Diagon Alley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
"The Leaky Cauldron" redirects here. For the website, see The Leaky Cauldron (website).
Harry Potter locale
Diagon Alley
Diagon Alley, as it appears in the Harry Potter films
Diagon Alley
Location London
Owner Multiple (see below)
Affiliation Shopping Street/Shopping Centre
Permanent residents Tom the bartender, Mr Ollivander (Formerly), Florean Fortescue (Formerly), Griphook, Rangok, and since May 1996, Fred and George Weasley
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels and their filmed adaptations, Diagon Alley is a street in London, and is effectively a magical high street. It is accessible to witches and wizards but hidden from Muggles. However, Muggles are allowed access to it if they wish to accompany their magical children. It appears to be an economic hub of Britain's sparse Wizarding world. It is home to Ollivander's (makers of magic wands since 382 BC and likely the country's primary supplier), as well as the goblin-run Gringotts Bank and Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. Other establishments include the Flourish & Blotts bookstore, Eeylops' Owl Emporium, Quality Quidditch Supplies and The Leaky Cauldron Inn. For those shopping for Hogwarts equipment, Diagon Alley serves all needs.

There are other shopping areas besides Diagon Alley: the notorious Knockturn Alley is home to mainly stores of ill repute among many wizards (such as Borgin and Burkes, which sells Dark objects and cursed items); and the town of Hogsmeade.

One entrance to Diagon Alley can be reached on foot by passing through the famous inn, The Leaky Cauldron. The inn, invisible to Muggles, lies somewhere along the London thoroughfare Charing Cross Road (Charing Cross Road is famous as a centre for booksellers, both new and second-hand, which might go some way towards explaining why noted bibliophile JK Rowling chose it as the entrance to her world). To reach Diagon Alley, one must walk up to a wall behind the inn, and tap a brick three times found by counting three up and two across. Given the busy nature of the area, travelling to and from Diagon Alley is likely typically done by more magical means such as Apparition or by using the Floo Network. In the first film, Diagon Alley appears to be a short walk away from Leadenhall Market in the City of London.

The name is a pun on "diagonally"; evidence for that can be found in the movie version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The DVD of that movie includes a video "guided tour" of Diagon Alley, apparently shot on the original film sets.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

Contents

[edit] Cauldron Shop, Unnamed

  • Sells: Cauldrons
  • Signs: Cauldrons -- All sizes -- Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver -- Self-Stirring -- Collapsible PS Ch.5
  • Location: Very near to the Leaky CauldronPS Ch.5

[edit] Daily Prophet

  • Known Staff: Rita Skeeter - a reporter; "Bozo" - a photographer who follows Rita Skeeter around.
  • Descriptions: One of the offices of The Daily Prophet
  • Signs: "Letters to the editor should be sent by owl to The Daily Prophet, Diagon Alley, London."
  • Location: Diagon Alley

[edit] Eeylops Owl Emporium

  • Founders/ Shop keepers: Unknown, probably someone named Eeylops.
  • Sells: Owls and owl treats etc.
  • Descriptions: A dark shop full of the soft rustling and hooting noises of owls PS Ch.5
  • Signs: "Sells Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy owls"
  • Location: Diagon Alley
  • Known Customers: Hagrid purchased a snowy owl for Harry Potter who named her Hedwig PS Ch.5

[edit] Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour

  • Founders/ Shop keepers: Mr Florean Fortescue
  • Sells: Ice cream, including sundaes
  • Descriptions: Boarded up. According to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Florean is assumed to have been "dragged away". Prior to these events, there were tables outdoors at which customers might enjoy their ice cream PA Ch.4
  • Location: Diagon Alley
  • Known Customers: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley PA Ch.4; probably Rubeus Hagrid PS Ch.5

Harry spent some pleasant hours here working on summer holiday assignments before his third year at Hogwarts. Mr Fortescue even helped him with one of his essays about historic witch burnings and supplied him with free sundaes every half hour.PA Ch.4. The parlour has been closed ever since Mr Fortescue went missing at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

[edit] Flourish & Blotts

Harry Potter locale
Flourish and Blotts
Location Diagon Alley, London
Owner Unknown
Affiliation Unknown
Permanent residents None known
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone


