Contact:
Jump to: conclusion
Images from Wikipedia/Wikimedia and from Geograph are used and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.
Diagon Alley, we know, is somewhere near Charing Cross Road. The "small and shabby-looking pub" may be on Charing Cross Road itself, which has a lot of small premises at the Trafalgar Square end; Salsa pavement café near Oxford St end of Charing Cross Rd, from Traveling without destination or it may be just off it, at the start of one of the side-streets between Charing Cross Road and Covent Garden, which are full of small, interesting pubs. The description of the pub as next door to a big book-shop makes it more likely that it is on Charing Cross Road itself, since it used to be the main bookshop-district in London; although in recent years high rents have squeezed some of them out into neighbouring Cecil Court. The statement in PoA about benches getting out of the way of the Knight Bus is peculiar, since Charing Cross Road is really not the sort of place to have park benches: but perhaps a pavement café is meant, or a pub with seating outside; or perhaps the account is confused and really the Bus scattered benches in Trafalgar Square just before it entered Charing Cross Road.
The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realised where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. 'Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves,' he said.[cut] The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone. [PS ch. #05; p. 65/66]
They were thundering along Charing Cross Road. Harry sat up and watched buildings and benches squeezing themselves out of the Knight Bus's way. [cut] Ern slammed on the brakes and the Knight Bus skidded to a halt in front of a small and shabby-looking pub, the Leaky Cauldron, behind which lay the magical entrance to Diagon Alley. [PoA ch. #03; p. 36]
'Here you are, then,' said the driver a surprisingly short while later, speaking for the first time as he slowed in Charing Cross Road and stopped outside the Leaky Cauldron. [HBP ch. #06; p. 106/107]
[cut] concentrating with all his might on the Leaky Cauldron, the inn that was the entrance to Diagon Alley [cut] Harry's feet found pavement and he opened his eyes on Charing Cross Road. Muggles bustled past wearing the hangdog expressions of early morning, quite unconscious of the little inn's existence. [DH ch. #26; p. 423]
On leaving Diagon Alley in the first book, Harry and Hagrid take a direct train to Paddington stationO3C, where they exit via an escalator: there is no indication that they have to change trains. This makes perfect sense: they would get the deep-level Bakerloo Line train from Charing CrossO5D, which they would reach by walking from Charing Cross Road down through St Martin's Place at the side of the National Portrait Gallery, then left through Duncannon Street onto the north side of the Strand and down steps into the underground concourse, and from there to Paddington is seven stops on the northbound Bakerloo Line.
It also confirms that the Leaky Cauldron is definitely at the southern, Trafalgar Square end of Charing Cross Road, unless Harry and Hagrid had a long walk to get to that station. The other two stations on or near Charing Cross Road are Leicester SquareO5D, about a third of the way along from Trafalgar Square, and Tottenham Court RoadO5C right at the northern end, and from neither station could one catch a direct train to Paddington.
Probable inspirations for Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley can be identified. To begin with, there actually is a knot of almost traffic-free little streets and alleys at the back of the Trafalgar Square end of Charing Cross Road - St Martin's Lane, Brydges Place, Mary's Court, Cecil Court, St Martin's Court, Hop Gardens, New Row. These streets are not actually cobbled but some are pedestrian precincts, and they are or used to be full of fascinating little specialist shops.
Cecil Court in particular is a pedestrian precinct of original Victorian shops, many of them specialist bookshops - including one, Watkins', that deals in magic books. Its Wikipedia entry lists this hundred-yards-long lane as containing "nearly twenty antiquarian and second-hand independent bookshops, including specialists in modern first editions, collectible children’s books, early printing, rare maps and atlases, antique prints, theatrical ephemera, and esoterica, as well as a contemporary art gallery, an antiques shop, shops specializing in philately, numismatics and art deco jewellery and an Indian restaurant.", and as having once been known as Flicker Alley, because it was home to many early film companies. In the 1980s St Martin's Lane as well was full of odd little shops selling e.g. vintage musice scores and toy trains - although I don't know whether it still is, or whether high rents have forced them out.
It's safe to assume, I think, that Diagon Alley is off the southern third of Charing Cross Road between Cranbourne Street and William IV Street - and probably on the east side, acting as a magical shadow to the complex of streets around St Martin's Lane.
