step by step guide that takes you to all the Harry Potter film locations in London and gives you a fun few days out in the capital.

It’s also structured like a treasure hunt so that you can keep the kids amused looking for things around the streets of London as you see the Harry Potter film locations and some of London’s major tourist attractions.

So please do take advantage of our free tour via PDF and stay tuned to this site for some of the new free London walks we will soon be offering.

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