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WORD SOURCES
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"Privet"
is a bushy plant, often used as hedges. The house in Privet Drive is a
protected place for Harry, where he is "hedged in," as it were, against
Dark Magic. Alternatively, Harry is "hedged in," trapped with the Muggle
family who destests him.
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No, really?
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"Ottery
St. Catchpole" isn't a real place. But there is a village called Ottery
St. Mary near Exeter. In that same general area is a farm called The Burrow
(really!) which has a hill near it called Stoat Hill.
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The
Muggle World
Places
"Fascinating! Ingenious,
really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic!"
-- Arthur Weasley
see
also: Gazeteer
of Wizarding Britain
Surrey
Surrey is
a county in Britain located to the southwest of London.
Little Whinging
Vernon and
Petunia Dursley live in this suburban town. Their house is located at Number
Four, Privet Drive, where the houses are described as large and square
(OP1). Two streets away is Magnolia Crescent (PA2).
"whinging"
(Br. Eng.) [WINJ-ing]: complaining, whining
-
Number
4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey - a perfectly normal house,
thank you very much... (floorplan)
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Magnolia
Crescent - several streets away from Privet Drive, where the Knight
Bus happened to pick Harry up at an opportune moment; coincidentally,
Mrs.
Figg lives a couple of streets away from Privet Drive (PA3)
-
Number 2, Magnolia
Crescent - pebbly wall, Sirius Black in dog form watched Harry from next
to the garage on the night he ran away from the Dursleys.
The zoo
(minus one boa constrictor)
A local zoo
to which the Dursleys take Dudley on his eleventh birthday, along with
Piers Polkiss and, against their will, Harry. (SS2) At the zoo, they buy
ice cream treats, see a gorilla, eat at the zoo restaurant, and visit the
reptile house (which Dudley finds boring since the animals aren't moving
around much).
-
The film incorrectly
shows Harry and the Dursleys at the London Zoo. This cannot be true, however,
since when Harry goes to Diagon Alley, it is stated that he'd never been
to London before (SS5).
-
Which zoo was
it? There is a zoo/adventure park in Surrey which fits the bill. It's called
Chessington's World of Adventure and it has both a reptile house and a
family of gorillas.
Stonewall
High
The local
school which Harry would be attending if he hadn't gone to Hogwarts instead.
The uniforms are gray.
Grunnings
Vernon Dursley
is a director of this firm makes drills. His office is on the ninth floor
and his desk faces away from the window.
London
Charing
Cross Road
location of
the Leaky Cauldron
Other places in Britain
Ottery
St. Catchpole
village near
the Burrow; Stoatshead Hill is nearby
-
wizarding folk
who live near the village are:
-
the
Weasleys
-
the
Diggorys
(Amos and his wife, son Cedric (deceased))
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the Fawcetts
(cf. Miss Fawcett, Ravenclaw, CS11, GF16, 23)
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the Lovegoods
Railview
Hotel, Cokeworth
proved not
to be sufficiently remote to hide Harry from his magical mail. The
Railview Hotel is a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city,
presumably Cokeworth. Dudley and Harry shared room 17, which had twin beds
and damp, musty sheets. Breakfast in the dining room consisted of stale
cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast. (SS3)
Hut-on-the-rock,
the Sea
where Hagrid
finally caught up with Harry and the Dursleys. Perched atop a large rock
way out at sea is a miserable little broken down shack. Inside it smells
strongly of seaweed. There are gaps in the wooden walls and the windows
are filthy. The hut does have a fireplace in one of its two rooms. Several
moldy blankets can be found in the hut, along with a moth-eaten sofa. The
only way to the hut is by rowboat.Well, the only Muggle way, anyhow. (SS4)
Isle
of Wight
where Aunt
Marge vacationed (SS3)
Little
Hangleton
location of
the Riddle House and pub called The Hanged Man (GF1)
-
known inhabitants
of Little Hangleton fifty years ago (c. 1940):
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Dot
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proprietor of
the pub
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the Riddle family:
Mr & Mrs, son Tom
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Frank Bryce, Riddle's
gardener, 28 at time of deaths
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the cook - told
the pub that Frank was guilty, no doubt
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the maid - found
the bodies
Great
Hangleton
near Little
Hangleton
Blackpool
Pier
Neville
Longbottom's Great Uncle Algie pushed him off this pier, hoping to
spark some magic in him, but he nearly drowned
orphanage
Tom Riddle
was raised in a Muggle orphanage. He hated it there.
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Which orphanage
was this? The diary was purchased on Vauxhill Road in London, and the closest
orphanage to that location in the 1920s was the Stockwell Orphanage, begun
in the mid-1800s by the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon. [WEB
LINK]. The Stockwell
Orphanage might have been the place where Tom Riddle grew up in misery,
although by all accounts it was not a repressive place of the type we imagine
from Oliver Twist. Also, according to the original charter, children stayed
at the Orphanage only through age 14, and Riddle clearly lived at the Muggle
orphanage through age 17.
Devon
the part of
Britain where Nicholas Flamel and his wife live
Bristol
Hagrid flew
the motorcycle over this area on his way to Privet Drive, at which time
baby Harry fell asleep.
Kent
Dadelus Diggle
apparently lives here; the Wailing Widow hails from Kent as well.
Muggle
Schools
Smeltings
School
Vernon's alma
mater, now Dudley's school
Smeltings
uniform includes a knobbly stick for hitting people
St. Brutus's
Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys
where the
Dursleys claimed to be sending Harry every school year (PA2)
Eton
school to
which Jusin Finch-Fletchley was going when his family received the letter
informing him that he had been accepted at Hogwarts.
elsewhere
in the world
Majorca
an island
in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain where the Dursley's wanted
to buy a vacation home (CS1) and where Petunia's friend Yvonne vacationed
(SS2)
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