There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon ... [PS ch. #05; p. 56]
Harry, Ron and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. [CoS ch. #04; p. 48]
He could even go wherever he liked, as long as it was in Diagon Alley, and as this long cobbled street was packed with the most fascinating wizarding shops in the world, Harry felt no desire to break his word to Fudge and stray back into the Muggle world. [cut] Harry spent the long sunny days exploring the shops and eating under the brightly coloured umbrellas outside cafés, [cut] he could sit in the bright sunshine outside Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour [PoA ch. #04; p. 42]
Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and rapped a certain brick in the wall, which opened at once to form an archway on to a winding cobbled street. [HBP ch. #06; p. 107]
On the other hand, a number of shabby-looking stalls had sprung up along the street. The nearest one, which had been erected outside Flourish and Blotts under a striped, stained awning [HBP ch. #06; p. 108]
They scurried along, peering left and right, through shop windows and doors, until Hermione pointed ahead. 'That's him, isn't it?' she whispered. Turning left?' 'Big surprise,' whispered Ron. For Malfoy had glanced round, then slid into Knockturn Alley and out of sight. [HBP ch. #06; p. 119/120
At once the bricks began to whirl and spin: a hole appeared in the middle of them, which grew wider and wider, finally forming an archway on to the narrow cobbled street that was Diagon Alley. It was quiet, barely time for the shops to open, and there were hardly any shoppers abroad. The crooked, cobbled street was much altered [DH ch. #26; p. 423/424]
It seems likely that JK Rowling's initial inspiration for Diagon Alley came from Chepstow, the town where she lived as a teenager, and especially from two winding, cobbled streets called Hocker Hill Street and St Mary Street. St Mary Street, Chepstow, from About My Area Both differ from Diagon Alley in being on a distinct slope, and Hocker Hill Street is not a street of shops – but it is visually striking, with proper rough cobbles (we aren't actually told what kind of cobbles Diagon Alley has, but I've always visualised them as old-fashioned rough ones). St Mary Street has smoother, brick cobbles, but plenty of the right sort of little shops. I suspect that St Mary Street also contributed to the visualisation of Hogsmeade high street. As an adult living in Edinburgh, Rowling seems to have added Rose Street into the mix. This is a long, level brick-cobbled pedestrians-only street in central Edinburgh, again full of eccentric little specialist shops. Even though Rowling probably arrived in Edinburgh with an idea of Diagon Alley already at least half-formed in her mind as a magical version of St Mary Street, as soon as she saw Rose Street she must have been struck by the resemblance. Rose Street, Edinburgh 2006, from AE Brookes at Flickr Rose Street differs from Diagon Alley in that it is straight and we are told that Diagon Alley is winding; but like Diagon Alley, and unlike any of the other candidates, Rose Street has pavement cafés. To be fair, I've seen two photographs which showed a few chairs outside a pub or restaurant on Cecil Court - but this seems to have been a brief experiment which didn't last, whereas life on Rose Street is lived al fresco. Rose Street also shares a certain hiddenness with Diagon and Knockturn Alleys: narrow and tucked in in between Princes Street and George Street, and cut across in three places by wide streets linking those two major thoroughfares, it's easy to walk crossways right through the middle of Rose Street and not even notice that it's there, mistaking it instead for a mere back lane between blocks of shops. Diagon Alley is described in DH as "narrow", but it can't be anything like as narrow as Hocker Hill Street is, because it has to be wide enough for the pavement cafés to fit. It must be about the same width as Rose Street - i.e. 30ft - in order to be wide enough for people to sit outside without blocking the road, yet narrow enough still to be so described. Then, with Mrs Weasley checking her watch every minute or so, they headed further along the street in search of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop run by Fred and George. 'We really haven't got too long,' Mrs Weasley said. 'So we'll just have a quick look around and then back to the car. We must be close, that's number ninety-two ... ninety-four ...' [HBP ch. #06; p. 112/113] Diagon Alley is also described as "long", but bear in mind that Streatham High Road, said to be the longest High Street (that is, continuous shopping rather than residential or industrial street) in Britain, is only two miles long, and most High Streets are much shorter. Diagon Alley is long enough that the Twins' shop, which is probably number #96 or #98, isn't the last shop in the street (if it was, Molly would probably just have headed for the end of the street, not carefully counted numbers); but it's very unlikely to be more than half a mile long. Of the likely models for Diagon Alley, Hocker Hill Street is only eighty yards long and St Mary Street about a hundred and twenty yards, St Martin's Lane less than three hundred yards long, Cecil Court just over a hundred yards and Rose Street just under half a mile. So, we can imagine Diagon Alley as a fusion of these four streets: rough-cobbled like Hocker Hill Street; winding like both Hocker Hill Street and St Mary Street; long and with many pavement cafés like Rose Street; level like Rose Street and Cecil Court; and full of interesting and curious small shops and pubs, like Rose Street and St Mary Street and like the Cecil Court/St Martin's Lane complex which really does exist at the back of Charing Cross Road. Since it's meant to be a London street, the actual look of the buildings ought to be most like those in Cecil Court/St Martin's Lane: but being JKR's creation it may well look more like St Mary Street. JK Rowling\'s own sketch of the entrance to Diagon Alley detail of above JK Rowling's own sketch of Diagon Alley is hard to make out as I only have a very low-resolution image of it. As far as one can tell, however, it does bear some resemblance to all the streets I have mentioned, although it looks most like Hocker Hill Street. It has a winding, rough-cobbled floor with the buildings standing at oddly-asorted angles, as in Hocker Hill Street. There is a narrow raised pavement with a lower cobbled level in between: this is another feature shared with Hocker Hill Street, whereas St Mary Street and Rose Street have "pavements" which are at the same level as the street, although paved with different material. Judging from the height of the doors the cobbled central area appears somewhat wider than in Hocker Hill Street - seven or eight feet as opposed to about five feet. We must assume that both street and pavement widen out further along, or there would be no room for pavement cafés. The building nearest to the entrance on the left is pale and has a large window set low to about knee-height, possibly with a sash casement and with a definite sill, again resembling those on the houses in Hocker Hill Street - closely enough to suggest that JK may have been working from a photograph. Beyond this close-up window on the left we glimpse a strange dark shape which may be a misguided attempt to draw a bay window from the side, or perhaps a protruding upper storey. Beyond that is a straight-sided pale building with a pale, pitched roof. On the right, further away than the building with the windowsill, is a pale two-storey building with a heavy, round-topped door next to which is what looks like a bay window made of very small panes, almost identical to one in the photo' of St Mary Street, above, except