Magical History Tour

*Correction to article included in PDF.*

There will be no butterbeer on sale in the cafeteria of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. Visitors to what will soon be Watford’s premiere tourist attraction can visit a cafe and exit through a gift shop, as tradition demands. But this is no theme park. What this new facility will provide instead, says Warner Bros., is a behind-the-scenes deconstruction of the world’s biggest franchise and a tribute to the craftspeople involved.

It’s tempting to be cynical, to see this as an attempt to further milk the Potter cash now that the eight-movie series has finally reached its conclusion. Undoubtedly that’s a factor; Warner is hardly a charity established to commemorate the heroic work od film crews. The tour is housed in a sparkling new pair of soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, home of the Potter franchise for over a decade, and it’s immediately clear on Empire’s arrival for an exclusive preview that its construction required no small investment.

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