[edit] Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop

[edit] Gringotts Wizarding Bank

Harry Potter locale
Gringotts.
Gringotts Wizarding Bank
Location Diagon Alley, London
Owner Unknown goblins
Affiliation Unknown
Permanent residents None known
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
  • Employees: Goblins including Griphook PS Ch.5, and Ragnok, who may or may not be the President; Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour
  • Descriptions: This snowy-white building towers over neighbouring shops. Customers pass through a set of bronze doors and then silver ones before entering the lobby. The main floor is paved with marble and has long counters stretching along its length. The vaults are miles below, accessible through rough stone passageways and then by means of magic carts that travel speedily along their tracks. PS Ch.5
  • Signs: The inscription on the front door reads:
    Enter, stranger, but take heed
    Of what awaits the sin of greed
    For those who take, but do not earn,
    Must pay most dearly in their turn.
    So if you seek beneath our floors
    A treasure that was never yours,
    Thief, you have been warned, beware
    Of finding more than treasure there.     PS Ch.5
  • Location: A snow-white building near the intersection of Knockturn Alley and Diagon Alley; the vaults extend for miles under the city. CS Ch.4
  • Known Customers: James and Lily Potter (now deceased), Rubeus Hagrid and Harry Potter PS Ch.5; Albus Dumbledore and/or Nicolas Flamel (both now deceased); Mr and Mrs Granger and the Weasley family CS Ch.4; and Sirius Black (now deceased) PA Ch.22

Gringotts is the only known bank of the wizarding world. It is operated primarily by goblins. Wizards and witches keep their money and other valuables in vaults that are protected by very complex and strong security measures. According to Hagrid, apart from Hogwarts, Gringotts is considered "the safest place in the world for anything you want to keep safe". It is rumoured that dragons guard the especially high security vaults.

There are a number of methods to opening the vaults. Most vaults, such as Harry's, use small golden keys. Higher security vaults may have various enchantments upon the doors. For example, the door to Vault 713 [HP1] needs to be stroked by a certified Gringotts goblin, which causes it to melt away. If anyone but a Gringotts goblin touches the door, the person will be sucked into the vault, which is checked for trapped thieves about once every 10 years.

While Gringotts is largely staffed by goblins, it is known that the bank does employ humans. Bill Weasley worked as a curse-breaker for Gringotts in Egypt, retrieving artefacts from ancient Egyptian tombs and pyramids.PA Ch.5 Fleur Delacour took a part time job with Gringotts after participating in the Triwizard Tournament, supposedly to improve her English.

The Gringotts Bank also offers Muggle-Wizarding currency exchange. CS Ch.4

When Harry first visited Gringotts, he was told by Hagrid that one would have to be mad to try to rob Gringotts.PS Ch.5 Goblins are extremely greedy and would protect their money and valuables at any cost, which makes them ideal guardians for the valuables of the Wizarding world.

Gringotts Vault 713 held a small grubby bag, inside of which was the Philosopher's Stone. Dumbledore sent Hagrid to retrieve it while he escorted Harry. PS Ch.5 Later that very same day Professor Quirrell broke into the vault under orders of Lord Voldemort; although he was unsuccessful in obtaining the Philosopher's Stone, the break-in shocked the wizarding world because the culprit was not caught. The robbery was reported in the Daily Prophet, because it was practically unheard of for Gringotts to be robbed.

According to the movie adaptations of the series, Harry's vault is number 687. Sirius Black's vault number is 711. Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone was located in vault number 713. The number of the Weasley family's vault is unknown.

[edit] See also

[edit] The Leaky Cauldron

Harry Potter locale
Image:Theleakycauldron.jpg
The Leaky Cauldron in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Leaky Cauldron
Location London
Owner Tom
Affiliation Unknown
Permanent residents None known
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Founder: Daisy Dodderidge (1467-1555), first landlady

Current Landlord: Tom the barman and inn-keeper

Established: The pub was built by Daisy Dodderidge around 1500 "to serve as a gateway between the non-wizarding world and Diagon Alley".

Sells: Food, drinks, rents rooms

Description: The Leaky Cauldron is an inn for wizards. As shown in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the sign over the door appears to be a weather-beaten blank sign. Upon the approach of one or more magical persons, the pub's name becomes visible. There are a number of rooms available; Harry has stayed in Room 11, which has a talking mirror and windows that allow him to look out onto Charing Cross Road. The inn also has a bar, several private parlour rooms and a large dining room for guests to dine. People often stay at The Leaky Cauldron when they come up to London on shopping trips; there is no mention of other wizarding hotels or inns in Diagon Alley.

Location: The rear of The Leaky Cauldron opens onto a "chilly little courtyard" just off of Diagon Alley, but the pub faces onto Charing Cross Road. As such, it is a means of passing from between Diagon Alley and Muggle London.

Known Customers: Harry Potter, Hagrid, the Weasley family, Hermione Granger, former Hogwarts professor Quirrell, Doris Crockford, Dedalus Diggle, and other members of the wizarding community.

The Harry Potter website The Leaky Cauldron was named after it.

