It took a bit of cajoling but I eventually convinced everyone that walking around the city following the Harry Potter London walking tour would be a fun thing to do , or at least that it wouldn’t totally suck.
We packed up snacks and water and headed off by bus to Victoria Station where we could get on the Tube and make our way to the first stop on the tour- Temple Station. Taija decided just as we were about to get on the bus that she was feeling a bit icky and chose to go back home. We missed her but we didn’t come close to completing the tour so she and Dave can join us next time. It will be a good Sunday family outing thing to do and I think the littles had enough fun that they’d be into doing more of it.
The tour took us to many streets and places that we hadn’t been to yet or hadn’t investigated much beyond walking past them. The connection between many of the stops was tenuous at best but even a slight connection was enough to get the littles to check it out and it meant that Jesse and I got to explore things that we wouldn’t have been able to drag the littles to willingly otherwise so it had something for everyone.
2 Temple Place- our first stop
As well as directions to get to each stop along the way, the Tour directions also included some information about the buildings and locations as well as a little scavenger hunt for some of the places. The kids had fun checking out what they were meant to look for at each stop.
There wasn’t any true HP connection except that the building looks like it might make a good Ministry of Magic building. We did find out that 2 Temple place was built to elaborate specifications by William Waldorf Astor ( of Hotel fame) who was later first Viscount Astor as his residence and estate office in 1870.
looking through the fence at 2 Temple Place searching for the scavenger hunt item
From here we moved through a very cool alley and under an arch before heading up Essex Street. The little alleys are of the sort I’ve never seen anywhere but London.
Terran found the treasure hunt item on a very cool old building on Essex street
We found the building which didn’t have any HP connection at all. It was a beautiful building though and worth seeing.
We carried on along Strand and up to St. Clement Danes Church. This is the St Clements from the children’s rhyme which I don’t think I ever knew more of than the first 2 lines.
Oranges and lemons
Say the bells of St Clements
You owe me five farthings
Say the bells of St Martins
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich
Say the bells of Shoreditch
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney
I’m sure I don’t know
Says the great bell at Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
chop chop chop chop the last man’s head
The church contains display cases with various antiquities to look at. Jess stayed outside and looked at the building while the littles and I took a peek inside and read some of the information about the church and the rhyme. We were just walking around in the back of the church looking for our treasure hunt item when Aidan’s inexperience with being in churches lead to him being asked to remove his hat by a gentleman who was sitting in a pew praying. He was very sweet and respectful and it gave us an opportunity to talk about church.
From here we headed across the street to Australia House which was where the interior of Gringott’s Bank was filmed. You aren’t permitted to enter and the view through the window wasn’t very good. The tour describes it as having a glorious marble interior and being sumptuous. We didn’t get to see any of that.
We are familiar with this whole area because it is near Dave’s office and so we’ve spent quite a bit of time down here. Jesse has an interest in the disused tube stations and had been wanting to check out Aldwych station sometime and so was delighted to find that it was our next stop.
Aidan quickly got this picture as we crossed the street.
Aldwich Station was originally called Strand Station and was built on the site of the Royal Strand Theatre. It was formerly on the Picadilly line but was closed September 1994.
The entrance around the side of the old Strand Station
The station is frequently used in movie and television programme filming while the ticket office can be rented out for events such as art exhibitions and private parties. There is a bit of a ghost story connected to it which is mentioned in the tour but no HP connection. Still worth checking out!
Next we were off around the corner and down yet another small, dark alleyway, this one was less lovely than the first we walked through and was full of many very suspicious looking yellow puddles. We scooted through quickly while watching our step as we headed to the next stop on the tour, the Roman Baths.
The Roman Bath, very cool!
The bath is a cold, spring fed plunge bath right in the heart of London. I had no idea this was here! The first written reference to the bath was in a book by John Pinkerton in 1784. Charles Dickens mentions the bath in David Copperfield and is said to have taken a plunge himself. It remained open to the public until the end of the 19th century. There is a sign by the National Trust which states that you can get a look a the bath through the window which was fairly grubby and peering into the dark interior didn’t show us much but we were able to get a bit of a look.
Unfortunately our directions to the next stop told us to backtrack up to the Strand and so we braved the yellow puddles and stench once again and found our way to the Church of St. Mary Le Strand. We’ve passed it many times but never bothered to stop and take a look. It is a gorgeous church, right in the middle of the street.
Aidan had to back way up to get this picture of the church
According to the tour, the church stands on the site where the May Pole used to stand and was the church where Charles Dickens’ parents were married. The architecture is beautiful and well worth the stop by.
Aidan and Terran posing in the courtyard at Somerset House
From here it was just a short walk to Somerset House. We have caught the bus here many, many times but for some reason we have never stopped in. The courtyard is a large, open space with a fountain and a cafe. We say plenty of families spending a hot, humid London afternoon hanging out in the courtyard. Mums read books and sipped lattes while bare bottomed children cooled off in the fountain. I’d like to go back another time and have a better look around at the galleries and such. They also have an outdoor cinema in the courtyard which would be fun to go to sometime.
The boys found the scavenger hunt item in the courtyard
After a little rest and a snack we heded to the Lyceum Theatre where the Lion King is currently playing. This is an stunning old theatre built in 1911 and in 1994 it was substantially refurbished. We took the time to sit on the steps and read about the ghost story connected with it. There was a plaque ( Jesse’s favourite) stating that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula while working at the Lyceum.
Aidan was our photographer for much of the day
The tour took us next into Covent Garden Market. This is one of my favourite areas of the city. I love the vibe, the shops and restaurants and the street performers giving lively shows. We found our scavenger hunt item and then stopped to watch a performer doing some very impressive tricks on a very tall unicycle.
