Found! Grimmauld Square, London

[Steve]

I have found what I think is the location of Grimmauld Square which is
the place where Number 12 Grimmauld Place can be found, or actually
not found. 

I was browsing my London Street Map for anything within a 1 mile
radius of King's Cross Station that looked like it could be Grimmauld
Place, and this is what I found.

In the PHOTOS folder of this group you will find a new Album titled
"Grimmauld Square, London". In it you will find two photos of the
place that I think fits the bill.

Northeast of Kings Cross Station, in the area of Islington and
Barnsbury, is a small square set off from the main road. Familiar
nearby landmarks are -

-Barnard Park in Islington, - shown as a brown square near the bottom
and just above the word 'Islington'

-Thornhill Square - Oval shaped square slightly northwest of Barnard Park.

-Richmond Crest - inverted half-circle just north across the street
from Barnard Park.

-Grimmauld Square - West of Liverpool Road, and slightly north and
east of Barnard Park.

Slightly northeast of the park is an area marked on my Collins Map of
London is a small square marked "Lons. Sq.".

The street bounding the Square to the north is Barnbury St and to the
south of the Square is Richmond Ave. As I said before, the major road
on the right (east) is Liverpool Rd and the street to the left (west)
is Thornhill Rd.

This is the only place that comes close to matching the description.
It is nearly a full mile from Kings Cross (20 minute walk). Just north
of the Square a few blocks, where Liverpool Road intersects with
Highbury Station Road ,is a Underground Station; presumably Highbury
Station, so the subway is close by.

I'm curious if anyone is familiar with this area of London, and can
they tell us if indeed this area could pass for Grimmauld Place??? 

The Square seems to be surrounded by matching row house (townhomes,
brownstones, Greystone). Each town home seems to have some reasonable
back yard (garden). So, presumably these are relatively posh houses,
unless the neighborhood has gone into decay and the Full town homes
have been converted to smaller flats. Seems like it might actually be
too posh to match Harry's description, but it's as close as I can get
in the real world. 

I suspect if we see it at all in the movie, it will all be in the
studio. Still it's fun to speculate.

The images were taken courtesy of Google Earth, which is an amazing
program. It is possible to see people walking on the streets of
London. Although, the streets of Minneapolis are not quite that clear.

Google Earth is a free download for those who are interested.

To see a full Collins Street Map of this area with a 1 mile radius
drawn on it, see-

http://www.homestead.com/BlueMoonMarket/Files/Hogwarts/12grim.jpg

Caution, this map file is about 650Kb, so best view with DSL.

Look on the Top Right, just inside the radius circle for Islington.

Steve/bboyminn

PS: Yes, I know it's not actually a real place, but I can imagine can't I?