[edit] Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions

  • Founders/ Shop keepers: Madam Malkin - a 'squat' witch, known to wear mauve robes.
  • Sells: Robes for all occasions
  • Location: Next to Flourish & Blotts
  • Known Customers: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and probably most other Hogwarts students and families

Harry Potter has two fairly significant meetings with Draco Malfoy in Madam Malkin's shop. This is where Harry meets Draco for the very first time in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Harry is rather bewildered by the questions Draco asks, as Harry is still unfamiliar with so many aspects of the wizarding world. A second meeting occurs just before the beginning of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. In contrast to their first meeting, now both boys are fully aware of each other's role in the conflict that rages within the wizarding world.

[edit] Magical Menagerie

  • Shop keepers: A witch wearing heavy black spectacles is an assistant
  • Sells: Pets
  • Descriptions: The walls are covered with cages and the place is noisy with the sounds of all the animals.
  • Known customers: Hermione who purchased Crookshanks and Ron who purchased rat tonic for Scabbers

[edit] Ollivanders

Harry Potter locale
Ollivanders.
Ollivanders
Location Diagon Alley, London
Owner Mr Ollivander (First Name Unknown)
Affiliation Unknown
Permanent residents None
First appearance Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Mr Ollivander, the pale-eyed, white-haired shopkeeper, makes and sells magic wands to witches and wizards as they enter school or break their old wands. To determine the best wand for a witch or wizard, Mr Ollivander measures various body parts and then checks the reactions of various wands to the buyer, a process he refers to as "the wand [choosing] the wizard".

Harry Potter tried a great many wands before he found one suited to his magical personality.[HP1] Harry Potter's phoenix-feather and holly wand, Hermione Granger's dragon-heartstring and vine-wood wand, and Ron Weasley's unicorn-hair and willow wand unite all three Ollivander wand cores.[1]

Wands known to have been purchased here include:

Harry Potter: holly, 11", supple, single phoenix tail feather (from Fawkes)
Ron Weasley: First wand: (Used by Ron from August 1991 to June 1993; it exploded when a spell backfired). Originally a hand-me-down from Charlie Weasley) Ash, unicorn tail hair
Second Wand: (31st August 1993 and onwards) Willow, 14", unicorn tail hair
Hermione Granger: Vine, dragon heartstring
James Potter: Mahogany, 11". Mr Ollivander comments that it was pliable and excellent for transfiguration
Lily Evans: Willow, 10 1/4". Mr Ollivander comments that it was swishy and nice wand for charm work
Rubeus Hagrid: Oak, 16". Mr Ollivander comments that it was rather bendy
Tom Riddle: Yew, 13 1/2", single phoenix tail feather (from Fawkes)
Cedric Diggory: 12 1/4", single unicorn hair from the tail of what Mr Ollivander considers a particularly fine male unicorn
Neville Longbottom: First Wand: (Used by Neville from September 1991 to June 1996, when it broke in battle - it was his father's old wand)
Second Wand: (From July 1996) Cherry, unicorn hair

(See The Lexicon for more info on what the wand core means.)

Although Harry Potter has a symbolically heroic[2] (holly) wand and Lord Voldemort has a symbolically deadly (yew) wand, their wands have the same core: a feather each from Albus Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. The magical effects of the twin cores later allowed Harry Potter to successfully ward off Voldemort in a graveyard due to the Priori Incantatem effect.[HP4]

The shop closed when Ollivander went missing on 31 July, 1996 in mysterious circumstances, strongly suspected to be linked with rising Death Eater activity. One of his last customers was Neville Longbottom.

[edit] See also

[edit] External link

[edit] References

[edit] Quality Quidditch Supplies

[edit] The apothecary

  • Sells: Potion ingredients and potions
  • Descriptions: The whole place smells very bad, a mixture of bad eggs and rotten cabbage.
  • Trivia: The Apothecary is known as Slug & Jiggers Apothecary in the Harry Potter films.

[edit] Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes

  • Founders/Shopkeepers: Fred and George Weasley, and a female assistant named Verity
  • Founded in: around 1994 or previous
  • Started selling in: 1995 Summer (at least advertising)
  • Opened own premises in: 1996 Summer
  • Sells: Jokes, trick items, useful novelties and Defence Against the Dark Arts items
  • Descriptions: The store is large, colourful, and filled with amazing things;
  • Signs:
    Why Are You Worrying About You-Know-Who?
    You SHOULD be Worrying About
    U-NO-POO
    the Constipation Sensation That's Gripping the Nation!
  • Location: 93, Diagon Alley, London
  • Known Customers:

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was conceptualised by Fred and George Weasley, who started using the name in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for mail orders. To run their own joke shop had always been their life's ambition, and this ambition was finally realised when Harry Potter, a trusted friend of theirs, gave them his Triwizard Tournament winnings of a thousand Galleons.