that in St Mary Street the bay window is upstairs, and in Diagon Alley it's at street level. Alternatively, the apparent bay window may actually be an illusion caused by two flat windows seen side by side on adjacent buildings. Either way, there is a smaller, blurred window above it, possibly with a sill or a window box, and the beginnings of a dark pitched roof. Beyond this building with the rounded door and possible bay window is another pale building set at a different angle - or perhaps another section of the same building. Beyond that is another dark building which appears to have either an awning or some sort of fancy pelmet sticking out over the street, such as those found to some extent in Cecil Court and to a much greater degree of development in Rose Street. At the end, a pale two-storey building with oblong, small-paned windows and a dark-tiled roof faces up the street. This looks quite a lot like the building with oblong, small-paned windows which faces along Cecil Court, except that the real-life building is taller. As far as one can tell from such a blurred image, the overall appearance looks Georgian or earlier, rather than Victorian. It's probably no earlier than mid seventeenth century, though, for reasons connected with the history of the area. Diagon Alley is not likely to be a remnant of Mediaeval London, because early maps show that the district was all green fields and market-gardens until the mid to late sixteenth century. The church at the head of St Martin's Lane is called St Martin-in-the-Fields because when it was originally built, it was; and the area north and east of it, close to where Diagon Alley would later be sited, was called Covent (convent) Garden because prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was the vegetable garden of a local nunnery. Urban development of Covent Garden was begun in 1630 and it was only in the mid to late seventeenth century that the area began to look at all built-up. This is consistent with the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century appearance of the portion of Diagon Alley visible in Rowling's sketch. It's unlikely that Diagon Alley existed in that locale prior to the area becoming built up. It makes sense to site a wizarding enclave in the middle of a city, because visiting magical folk can come and go under cover of the crowd. It makes sense to site one in the middle of nowhere where there would be few Muggles to observe it. It would make no sense to stick it in the middle of an open field, a hundred yards from a major church and a convent full of nuns and about half a mile from one of the biggest cities in the world, make it invisible (because it's not on the maps) and hope nobody would notice all these people popping in and out of thin air in the middle of all the runner-beans. And London has been at the least a sizeable town - and in most eras a definite city - since the Roman period, so even if Diagon Alley was built first and then London grew up next to it, they'd have had plenty of time to relocate. St Martin-in-the-Fields from Trafalgar Sq, from Daily Photos & Frugal Travel Tips It's just possible to make a Mediaeval Diagon Alley work if you assume that the original entrance was inside the church. There's been a church on that site since some time prior to 1222 and in recent centuries St Martin's has been known for its social conscience and innovation (it provided London's first free lending library, for example) and its willingness to embrace other communities and faiths, so it would make some sort of sense to have the vicars of St Martin's providing a haven for persecuted witches and wizards. Any wizard visitors who were seen coming to the church and then reappearing hours later would be assumed to have been praying. Then we can have Diagon and Knockturn Alleys as the remains of an original wizard village which was overtaken and absorbed when London expanded in the seventeenth century, and the portal being moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was knocked down and rebuilt in its present form in 1721-26. However, it's more likely that Diagon Alley is of the same late seventeenth century vintage as Cecil Court (except that Cecil Court was rebuilt in the Victorian era, and Diagon Alley wasn't). It would have been put in when London expanded and wizards decided they wanted to be a part of it. The Standing Order, George Street, Edinburgh, from the JD Wetherspoon website Gringotts sounds as though it may well have been inspired by either the Standing Order or the Dome, two massive and very grand former banks which are both now equally grand pubs, and which stand on George Street, Edinburgh, the next street north of Rose Street. The Dome, George Street, Edinburgh, from wikimedia Although neither is exactly white marble, they are made from pale sandstone and both have flights of steps up to grand double doors. Of the two, the Dome is probably the more likely model, as its steps are higher and more noticeable than the Standing Order's. [N.B. the two buildings are not as dramatically different in colour as they appear in these images, the Dome being less orangey than it looks here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get good-enough-to-use shots of my own, showing the true colour, because you have to go there at about 5am to get shots of any buildings on George Street not almost-totally obscured by parked cars.] 'Gringotts,' said Hagrid. They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -- 'Yeah, that's a goblin,' [PS ch. #05; p. 56] Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance: Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley. [cut] Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. [CoS ch. #04; p. 45/46] Hermione had no choice but to fall into step beside him and head along the crooked, cobbled street towards the place where the snowy-white Gringotts stood towering over the other little shops. Ron sloped along beside them, and Harry and Griphook followed. [cut]All too soon they arrived at the foot of the marble steps leading up to the great bronze doors. As Griphook had already warned them, the liveried goblins who usually flanked the entrance had been replaced by two wizards [DH ch. #26; p. 426/427] The real mystery about Gringotts is how it manages to have stony caverns under it. If you dig down under central London you find, first, about 30ft of topsoil, then 450ft of clay, then 650ft of chalk, then a thin layer of sandstone, then another 200ft of clay and only then do you hit real hard rock. It's conceivable that Gringotts' caverns and vaults are in the chalk layer - but even so they'd have to be nearly two hundred yards below the surface, and they'd presumably have to be continuously pumped to stop the Thames from moving into them. Abandoned wooden buggy in Clearwell Caves mine-working The real-world inspiration for the caverns under Gringotts, however, is clear. John Nettleship has convincingly identified them with Clearwell Caves, an ancient mine-working in the Forest of Dean about nine miles from Chepstow. "Since 1970 or before they have been a tourist attraction and of special interest to families around Christmas JK Rowling\'s own drawing of Gringotts\' tunnels when children can meet Father Christmas in a rather magical setting. The Rowling children are sure to have been brought here, as were my own. Iron ore is transported in little trucks which run on very narrow rails through a maze of tunnels. The tunnels must be very long as they apparently extend to the basement of Gringotts bank, where the Goblins use the little wooden buggies to access the security vaults. "You will see that Joanne’s own sketch corresponds quite well with the old buggy lying on its side in the recent photograph." Garden Café, Rose Street In addition to being a possible model for