The other reason to see Christ Church College and the Bodelian Library is because Harry Potter was filmed here! XD
So, all the photos on the left are screen caps from the movie, and all the photos on the right are snaps of us in the real location!
The main stairwell up to the Dining Hall was used when Harry and his classmates first enter Hogwarts. The smaller images are screenshots from the movies, and the bigger images are pictures we took on the day!
The students start to enter…
The students start to come up the stairs…
The top of the stairwell was also used at the *end* of the movie after Harry’s defeated Voldemort. The smaller picture shows Harry looking up at Hermione and Ron. The bigger shows me up there instead!
The Dining Hall was also partially used as the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The Dining Hall itself has artworks of previous famous students and headmasters all the way around the room, and the tables were all set for the students dinner meal that night.
The last Harry Potter sighting at Christ Church was a little corridor that was used for the trophy cabinet in the first Harry Potter film.
Bodelian Library
The Bodelian library, as I mentioned in the last blog post, has the Divinity School – the stunning room with detailed ceiling. Well, this room is used twice in the Harry Potter films. First, it was used as the infirmary in the first film where Dumbledore checks on Harry after his fight with Voldemort. The room was also used in the 4th film, when the students all have dancing lessons before the Yule Ball.
The old Duke Humfrey’s library, which I showed some images from in the last post, was also used in the films. Apparently the film makers paid a *lot* of insurance to actually use the library, and the library was closed for 3 days. Because we couldn’t take our cameras into the library, we sadly couldn’t recreate any of the movie stills, but here’s the movie captures anyway.
When Harry sneaks into the Restricted section of the library under his invisibility cloak in the Philosopher’s Stone.
In the Philosopher’s Stone, Hermione tells the boys she had them looking in the wrong section. How stupid!
In the Chamber of Secrets, they’re researching Slytherin’s heir in the library.
Interestingly, the scenes they filmed in those 3 days at the Duke Humfrey’s library were used for every Hogwart’s library scene they had in later films. The beauty of green screen technology.
So, here’s Harry, Ron and Hermione researching how to open the golden egg in Harry Potter 4.
And then here, in a remarkably identical background, is Hermione and Harry in Harry Potter 6. Neat.
That’s all we have Harry Potter from Oxford. The only HP sight we *didn’t* see in Oxford was in New College where Malfoy was turned into a ferret. Ah well, maybe next time we visit.
Until then,
Liz
Hey, just randomly came across your blog while I was looking for pictures of the Hogwarts library specifically because I have also just visited Oxford 🙂 We didn’t visit Christ Church because of the cost and I wasn’t really keen on paying £7 just to see stair cases haha. They did not actually film the Great Hall scenes in Christ Church. They built their own set for the Great Hall, which was based upon the design of the dining hall in Christ Church. If you look at the walls in particular you will notice they are quite different. I had forgotten the Malfoy ferret scene was filmed in Oxford! Might have to check out New College when we go back if it doesn’t cost much to visit.
Also, it’s ‘Bodleian’ library, not ‘Bodelian’ 🙂
Thanks for commenting!
Having visited the Harry Potter studio tour since writing this, I realize they didn’t film in the Great Hall itself, but I suppose it was still inspired by the old college food halls. Lovely to visit all the same, for Harry Potter tourism or not.
Hmmm… typos. I’ll go through and do a tidy sometime. 🙂