After departing from Hogwarts in Phoenix, the two Weasleys set up their shop in Diagon Alley which quickly became very successful. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Argus Filch has a blanket ban on any joke products purchased from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. However, like most warnings and prohibitions posted by Filch, these are largely ignored by students. In any case, Fred and George deliver products to the castle as part of their Owl Order Service - and all WWW products are disguised as cough syrups or perfumes.

[edit] Items developed or sold

[edit] Skiving Snackbox

A Skiving Snackbox is a range of sweets to make the user ill. The user develops strange symptoms depending on the type of snack eaten. The purpose of these was to make a student appear unable to stay in class. Most came in two different colored parts: one end would cause the malady, and the other cures the student once they left class.

Skiving Snackboxes include: Fainting Fancies, Fever Fudge, Nosebleed Nougat, and Puking Pastilles

[edit] Weasleys' Wildfire Whizbangs

Unstoppable fireworks that multiply, and become more dangerous with any attempt to vanish them, they include shocking-pink Catherine wheels, sparkling, fire-breathing dragons, sparklers that spell out profanity, rockets with long tails of silver stars, and firecrackers. When any two types collide, they make new kinds. Include Basic Blaze Box (5 Galleons cost) and Deflagration Deluxe (20 Galleons).

Background history: In Fred and George's final year, they used these fireworks to protest the hated Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and new headmistress, Professor Umbridge.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a Catherine wheel collides with a rocket, turning into many flying piglet-shaped fireworks.

[edit] Other items developed or sold

Note: this is not a complete list.
  • Canary Creams, temporarily transfigures the user into a canary
  • Ton-Tongue Toffees (used on Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). When eaten, they cause the tongue to rapidly swell and turn purple.
  • Decoy Detonators, when dropped they run away and explode out of sight, giving the person a diversion if necessary.
  • Edible Dark Marks - "They'll make anyone sick!"
  • Extendable Ears, used to hear voices at the other end of the ear, which usually is slipped below doors.
  • Guaranteed Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher, works on boils and blackheads.
  • Headless Hats, make the wearer's head invisible (along with the hat itself).
  • Muggle magic tricks
  • Patented Daydream Charms, virtually undetectable highly realistic 30-minute daydreams. (side-effects can be: slight drooling and a dazed expression)
  • Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder (which is used by Draco Malfoy against the members of the DA while smuggling Death Eaters into Hogwarts).
  • Portable Swamp, creates a swamp when used.
  • Pygmy Puffs, miniature puffskeins
  • Quills (in Self-Inking, Spell-Checking and Smart-Answer varieties). The spell doesn't seem to last long, though, as evidenced by the numerous mistakes Ron's spell-check quill made him do in book 6.
  • Punching Telescopes which, when squeezed, give the user a black eye which is almost impossible to remove (Hermione Granger is a victim of one in the Half-Blood Prince).
  • Shield Hats, giving the wearer defence against enemy forces, using a shield charm. 500 are used by workers of the Ministry of Magic
    (expanded into a range of Shield Cloaks, Shield Gloves, and so on)
  • Trick wands that turn into a variety of unexpected things when waved.
  • U-No-Poo, a constive product with a name meant to parody "You-Know-Who".
  • WonderWitch products, a range of love potions.
  • Reusable Hangman - "Spell It Or He'll Swing". There has been speculation as to whether or not this has some relation to the title of the seventh Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

[edit] Minor shops

[edit] Junk shop

  • Sells: Damaged, broken, or secondhand magical goods.
  • Known customers: Percy Weasley
  • Trivia: Once stocked a half-worn book titled Prefects Who Gained Power, which garnered the attention of Percy Weasley.[HP2]

[edit] Obscurus Books

  • Employee: Mr Augustus Worme
  • Sells: Books - a publishing house
  • Location: 18a Diagon Alley

Known for commissioning and publishing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander.

[edit] Terrortours

  • Descriptions: Probably a travel agency.

[edit] Twilfitt and Tatting's

  • Sells: Probably robes
  • Descriptions: An upmarket clothing shop
  • Location: Unknown
  • Known customers: Draco Malfoy

[edit] WhizzHard Books

  • Sells: Books - a publishing house
  • Location: 129b, Diagon Alley

Known for publishing Quidditch Through the Ages

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Harry Potter locations
Towns Godric's Hollow · Hogsmeade · Little Hangleton · Little Whinging
Schools Hogwarts · Durmstrang · Beauxbatons
Homes Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place · The Riddle House
Streets Diagon Alley · Knockturn Alley · Spinner's End
Other Azkaban · Hall of Prophecies · Hog's Head · Ministry of Magic · Shrieking Shack · St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries · Weasley's Wizard Wheezes · Wizarding world
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/i/a/Diagon_Alley_6080.html"