Gringotts, the Dome may have been the inspiration for the function (though not the appearance) of the Leaky Cauldron: for just as the Leaky Cauldron bridges the gap between the bustling Muggle London of Charing Cross Road and the winding cobbles of Diagon Alley, so the Dome is a bridge between the wide, grand main thoroughfare of George Street and the narrow pedestrians-only intimacy of Rose Street. The pillared and stepped front of the Dome is on George Street, but behind it is a paved courtyard (which serves as a garden café during the summer) which opens onto Rose Street through a square archway. Seen from Rose Street this arch has a magical and unexpected quality: a narrow, canyon-like lane between close-set, high buildings suddenly opens up and falls away, with steps down into an open courtyard, and green vines along the railings. [cut] Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds. [cut] The brick he had touched quivered -- it wriggled -- in the middle, a small hole appeared -- it grew wider and wider -- a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. [PS ch. #05; p. 55/56] After breakfast Harry would go out into the backyard, take out his wand, tap the third brick from the left above the dustbin, and stand back as the archway into Diagon Alley opened in the wall. [PoA ch. #04; p. 42] [cut] Harry, Hermione, Hagrid and the Weasleys walked through the bar and out into the chilly little courtyard at the back where the dustbins stood. Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and rapped a certain brick in the wall, which opened at once to form an archway on to a winding cobbled street. [HBP ch. #06; p. 107] [cut] concentrating with all his might on the Leaky Cauldron, the inn that was the entrance to Diagon Alley [cut] Hermione drew out Bellatrix's wand and tapped a brick in the nondescript wall in front of them. At once the bricks began to whirl and spin: a hole appeared in the middle of them, which grew wider and wider, finally forming an archway on to the narrow cobbled street that was Diagon Alley. [DH ch. #26; p. 423] But it was a subdued group who headed back to the fireside in the Leaky Cauldron, [CoS ch. #04; p. 52] 'And a private parlour, please, Tom,' said Fudge pointedly. 'Bye,' Harry said miserably to Stan and Ern as Tom beckoned Fudge towards the passage that led from the bar. [cut] Fudge marched Harry along the narrow passage after Tom's lantern, and then into a small parlour. Tom clicked his fingers, a fire burst into life in the grate, [PoA ch. #03; p. 37] Harry followed Tom up a handsome wooden staircase to a door with a brass number eleven on it, which Tom unlocked and opened for him. Inside was a very comfortable-looking bed, some highly polished oak furniture, a cheerfully crackling fire and, perched on top of the wardrobe -- [PoA ch. #03; p. 40] Tom the innkeeper put three tables together in the parlour and the seven Weasleys, Harry and Hermione ate their way through five delicious courses. [PoA ch. #04; p. 52] The Three Tuns, Chepstow, © Roy Parkhouse at Geograph The general appearance and interior of the Leaky Cauldron, on the other hand, with its parlours and passages and private dining, may well have been be inspired by one of the interesting older pubs which are found in all of these locations - The Bear & Staff, corner of Bear Street and Charing Cross Road, from the fancyapint London pub guide the Charing Cross Road/St Martin's Lane area just north of Trafalgar Square, Rose Street or Chepstow. John Nettleship suggests the Three Tuns, Chepstow as a possible model, but it's a bit on the large side - The Kenilworth, Rose Street, Edinburgh although the interior layout may well be suitable. The outside of the Leaky Cauldron probably looks much like any other small pub on Charing Cross Road - such as e.g. the Bear & Staff, which is almost opposite Cecil Court - only tattier. One of many interesting pubs in Rose Street, incidentally, is The Kenilworth, which sounds as though it might have been the inspiration for the name of Kennilworthy Whisp, "author" of Quidditch Through the Ages. Another, tucked down in a basement, is the Hogshead. Thus spelled, of course, it refers to a barrel rather than an actual hog. Conclusion We can be virtually certain that Diagon Alley lies to the east side of the southern end of Charing Cross Road, shadowing the real-life St Martin's Lane and the complex of small streets which surround it, especially Cecil Court. The Leaky Cauldron is most likely directly on Charing Cross Road itself. When Hagrid and Harry visit Diagon Alley for the first time in PS they get from Diagon Alley to Charing Cross station, where they pick up a connection to Paddington, by walking down St Martin's Place at the side of the National Portrait Gallery, and then turning left into Duncannon Street and cutting across to the Strand. It is possible that the Diagon Alley/Knockturn Alley group began life as a stand-alone Mediaeval wizarding village similar to Hogsmeade, which was absorbed when London expanded east in the 17th and 18th centuries. If so we have to assume that the original entrance from the Muggle world to wizard-space was inside the old church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and was only moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was pulled down and rebuilt in the early 18th C. However, it's more likely that the wizarding enclave was put in after the Muggle area was built up, in the mid to late 17th or early 18th C. The buildings are probably of that vintage - not rebuilt in the Victorian era like the shops in Cecil Court. Judging from Rowling's own sketch they are in an assortment of styles and rather randomly arranged, more like St Mary Street or Hocker Hill Street in Chepstow than a uniform strip like Cecil Court or the 18th C Rose Street which forms part of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town development. Rose Street, however, was probably at least part of the inspiration for its numerous pavement cafés and its eccentric shops, and possibly for the way in which it can be reached by going in through a pub on a main street, out through a cobbled yard and thence through an arch into a secret world behind.
As an adult living in Edinburgh, Rowling seems to have added Rose Street into the mix. This is a long, level brick-cobbled pedestrians-only street in central Edinburgh, again full of eccentric little specialist shops. Even though Rowling probably arrived in Edinburgh with an idea of Diagon Alley already at least half-formed in her mind as a magical version of St Mary Street, as soon as she saw Rose Street she must have been struck by the resemblance.
Rose Street differs from Diagon Alley in that it is straight and we are told that Diagon Alley is winding; but like Diagon Alley, and unlike any of the other candidates, Rose Street has pavement cafés. To be fair, I've seen two photographs which showed a few chairs outside a pub or restaurant on Cecil Court - but this seems to have been a brief experiment which didn't last, whereas life on Rose Street is lived al fresco.
Rose Street also shares a certain hiddenness with Diagon and Knockturn Alleys: narrow and tucked in in between Princes Street and George Street, and cut across in three places by wide streets linking those two major thoroughfares, it's easy to walk crossways right through the middle of Rose Street and not even notice that it's there, mistaking it instead for a mere back lane between blocks of shops.
Diagon Alley is described in DH as "narrow", but it can't be anything like as narrow as Hocker Hill Street is, because it has to be wide enough for the pavement cafés to fit. It must be about the same width as Rose Street - i.e. 30ft - in order to be wide enough for people to sit outside without blocking the road, yet narrow enough still to be so described.
