[HPFGU-OTChatter] HP-shopping in London

[GulPlum]

Sophia wrote:
>Hello all!
>I'm a lurker surfacing for some advice. In a few weeks time I'll be in London
>for a couple of days. Since Sweden (where I normally reside...) isn't the 
>best
>venue for finding HP-stuff, I thought I'd take the opportunity to look for 
>some
>HP-paraphernalia while in England. Trouble is, I haven't a clue where I might
>find the good stuff--or any stuff. Are there any Londoners on this list that
>would care to advise me on where to go?

I'm an ex-Londoner rather than a current one, so perhaps I'm out of date, 
but here goes anyway...

The big problem you have is that we're currently out of HP "season", and 
all the shops have already dismantled their HP merchandising drives. Three 
months ago, you couldn't have gone into a Toys R Us, Woolworths, Argos or 
larger supermarkets without tripping on HP merchandise of some sort or 
another.

For instance, one of my nieces works for Woolworths, and she told me that 
two weeks after the release of the DVD, almost all remaining HP merchandise 
went into storage until the Christmas season. Until a few weeks ago, every 
Woolworths' children's wear department had a dedicated HP section; I was in 
a large Woolworths earlier today which had a couple of t-shirts on display 
and nothing else. The confectionery display included all the varieties of 
HP sweets (Bertie Bott's, Frogs, Honeyduke's, etc, etc). Today there were 
none at all.

The release of X-Men 2 last week and the release of the first Matrix sequel 
in two weeks' time means that space given to HP products is now (or soon 
will be) taken over by those two franchises.

In summary, you're going to be hard-pressed to find much of anything 
HP-related other than huge posters for OotP in bookshops, or the occasional 
character model in toyshops or larger supermarkets.

There's always Hamleys (which used to be "the largest toy shop in the 
world") which still seems to have a fair amount of HP stuff on sale 
according to their web site: 
http://www.hamleys.co.uk/Search.asp?ss=harry+potter&x=28&y=7 (the site also 
includes directions how to get there).

You might want to try places like the markets in Brick Lane 
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=533889&y=182257&z=1&sv=brick+lane&st 
=1&tl=Brick+Lane,+E1&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf

or Portobello Road

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=524264&y=181790&z=1&sv=portobello+ro 
ad&st=1&tl=Portobello+Road,+W10&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf

for remaindered/discounted toys and other merchandise, but that's about it.

Again, it's down to your timing. If you'd come before Easter, it would have 
been quicker to give you advice on how to *avoid* HP merchandise ("stay out 
of Central London") :-)

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who needed his fix of Every Flavour Chocolates.