Leaky Cauldron, real location? I Know!

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 76854

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sydney" <sydpad at y...> wrote:
> Nineve wrote:
> 
> > I am most definitely NOT confusing it with the film. If you had 
known 
> > London Bridge seven years ago, and very well, as I did then, you 
> > would find that The Leaky Cauldron did indeed have a South London 
> > feel, and that the shops and businesses around fit in the 
> > description. Anyway, it doesn't exist, and JKR is not describing 
a 
> > place in London, but creating one.
> > Nineve.
> 


Sydney:
> <frowns> I thought from PoA that the Leaky Cauldron was  either on 
or
> directly off of Charing Cross.  It's identified by name:  "BANG!  
They
> were thundering along Charing Cross road.  Harry sat up and watched
> buildings and benches squeezing themselves out of the Night Bus' 
way.
>  The sky was getting a little lighter.  He would lie low for a 
couple
> of hours, go toGringotts the moment it opened, then set off-- where,
> he didn't know.
> 
> Ern slammed on the brakes and the Knight Bus skidded to a halt in
> fornt of a small and shabby-looking pub, the Leaky Cauldron..."
> 
> This COULD be interepreted as going along Charing Cross, then past 
it
> to some other location, but if they'd crossed the river I think it
> would have been mentioned.  
> 
> In any case, there are definitely no cinemas around London Bridge,
> while if you got off the tube at Leiscter Square you'd pass 
several. 
> Ditto the music and book stores for which Charing Cross is famous. 
> 
> I agree with you that Southwark would be a way more evocative 
location
> for the Leaky Cauldron than Charing Cross though!  I love that part 
of
> the South Bank.

Geoff:

I agree with Sydney re things like cinemas. As I have pointed out, 
London Bridge/Monument/Bank district is very much the 
commercial/financial area of the City of London. Charing Cross and 
the City of Westminster north of the river are much more the 
shopping/entertainment sector. I get two different "feels" from the 
book and the film. I agree that the south side around London 
Bridge/Southwark bridge are mor evocative areas; they have always 
tended to be more tatty and the Leaky Cauldron gives the impression 
that it seems to be a "low dive" - perhaps to mask its importance as 
the entry to Diagon Alley.