Diagon Alley is also described as "long", but bear in mind that Streatham High Road, said to be the longest High Street (that is, continuous shopping rather than residential or industrial street) in Britain, is only two miles long, and most High Streets are much shorter. Diagon Alley is long enough that the Twins' shop, which is probably number #96 or #98, isn't the last shop in the street (if it was, Molly would probably just have headed for the end of the street, not carefully counted numbers); but it's very unlikely to be more than half a mile long. Of the likely models for Diagon Alley, Hocker Hill Street is only eighty yards long and St Mary Street about a hundred and twenty yards, St Martin's Lane less than three hundred yards long, Cecil Court just over a hundred yards and Rose Street just under half a mile.
So, we can imagine Diagon Alley as a fusion of these four streets: rough-cobbled like Hocker Hill Street; winding like both Hocker Hill Street and St Mary Street; long and with many pavement cafés like Rose Street; level like Rose Street and Cecil Court; and full of interesting and curious small shops and pubs, like Rose Street and St Mary Street and like the Cecil Court/St Martin's Lane complex which really does exist at the back of Charing Cross Road.
Since it's meant to be a London street, the actual look of the buildings ought to be most like those in Cecil Court/St Martin's Lane: but being JKR's creation it may well look more like St Mary Street.
JK Rowling's own sketch of Diagon Alley is hard to make out as I only have a very low-resolution image of it. As far as one can tell, however, it does bear some resemblance to all the streets I have mentioned, although it looks most like Hocker Hill Street. It has a winding, rough-cobbled floor with the buildings standing at oddly-asorted angles, as in Hocker Hill Street. There is a narrow raised pavement with a lower cobbled level in between: this is another feature shared with Hocker Hill Street, whereas St Mary Street and Rose Street have "pavements" which are at the same level as the street, although paved with different material. Judging from the height of the doors the cobbled central area appears somewhat wider than in Hocker Hill Street - seven or eight feet as opposed to about five feet. We must assume that both street and pavement widen out further along, or there would be no room for pavement cafés.
The building nearest to the entrance on the left is pale and has a large window set low to about knee-height, possibly with a sash casement and with a definite sill, again resembling those on the houses in Hocker Hill Street - closely enough to suggest that JK may have been working from a photograph. Beyond this close-up window on the left we glimpse a strange dark shape which may be a misguided attempt to draw a bay window from the side, or perhaps a protruding upper storey. Beyond that is a straight-sided pale building with a pale, pitched roof.
On the right, further away than the building with the windowsill, is a pale two-storey building with a heavy, round-topped door next to which is what looks like a bay window made of very small panes, almost identical to one in the photo' of St Mary Street, above, except that in St Mary Street the bay window is upstairs, and in Diagon Alley it's at street level. Alternatively, the apparent bay window may actually be an illusion caused by two flat windows seen side by side on adjacent buildings. Either way, there is a smaller, blurred window above it, possibly with a sill or a window box, and the beginnings of a dark pitched roof.
Beyond this building with the rounded door and possible bay window is another pale building set at a different angle - or perhaps another section of the same building. Beyond that is another dark building which appears to have either an awning or some sort of fancy pelmet sticking out over the street, such as those found to some extent in Cecil Court and to a much greater degree of development in Rose Street.
At the end, a pale two-storey building with oblong, small-paned windows and a dark-tiled roof faces up the street. This looks quite a lot like the building with oblong, small-paned windows which faces along Cecil Court, except that the real-life building is taller.
As far as one can tell from such a blurred image, the overall appearance looks Georgian or earlier, rather than Victorian. It's probably no earlier than mid seventeenth century, though, for reasons connected with the history of the area.
Diagon Alley is not likely to be a remnant of Mediaeval London, because early maps show that the district was all green fields and market-gardens until the mid to late sixteenth century. The church at the head of St Martin's Lane is called St Martin-in-the-Fields because when it was originally built, it was; and the area north and east of it, close to where Diagon Alley would later be sited, was called Covent (convent) Garden because prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was the vegetable garden of a local nunnery. Urban development of Covent Garden was begun in 1630 and it was only in the mid to late seventeenth century that the area began to look at all built-up. This is consistent with the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century appearance of the portion of Diagon Alley visible in Rowling's sketch.
It's unlikely that Diagon Alley existed in that locale prior to the area becoming built up. It makes sense to site a wizarding enclave in the middle of a city, because visiting magical folk can come and go under cover of the crowd. It makes sense to site one in the middle of nowhere where there would be few Muggles to observe it. It would make no sense to stick it in the middle of an open field, a hundred yards from a major church and a convent full of nuns and about half a mile from one of the biggest cities in the world, make it invisible (because it's not on the maps) and hope nobody would notice all these people popping in and out of thin air in the middle of all the runner-beans. And London has been at the least a sizeable town - and in most eras a definite city - since the Roman period, so even if Diagon Alley was built first and then London grew up next to it, they'd have had plenty of time to relocate. St Martin-in-the-Fields from Trafalgar Sq, from Daily Photos & Frugal Travel Tips It's just possible to make a Mediaeval Diagon Alley work if you assume that the original entrance was inside the church. There's been a church on that site since some time prior to 1222 and in recent centuries St Martin's has been known for its social conscience and innovation (it provided London's first free lending library, for example) and its willingness to embrace other communities and faiths, so it would make some sort of sense to have the vicars of St Martin's providing a haven for persecuted witches and wizards. Any wizard visitors who were seen coming to the church and then reappearing hours later would be assumed to have been praying. Then we can have Diagon and Knockturn Alleys as the remains of an original wizard village which was overtaken and absorbed when London expanded in the seventeenth century, and the portal being moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was knocked down and rebuilt in its present form in 1721-26. However, it's more likely that Diagon Alley is of the same late seventeenth century vintage as Cecil Court (except that Cecil Court was rebuilt in the Victorian era, and Diagon Alley wasn't). It would have been put in when London expanded and wizards decided they wanted to be a part of it.
