the next best thing to a trip to Diagon Alley

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 21510

Well, okay, so maybe it's not really the next best thing. But I got 
your attention, anyway.

I normally don't make Lexicon announcements here unless I've added 
something so cool I just can't help  myself. Which I just did.

I have spent the last two days researching Diagon Alley. I've been 
noting every clue about each shop -- where it is in relationship to 
other shops, which ones are mentioned but not named, and so on. Armed 
with all my notes, I worked this evening on creating a map of Diagon 
Alley, with each shop that appears in the books placed as close as 
possible to where it "really" is. And it's a pretty darn cool map. I 
just uploaded it to the Wizard's Atlas under the Atlas of Wizarding 
Britain. You'll find the Wizard's Atlas in the Wizarding World 
section of the Lexicon.

Now this brings up something that I've been struggling with. Is this 
map canon? True, as much as humanly possible it places things 
according to the official word in the books, but there was no way to 
create a map like this without a liberal amount of guesswork. So no, 
it's not canon. But then what is it? Semi-canon? Canon-ish?

Oh well. Now today I caught a glimpse of Diagon Alley in the second 
trailer and I am even more excited to see the film. (My wife and I 
just made a date to see A.I. Friday afternoon, mostly to see the HP 
trailer.) I wonder if they researched their version of Diagon Alley 
as closely as I researched this map? Bet not.

Steve Vander Ark <smugly>
The Harry Potter Lexicon
home of the new map of Diagon Alley
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon