Places in Harry Potter

The Wizarding World contains numerous settings for the events in the novels, films and other media of the Harry Potter and the Fantastic Beasts series. These locations are divided into four main categories: residences, education, business, and government.
Harry is raised from infancy by his aunt Petunia Dursley and his uncle Vernon Dursley at Number 4, Privet Drive. The house is located in the fictional town of Little Whinging, which is south-west of London in the county of Surrey. Albus Dumbledore explains to Harry that when his mother sacrificed herself to save him, an "ancient magic" was created that protects Harry while he lives with her sister Petunia. Unbeknownst to Harry, his neighbour Arabella Figg is a Squib who was placed in Little Whinging by Dumbledore to keep an eye on Harry.
Scenes set at the Dursley residence in the film adaptation of Philosopher's Stone were filmed at 12 Picket Post Close in the town of Bracknell in the neighbouring county of Berkshire. Filming for subsequent films took place on a constructed set at Leavesden Film Studios, near Watford, Hertfordshire that proved to be cheaper than filming on location.
Godric's Hollow is a fictional West Country wizarding village where Lily and James Potter lived with their infant son Harry. It has been a home to Albus Dumbledore, Bathilda Bagshot and Godric Gryffindor, after whom it was named. At the centre of the village square is a war memorial that magically transforms into a monument to the Potter family. At the end of the main street are the remains of Harry's old home. In Deathly Hallows, Harry discovers that the Godric's Hollow cemetery where his parents are buried also contains the grave of Ignotus Peverell.
The home of the Weasley family is known as the Burrow. It is located outside the village of Ottery St Catchpole in Devon, England, near the homes of the Lovegoods, the Diggorys and the Fawcetts. The Burrow is used as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix in Deathly Hallows. The dilapidated house has seven floors and remains standing only through the use of magic.
Little Hangleton is a fictional Muggle village near a fictional Muggle town of Great Hangleton in the north of England, around 200 miles from Little Whinging in Surrey. It contains the graveyard where Voldemort is restored to bodily form in Goblet of Fire. On a hill above the village is the former estate of the Riddle family, where Voldemort killed his father, his grandparents and the Muggle gardener Frank Bryce. Also nearby is the former home of the Gaunt family.
Malfoy Manor is the home of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and their son Draco. The novel Order of the Phoenix states that the manor is located in Wiltshire. In Deathly Hallows, Voldemort uses Malfoy Manor as his headquarters and imprisons Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Mr. Ollivander and Griphook in the basement. When Snatchers capture Harry, Ron, and Hermione, they are also imprisoned in the manor. Some scenes set at Malfoy Manor in the Harry Potter films were shot at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire.
Number 12, Grimmauld Place is the London home of the Black family. In the fifth novel, it is selected as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. A house-elf named Kreacher inhabits the house. In Half-Blood Prince, Harry learns that he has inherited the property from his deceased godfather Sirius Black, and he donates it to the Order. In Deathly Hallows, Grimmauld Place becomes a sanctuary for Harry, Ron, and Hermione while they are hiding from Voldemort.
The house of Severus Snape is located on a fictional Muggle street called Spinner's End. The street first appears in Half-Blood Prince when Snape is visited by Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy. In Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that Snape lived in Spinner's End as a child, and that Lily Potter and Petunia Dursley lived in the same town.
Shell Cottage is the home of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour after they get married. It overlooks a beach outside the village of Tinworth in Cornwall county. The cottage serves as a hiding place for Harry and his companions after they escape from Malfoy Manor. After Dobby dies, Harry buries him in the garden. The scenes set at Shell Cottage in the film adaptations of Deathly Hallows were shot on Freshwater West beach in Wales.
The Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is a French magic school. It is first introduced in Goblet of Fire when a delegation of students from Beauxbatons arrives at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. Beauxbatons is described as a boarding school located in the Pyrenees mountains. The school has a preponderance of French students, although students from Spain, Portugal, Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium also attend in large numbers. The headmistress of Beauxbatons is Olympe Maxime, and the school's champion in the Triwizard Tournament is Fleur Delacour. In the film adaptation of Goblet of Fire, all Beauxbatons students are female, while in the novel the school is co-educational. Beauxbatons translates from French as "beautiful sticks".