It's just possible to make a Mediaeval Diagon Alley work if you assume that the original entrance was inside the church. There's been a church on that site since some time prior to 1222 and in recent centuries St Martin's has been known for its social conscience and innovation (it provided London's first free lending library, for example) and its willingness to embrace other communities and faiths, so it would make some sort of sense to have the vicars of St Martin's providing a haven for persecuted witches and wizards. Any wizard visitors who were seen coming to the church and then reappearing hours later would be assumed to have been praying. Then we can have Diagon and Knockturn Alleys as the remains of an original wizard village which was overtaken and absorbed when London expanded in the seventeenth century, and the portal being moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was knocked down and rebuilt in its present form in 1721-26.
However, it's more likely that Diagon Alley is of the same late seventeenth century vintage as Cecil Court (except that Cecil Court was rebuilt in the Victorian era, and Diagon Alley wasn't). It would have been put in when London expanded and wizards decided they wanted to be a part of it.
Gringotts sounds as though it may well have been inspired by either the Standing Order or the Dome, two massive and very grand former banks which are both now equally grand pubs, and which stand on George Street, Edinburgh, the next street north of Rose Street. The Dome, George Street, Edinburgh, from wikimedia Although neither is exactly white marble, they are made from pale sandstone and both have flights of steps up to grand double doors. Of the two, the Dome is probably the more likely model, as its steps are higher and more noticeable than the Standing Order's. [N.B. the two buildings are not as dramatically different in colour as they appear in these images, the Dome being less orangey than it looks here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get good-enough-to-use shots of my own, showing the true colour, because you have to go there at about 5am to get shots of any buildings on George Street not almost-totally obscured by parked cars.] 'Gringotts,' said Hagrid. They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -- 'Yeah, that's a goblin,' [PS ch. #05; p. 56] Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance: Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley. [cut] Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. [CoS ch. #04; p. 45/46] Hermione had no choice but to fall into step beside him and head along the crooked, cobbled street towards the place where the snowy-white Gringotts stood towering over the other little shops. Ron sloped along beside them, and Harry and Griphook followed. [cut]All too soon they arrived at the foot of the marble steps leading up to the great bronze doors. As Griphook had already warned them, the liveried goblins who usually flanked the entrance had been replaced by two wizards [DH ch. #26; p. 426/427] The real mystery about Gringotts is how it manages to have stony caverns under it. If you dig down under central London you find, first, about 30ft of topsoil, then 450ft of clay, then 650ft of chalk, then a thin layer of sandstone, then another 200ft of clay and only then do you hit real hard rock. It's conceivable that Gringotts' caverns and vaults are in the chalk layer - but even so they'd have to be nearly two hundred yards below the surface, and they'd presumably have to be continuously pumped to stop the Thames from moving into them. Abandoned wooden buggy in Clearwell Caves mine-working The real-world inspiration for the caverns under Gringotts, however, is clear. John Nettleship has convincingly identified them with Clearwell Caves, an ancient mine-working in the Forest of Dean about nine miles from Chepstow. "Since 1970 or before they have been a tourist attraction and of special interest to families around Christmas JK Rowling\'s own drawing of Gringotts\' tunnels when children can meet Father Christmas in a rather magical setting. The Rowling children are sure to have been brought here, as were my own. Iron ore is transported in little trucks which run on very narrow rails through a maze of tunnels. The tunnels must be very long as they apparently extend to the basement of Gringotts bank, where the Goblins use the little wooden buggies to access the security vaults. "You will see that Joanne’s own sketch corresponds quite well with the old buggy lying on its side in the recent photograph." Garden Café, Rose Street In addition to being a possible model for Gringotts, the Dome may have been the inspiration for the function (though not the appearance) of the Leaky Cauldron: for just as the Leaky Cauldron bridges the gap between the bustling Muggle London of Charing Cross Road and the winding cobbles of Diagon Alley, so the Dome is a bridge between the wide, grand main thoroughfare of George Street and the narrow pedestrians-only intimacy of Rose Street. The pillared and stepped front of the Dome is on George Street, but behind it is a paved courtyard (which serves as a garden café during the summer) which opens onto Rose Street through a square archway. Seen from Rose Street this arch has a magical and unexpected quality: a narrow, canyon-like lane between close-set, high buildings suddenly opens up and falls away, with steps down into an open courtyard, and green vines along the railings. [cut] Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds. [cut] The brick he had touched quivered -- it wriggled -- in the middle, a small hole appeared -- it grew wider and wider -- a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. [PS ch. #05; p. 55/56] After breakfast Harry would go out into the backyard, take out his wand, tap the third brick from the left above the dustbin, and stand back as the archway into Diagon Alley opened in the wall. [PoA ch. #04; p. 42] [cut] Harry, Hermione, Hagrid and the Weasleys walked through the bar and out into the chilly little courtyard at the back where the dustbins stood. Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and rapped a certain brick in the wall, which opened at once to form an archway on to a winding cobbled street. [HBP ch. #06; p. 107] [cut] concentrating with all his might on the Leaky Cauldron, the inn that was the entrance to Diagon Alley [cut] Hermione drew out Bellatrix's wand and tapped a brick in the nondescript wall in front of them. At once the bricks began to whirl and spin: a hole appeared in the middle of them, which grew wider and wider, finally forming an archway on to the narrow cobbled street that was Diagon Alley. [DH ch. #26; p. 423] But it was a subdued group who headed back to the fireside in the Leaky Cauldron, [CoS ch. #04; p. 52] 'And a private parlour, please, Tom,' said Fudge pointedly. 