We spotted this guy standing outside a tobacconist shopshop
We scooted down yet another little alley, this one was by far the prettiest. It used to be known as Fishers Alley. This delighful little alley has the feel of Harry Potter’s magical world about it. It is lit by gas lamp and one side is a row of lovely Georgian houses with wooden bay windows. This is the sort of place we may not ever have stumbled down if we hadn’t been doing the tour.
From Fishers Alley to Diagon Alley! We made our way to Cecil Court which the tour claimed was the real Diagon Alley. The tiny street is filled with interesting shops filled with old books, maps, manuscripts and prints. I think Jesse could have stayed there all afternoon, I wouldn’t be surprised if he made another trip down to have a better look around.
I don't know if it is the real Diagon Alley but it was certainly whimsical and lovely
Everyone was starting to wear out by this time and the novelty of the excursion was wearing off somewhat. We decided that ice cream was requiredto lift the spirits. We walked up the street to the next location, a pub and found our next scavenger hunt item while we hunted for ice cream.
We walked past this and only found it with the help of Aidan's keen eyes!
On our way to the National Portrait Gallery we spotted an ice cream vendor where we managed to get ice cream cones for the littles but Jesse wasn’t so successful. They were out of everything he asked for and he and I ended up settling for lemon ice lollies
Jesse looking rather dubiouosly at his lemon ice lolly
Happy ice cream slurping Terran
Aidan ( aka Freddy Machete) with the long awaited ice cream
We wandered up to Trafalgar Square to sit amidst the pigeons while we had our treat and then were off to the National Portrait Gallery where we found a portrait of the 3 stars of the Harry Potter films, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. It wasn’t very exciting but we did spend some time in the Tudor gallery which everyone enjoyed quite a lot. What could be more fun than looking at portraits of grumpy looking Tudors? We sat on the bench and Aidan and I played our game of museum eye spy. I came up with this game during one of our museum excursions where Aidan was having an especially miserable time. It encouraged him to actually look at some of the things in the museum or gallery while he was sitting and resting. We had great fun playing eye spy and looking over Tudor family tree charts and Aidan increased his knowledge of Roman numerals by reading all the Kings names.
Hunger was striking again by this time so we ventured out of the gallery to stop and have a snack just in time for it to begin raining. So much for our picnic!
Just as it started to pour we hurried back to the gallery where we sat in comfy chairs and used the computers to look at some of the portraits. Jess was impressed and pleased that his youngest brother recognized and could name Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
We had a look at the next stops on the tour and discovered that they took us almost directly towards Dave and Spencer’s office. The rain had let up but clearly a picnic was out of the question and plans would have to change.
We made a quick stop by St. Martin in the field, another landmark we’d often walked by without paying it much attention. More snacks were had while I read aloud about the church. This is another church that is mentioned in the rhyme about the bells
You owe me five farthings Say the bells at St. Martins
The church was designed in 1724 by architect James Gibb to replace the church that good ol’ king Henry VIII whom we’d just seen a very large portrait of had build for the people when the area was literally in the fields . I read a lot of details about the church’s architecture and how it’s style was brought to New England and many churches there were built as this one was, with the steeple over it’s east end instead of west as was the usual practice. How scandelous! No one was very interested at this point however, and it was beginning to rain again so we hurried along St Martin’s Lane stopping only momentarily at the Chandos pub to find the final scavenger hunt item of the day.
WThe office is only a few blocks from there so we were early to meet Dave and Spence but the kids sat in the lobby and had an Expedia picnic of watermelon and popcorn while we waited for Dave to finish up. Since a picnic was out of the question in the drizzle, new plans were made and we followed Spence back through Covent Garden and over to a Wetherspoon pub by Holborn station. These pubs have a child licence and are usually welcoming to families and we were all looking forward to some pub grub. Dave and I could almost taste the Guinness already! The pub was mobbed, as we should have expected, no tables in the family section to seat 6 people. We hopped on a bus to Elephant & Castle which is on the way home and where we knew of another Wetherspoon pub which held the promise of not being so crowded.
A table was found and we were enjoying a beverage while we looked over the menu when an employee approached our table and informed us that the pub has a “no children after 6pm” rule and that we would have to leave. We hastily finished our drinks while Dave and I scrambled to find a new pub since disappointing Terran at this point didn’t seem to be an option. We packed up, grabbed our bags and were just about to head off into the torrential downpour when a different man dressed all in black and wearing a headset stopped us and said that they wouldn’t kick us out due to the weather. How nice!! I want to say a big thank you to the kind gentleman at the Wetherspoon pub who let us stay, have our pints and our curries and burgers and enjoy each other’s company. It was a splendid evening!
Freddy Machete was on a Chicken Tikka Masala Safari!
Full and sleepy we headed home on the bus. Poor wee Aidan almost fell asleep on the journey.
Dave and Aids at the back of the bus. I couldn't get a decent picture due to the reflective strips on the backpack
I am not sure how Harry Potterish the day was but the even dodgiest links to Harry and his friends made it interesting enough that the littles schlepped around all day in the heat fairly happily looking at things that we wouldn’t have had a hope of getting them to otherwise.
All children polled have said they’d be into continuing the tour. This may become our Sunday ‘let’s do something together’ activity. It doesn’t require much preparation and an Oyster and a blackberry is all we need to head off on our adventure!
It’s a great way to see parts of the city and learn about things we might not otherwise. If you have a few hours to kill on a sunny afternoon I highly recommend it.Jess and I are already looking at some of the other walking tours available. The Sherlock Holmes one may be the next on the list. I think I also saw a tour that takes you to a bunch of historic pubs. I think this might have to be our next date night!