The depiction of French students in the Harry Potter series has been described as stereotypical by several scholars. Marek Oziewicz has called the Beauxbatons delegation "homogeneous" and lacking the cultural diversity of Hogwarts. Christina Flotmann claimed that the contrast depicted between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts functions as an allusion to a historical competition between the "sober and proper" England and the "immoral and decadent" France.
Castelobruxo ( /kæstɛloʊbruːʃuː/) is a Brazilian school of magic that specialises in Magizoology and Herbology. The exact location of the school is unknown, but it is said to appear to wizards as a golden temple, and to Muggles as nothing more than ruins. Castelobruxo is guarded by magical creatures called Caipora.
The Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning is a school that makes its first appearance in Goblet of Fire. Like Beauxbatons, Durmstrang sends a delegation of students to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. According to the Wizarding World website, Durmstrang is located in the "far Northern reaches of Europe". The school's headmaster is the former Death Eater Igor Karkaroff, and the novel reveals that Durmstrang students are instructed in the Dark Arts. Durmstrang is portrayed as an all-boys school in the film adaptation of Goblet of Fire, but is depicted as co-educational in the novel. In Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald attended Durmstrang.
Several writers have commented on the depiction of the Durmstrang students. The British journalist Julia Eccleshare has claimed that the Durmstrang delegation is depicted as dishonest and untrustworthy. Marek Oziewicz called Durmstrang a "medley of scary stereotypes" of Eastern Europe. Christina Flotmann wrote that the first appearance of the Durmstrang delegation links the school with "sinister literary tropes such as the Flying Dutchman." She also suggested that the name Durmstrang sounds dark and threatening. The name of the school is likely a play on the German phrase Sturm und Drang, meaning storm and stress.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a British school of magic. It is the primary setting for the first six Harry Potter novels.
Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is an American school of magic. It first appeared in a short story by J. K. Rowling in 2016, and was subsequently depicted in the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The school was founded in the seventeenth century by Isolt Sayre in Adams, Massachusetts. It is located on Mount Greylock and is concealed from Muggles with enchantments. Like Hogwarts, Ilvermorny is divided into four houses. The Ilvermorny houses are Horned Serpent, Pukwudgie, Thunderbird and Wampus, each said to represent a different aspect of the ideal wizard.
Mahoutokoro is the smallest wizarding school, and is located in Japan. Students wear enchanted robes which grow in size with the wearer. The robes change colour, from faint pink to gold, as the wearer increases their knowledge of magic. The students of Mahoutokoro are known for their academic prowess and skill at Quidditch.
According to the Wizarding World website, Uagadou is the oldest of several African wizarding schools, and the largest wizarding school in the world. Its precise location is unknown.
The Leaky Cauldron is described as a dark and shabby pub and inn, located on the Muggle street Charing Cross Road in London. The Leaky Cauldron is a way of entering Diagon Alley from the Muggle world. The rear of the pub opens onto a courtyard, in which a particular brick must be tapped three times to open a path to Diagon Alley.
Diagon Alley is a winding London high street — with a number of side-streets and back alleys — that is accessible to wizards, but hidden from Muggles. It contains Gringotts Wizarding Bank and various types of shops for magical items and creatures.
Knockturn Alley is described in the novels as a dark and seedy alleyway diagonal to Diagon Alley. Many of the shops in Knockturn Alley, such as Borgin and Burkes, are devoted to the Dark Arts. Objects that have appeared in Borgin and Burkes include a cursed opal necklace, a Hand of Glory, and a Vanishing Cabinet which is used by Draco Malfoy to infiltrate Hogwarts in Half-Blood Prince. Voldemort worked at Borgin and Burkes briefly during the 1940s. The shop is owned by Caractacus Burke and Mr. Borgin, though Mr. Borgin is the only owner to appear in the novels and films.
The Hogwarts Express train departs from the fictional platform 9¾ at King's Cross railway station in central London. The platform is accessed by magically walking through a solid barrier between platforms 9 and 10. After the Harry Potter novels were published, Rowling found that she had confused the layout of King's Cross with that of Euston station. During production of the Harry Potter films, the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, which is part of St Pancras station, was used for King's Cross station.
