Diagon Alley - where and when is it?

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C6757
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Diagon Alley - where and when is it?
Reply To: [Yahoo! #6737] Charing Cross?  I've been off for awhile
Date: 8/13/00 4:50 am  (ET)

<<Well Charing Cross DOES make sense. Also could you tell me if this is
the road which from
 Leicester (sp?) Square, which contains several theatres? If so then I
 have been there, and I just didn't relize it...hmmm.>>

Okay, a bit more mental geography for you:

Charing Cross Road runs from Trafalgar Square at the bottom end to
the junction between Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road at the
top. Leicester Square and Soho are to the left of it and Covent Garden
is to the right of it.

If the Knight Bus turned off anywhere, it would most likely have been
into St Martin's Lane or Shaftesbury Avenue (which runs across Charing
Cross Road and is the road Scott is thinking of) - both known more for
their theatres than book and record shops.

This is one of the busiest areas of London and one of the major focal
points for shopping and entertainment, so, although it seems right
for Diagon Alley to be hidden 'behind' Charing Cross Road, it would be
difficult to be inconspicuous, particularly if you were as massive as
Hagrid or wearing a pointed witch's hat and emerald green cloak.

Hmmmm. There's nothing to suggest that Diagon Alley is physically in
that location - the Leaky Cauldron might be a portal to it, but it
may actually be located elsewhere. A bit of portkeying to an isolated
location, perhaps?

Broadening this topic a bit, I've been thinking about the Wizarding
world co-existing with the Muggle world, but being part of an alternate
timeline, running about 200 years behind ours. This would explain why
Hogwarts is steeped in history - all flaming torches, goblets and robes,
and why anything modern seems a bit out of place. It could, also, mean
that some of the historical ghosts Muggles see from time to time are
'time ghosts' from the Wizarding world.

Is there anything in the books to refute any of this random theorising
(and knowing my theories, there will be!)?

Neil