Leaky Cauldron, real location? I Know!

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 76667

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nineve_laguna" 
<nineve_laguna at h...> wrote:
> I remember, even though cannot say exactly which page, in PS/SS that
> Hagrid and Harry get the train to LONDON BRIDGE, which is south of 
> the river, full of little scruffy non-descriptive shops, back 
alleys 
> hidden to public view, and with a pub near it on a main road with 
> loads of passing-by-fast-but-not-stopping-here trafic. I have seen 
> the place before I read the books, and associated straight away 
with 
> Diagon Alley and The Leaky Cauldron. In fact, the pub I am talking 
> about is very thin, and has a hidden alley on the back with loads 
of 
> warehouse suppliers that you can only get to if you know they are 
> there, thruw a small hidden passage in a back road. You can hear 
the 
> buzz from the wharehouses from the pub, but from the main road you 
> can`t. Also from the warehouses you can only see the brick wall of 
> the pub and other buildings, that form a high wall in the shape of 
a 
> half moon, where you do`t hear the main road either. The locals at 
> the pub look "suspicious" or like hags. And the warehouses are 
> suppliers of imported goods, such as exotic spices, oils, and some 
> strange things in glass jars.
> I have been meaning to go back there, but never really had the time.
> London Bridge is a most weird place, and it fits in with JKR's 
> description.


Geoff:
I see no reference to London Bridge in the book. "Harry had never 
been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was 
going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. 
He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complained 
loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow. "I 
don't know how the Muggles manage without magic", he said as they 
climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling road lined 
with shops."

Geoff:
That isn't London Bridge. The exits from the Tube bring you into the 
main railway station concourse which is a bus station. London Bridge 
is very much a commercial district and there are no major shopping 
roads immediately by the station. A few line further on...
"They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger bars and 
cinemas..."

I wonder if you are confusing this with the film? I said yesterday 
that I think I read somewhere that the film location for the Leaky 
Cauldron was the Borough Market area which /is/ in the area where the 
main railway line to Cannon Street diverges from the Charing Cross-
London Bridge line.

Geoff