A plaque depicting the supposed location Platform 9¾ was placed on a wall at King's Cross, along with a luggage trolley "stuck" halfway through the wall. A wrought-iron "Platform 9¾" gate used in the film set is preserved at the National Railway Museum. After Alan Rickman's death in 2016, Harry Potter fans created a memorial to the actor at Platform 9¾. A Harry Potter–themed store is also located in the station near the plaque.
There is a replica of King's Cross at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter themed area at Universal Orlando Resort. It features a wall between Platforms 9 and 10, which visitors can "walk through" to access Platform 9¾.
Hogsmeade Village, or simply Hogsmeade, is a wizarding village located near Hogwarts in the north-west Scottish Highlands. It primarily consists of a single thoroughfare called High Street, which is home to shops and pubs all served by the Hogsmeade railway station nearby. Hogwarts students who are in their third year or above are permitted to visit Hogsmeade during scheduled weekends. In the films, it is only seen in under mid-winter snow.
Places in Hogsmeade
La Place Cachée or The Hidden Square, as seen in the film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, is close to the River Seine and is the Parisian equivalent to Diagon Alley in London to hide the shops and businesses of the Wizarding World from Muggles. It is accessed via a portal in a brick pedestal under a verdigris bronze statue of a reclining woman. Seen in 1927, its style and design is heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau style from late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Azkaban is a prison for criminals of the British and Irish wizarding world. According to Half-Blood Prince, Azkaban is located somewhere in the North Sea. It is guarded by Dementors, which render the inmates incapable of happiness. According to Sirius Black, many inmates simply stop eating and eventually die of starvation. It was considered impossible to escape from Azkaban until Sirius managed to do it. Performing any of the Unforgivable Curses on a human is punishable by a life sentence in the prison, although there are occasions when Aurors are allowed to perform those curses. Following Voldemort's demise, Kingsley Shacklebolt becomes Minister of Magic and ends the use of Dementors at Azkaban.
The Ministry of Magic is the government of the wizarding community of Britain and Ireland.
The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA), as seen in the film, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, is the magical body in charge of governing the wizarding population of the United States as an equivalent to the Ministry of Magic. The MACUSA is led by a President instead of a Minister. It is located in a tower in the Wizarding World — all within the same footprint as the Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan, New York City — but far larger on the inside, with a vast atrium and extensive basement levels, and at ground level is only accessible by a specific side door.
The French Ministry of Magic, as seen in the film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, is in central Paris and is accessed via a hidden lift in the centre of a quiet square that descends through a translucent glass atrium. At night, it is patrolled and defended by matagots, large black cat-like spirits. Seen in 1927, its style and design is heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement from late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The German Ministry of Magic, as seen in the film, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, is in central Berlin and is a large imposing triangular building in the centre of an arrowhead-shaped forum full of imposing columns. Its interior design of the large halls with vast murals is heavily influenced by the Reichstag building and its offices are sparely decorated, dominated by green-tinged glass, chrome, and black bakelite. Seen in 1932, its style and design is heavily influenced by the Bauhaus school of the Art Deco movement that dominated the 1920s and 1930s.
Located in London, St Mungo's Hospital in the Wizarding World is for treating witches and wizards who have suffered magical injuries or are infected by magical diseases. It also acts as a long-term asylum to keep those left totally and permanently disabled by magic or suffering dangerous conditions — such as an obscurial — locked away in order to prevent any exposure the Wizarding World to Muggles.
Nurmengard is a prison that the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald built to incarcerate Muggles and foes. After Albus Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald, the prisoners were released and Grindelwald himself was imprisoned in the top-most cell. In Deathly Hallows, Voldemort arrives at Nurmengard seeking information about the Elder Wand. When Grindelwald refuses to tell him anything, Voldemort kills him.
Erkstag is a prison in Berlin that is supposedly closed and decommissioned, but is still surreptitiously being operated and is accessed via a closed U-Bahn entrance. It appears a vast underground quarry with a spiral walkway down to its depths. It is populated by thousands of baby manticores with an enormous mother manticore that snatches away prisoners, who hang inverted on the perimeter of the walkway, from time to time and injecting them with an acidic venom that dissolves the body so she can feed the remains to her offspring.