'Bye,' Harry said miserably to Stan and Ern as Tom beckoned Fudge towards the passage that led from the bar. [cut] Fudge marched Harry along the narrow passage after Tom's lantern, and then into a small parlour. Tom clicked his fingers, a fire burst into life in the grate, [PoA ch. #03; p. 37] Harry followed Tom up a handsome wooden staircase to a door with a brass number eleven on it, which Tom unlocked and opened for him. Inside was a very comfortable-looking bed, some highly polished oak furniture, a cheerfully crackling fire and, perched on top of the wardrobe -- [PoA ch. #03; p. 40] Tom the innkeeper put three tables together in the parlour and the seven Weasleys, Harry and Hermione ate their way through five delicious courses. [PoA ch. #04; p. 52] The Three Tuns, Chepstow, © Roy Parkhouse at Geograph The general appearance and interior of the Leaky Cauldron, on the other hand, with its parlours and passages and private dining, may well have been be inspired by one of the interesting older pubs which are found in all of these locations - The Bear & Staff, corner of Bear Street and Charing Cross Road, from the fancyapint London pub guide the Charing Cross Road/St Martin's Lane area just north of Trafalgar Square, Rose Street or Chepstow. John Nettleship suggests the Three Tuns, Chepstow as a possible model, but it's a bit on the large side - The Kenilworth, Rose Street, Edinburgh although the interior layout may well be suitable. The outside of the Leaky Cauldron probably looks much like any other small pub on Charing Cross Road - such as e.g. the Bear & Staff, which is almost opposite Cecil Court - only tattier. One of many interesting pubs in Rose Street, incidentally, is The Kenilworth, which sounds as though it might have been the inspiration for the name of Kennilworthy Whisp, "author" of Quidditch Through the Ages. Another, tucked down in a basement, is the Hogshead. Thus spelled, of course, it refers to a barrel rather than an actual hog. Conclusion We can be virtually certain that Diagon Alley lies to the east side of the southern end of Charing Cross Road, shadowing the real-life St Martin's Lane and the complex of small streets which surround it, especially Cecil Court. The Leaky Cauldron is most likely directly on Charing Cross Road itself. When Hagrid and Harry visit Diagon Alley for the first time in PS they get from Diagon Alley to Charing Cross station, where they pick up a connection to Paddington, by walking down St Martin's Place at the side of the National Portrait Gallery, and then turning left into Duncannon Street and cutting across to the Strand. It is possible that the Diagon Alley/Knockturn Alley group began life as a stand-alone Mediaeval wizarding village similar to Hogsmeade, which was absorbed when London expanded east in the 17th and 18th centuries. If so we have to assume that the original entrance from the Muggle world to wizard-space was inside the old church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and was only moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was pulled down and rebuilt in the early 18th C. However, it's more likely that the wizarding enclave was put in after the Muggle area was built up, in the mid to late 17th or early 18th C. The buildings are probably of that vintage - not rebuilt in the Victorian era like the shops in Cecil Court. Judging from Rowling's own sketch they are in an assortment of styles and rather randomly arranged, more like St Mary Street or Hocker Hill Street in Chepstow than a uniform strip like Cecil Court or the 18th C Rose Street which forms part of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town development. Rose Street, however, was probably at least part of the inspiration for its numerous pavement cafés and its eccentric shops, and possibly for the way in which it can be reached by going in through a pub on a main street, out through a cobbled yard and thence through an arch into a secret world behind.
[N.B. the two buildings are not as dramatically different in colour as they appear in these images, the Dome being less orangey than it looks here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get good-enough-to-use shots of my own, showing the true colour, because you have to go there at about 5am to get shots of any buildings on George Street not almost-totally obscured by parked cars.]
Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance: Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley. [cut] Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. [CoS ch. #04; p. 45/46]
Hermione had no choice but to fall into step beside him and head along the crooked, cobbled street towards the place where the snowy-white Gringotts stood towering over the other little shops. Ron sloped along beside them, and Harry and Griphook followed. [cut]All too soon they arrived at the foot of the marble steps leading up to the great bronze doors. As Griphook had already warned them, the liveried goblins who usually flanked the entrance had been replaced by two wizards [DH ch. #26; p. 426/427]
The real mystery about Gringotts is how it manages to have stony caverns under it. If you dig down under central London you find, first, about 30ft of topsoil, then 450ft of clay, then 650ft of chalk, then a thin layer of sandstone, then another 200ft of clay and only then do you hit real hard rock. It's conceivable that Gringotts' caverns and vaults are in the chalk layer - but even so they'd have to be nearly two hundred yards below the surface, and they'd presumably have to be continuously pumped to stop the Thames from moving into them.
The real-world inspiration for the caverns under Gringotts, however, is clear. John Nettleship has convincingly identified them with Clearwell Caves, an ancient mine-working in the Forest of Dean about nine miles from Chepstow.
"Since 1970 or before they have been a tourist attraction and of special interest to families around Christmas JK Rowling\'s own drawing of Gringotts\' tunnels when children can meet Father Christmas in a rather magical setting. The Rowling children are sure to have been brought here, as were my own. Iron ore is transported in little trucks which run on very narrow rails through a maze of tunnels. The tunnels must be very long as they apparently extend to the basement of Gringotts bank, where the Goblins use the little wooden buggies to access the security vaults. "You will see that Joanne’s own sketch corresponds quite well with the old buggy lying on its side in the recent photograph."
"You will see that Joanne’s own sketch corresponds quite well with the old buggy lying on its side in the recent photograph."
In addition to being a possible model for Gringotts, the Dome may have been the inspiration for the function (though not the appearance) of the Leaky Cauldron: for just as the Leaky Cauldron bridges the gap between the bustling Muggle London of Charing Cross Road and the winding cobbles of Diagon Alley, so the Dome is a bridge between the wide, grand main thoroughfare of George Street and the narrow pedestrians-only intimacy of Rose Street. The pillared and stepped front of the Dome is on George Street, but behind it is a paved courtyard (which serves as a garden café during the summer) which opens onto Rose Street through a square archway. Seen from Rose Street this arch has a magical and unexpected quality: a narrow, canyon-like lane between close-set, high buildings suddenly opens up and falls away, with steps down into an open courtyard, and green vines along the railings.
After breakfast Harry would go out into the backyard, take out his wand, tap the third brick from the left above the dustbin, and stand back as the archway into Diagon Alley opened in the wall. [PoA ch. #04; p. 42]
[cut] Harry, Hermione, Hagrid and the Weasleys walked through the bar and out into the chilly little courtyard at the back where the dustbins stood. Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and rapped a certain brick in the wall, which opened at once to form an archway on to a winding cobbled street. [HBP ch. #06; p. 107]
[cut] concentrating with all his might on the Leaky Cauldron, the inn that was the entrance to Diagon Alley [cut] Hermione drew out Bellatrix's wand and tapped a brick in the nondescript wall in front of them. At once the bricks began to whirl and spin: a hole appeared in the middle of them, which grew wider and wider, finally forming an archway on to the narrow cobbled street that was Diagon Alley. [DH ch. #26; p. 423]
But it was a subdued group who headed back to the fireside in the Leaky Cauldron, [CoS ch. #04; p. 52]
'And a private parlour, please, Tom,' said Fudge pointedly. 'Bye,' Harry said miserably to Stan and Ern as Tom beckoned Fudge towards the passage that led from the bar. [cut] Fudge marched Harry along the narrow passage after Tom's lantern, and then into a small parlour. Tom clicked his fingers, a fire burst into life in the grate, [PoA ch. #03; p. 37]
Harry followed Tom up a handsome wooden staircase to a door with a brass number eleven on it, which Tom unlocked and opened for him. Inside was a very comfortable-looking bed, some highly polished oak furniture, a cheerfully crackling fire and, perched on top of the wardrobe -- [PoA ch. #03; p. 40]
Tom the innkeeper put three tables together in the parlour and the seven Weasleys, Harry and Hermione ate their way through five delicious courses. [PoA ch. #04; p. 52]
The general appearance and interior of the Leaky Cauldron, on the other hand, with its parlours and passages and private dining, may well have been be inspired by one of the interesting older pubs which are found in all of these locations - The Bear & Staff, corner of Bear Street and Charing Cross Road, from the fancyapint London pub guide the Charing Cross Road/St Martin's Lane area just north of Trafalgar Square, Rose Street or Chepstow. John Nettleship suggests the Three Tuns, Chepstow as a possible model, but it's a bit on the large side - The Kenilworth, Rose Street, Edinburgh although the interior layout may well be suitable. The outside of the Leaky Cauldron probably looks much like any other small pub on Charing Cross Road - such as e.g. the Bear & Staff, which is almost opposite Cecil Court - only tattier. One of many interesting pubs in Rose Street, incidentally, is The Kenilworth, which sounds as though it might have been the inspiration for the name of Kennilworthy Whisp, "author" of Quidditch Through the Ages. Another, tucked down in a basement, is the Hogshead. Thus spelled, of course, it refers to a barrel rather than an actual hog. Conclusion We can be virtually certain that Diagon Alley lies to the east side of the southern end of Charing Cross Road, shadowing the real-life St Martin's Lane and the complex of small streets which surround it, especially Cecil Court. The Leaky Cauldron is most likely directly on Charing Cross Road itself. When Hagrid and Harry visit Diagon Alley for the first time in PS they get from Diagon Alley to Charing Cross station, where they pick up a connection to Paddington, by walking down St Martin's Place at the side of the National Portrait Gallery, and then turning left into Duncannon Street and cutting across to the Strand. It is possible that the Diagon Alley/Knockturn Alley group began life as a stand-alone Mediaeval wizarding village similar to Hogsmeade, which was absorbed when London expanded east in the 17th and 18th centuries. If so we have to assume that the original entrance from the Muggle world to wizard-space was inside the old church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and was only moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was pulled down and rebuilt in the early 18th C. However, it's more likely that the wizarding enclave was put in after the Muggle area was built up, in the mid to late 17th or early 18th C. The buildings are probably of that vintage - not rebuilt in the Victorian era like the shops in Cecil Court. Judging from Rowling's own sketch they are in an assortment of styles and rather randomly arranged, more like St Mary Street or Hocker Hill Street in Chepstow than a uniform strip like Cecil Court or the 18th C Rose Street which forms part of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town development. Rose Street, however, was probably at least part of the inspiration for its numerous pavement cafés and its eccentric shops, and possibly for the way in which it can be reached by going in through a pub on a main street, out through a cobbled yard and thence through an arch into a secret world behind.
One of many interesting pubs in Rose Street, incidentally, is The Kenilworth, which sounds as though it might have been the inspiration for the name of Kennilworthy Whisp, "author" of Quidditch Through the Ages. Another, tucked down in a basement, is the Hogshead. Thus spelled, of course, it refers to a barrel rather than an actual hog.
We can be virtually certain that Diagon Alley lies to the east side of the southern end of Charing Cross Road, shadowing the real-life St Martin's Lane and the complex of small streets which surround it, especially Cecil Court. The Leaky Cauldron is most likely directly on Charing Cross Road itself. When Hagrid and Harry visit Diagon Alley for the first time in PS they get from Diagon Alley to Charing Cross station, where they pick up a connection to Paddington, by walking down St Martin's Place at the side of the National Portrait Gallery, and then turning left into Duncannon Street and cutting across to the Strand.
It is possible that the Diagon Alley/Knockturn Alley group began life as a stand-alone Mediaeval wizarding village similar to Hogsmeade, which was absorbed when London expanded east in the 17th and 18th centuries. If so we have to assume that the original entrance from the Muggle world to wizard-space was inside the old church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and was only moved to the Leaky Cauldron when the church was pulled down and rebuilt in the early 18th C.
However, it's more likely that the wizarding enclave was put in after the Muggle area was built up, in the mid to late 17th or early 18th C. The buildings are probably of that vintage - not rebuilt in the Victorian era like the shops in Cecil Court. Judging from Rowling's own sketch they are in an assortment of styles and rather randomly arranged, more like St Mary Street or Hocker Hill Street in Chepstow than a uniform strip like Cecil Court or the 18th C Rose Street which forms part of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town development. Rose Street, however, was probably at least part of the inspiration for its numerous pavement cafés and its eccentric shops, and possibly for the way in which it can be reached by going in through a pub on a main street, out through a cobbled yard and thence through an arch into a secret world behind.
