Raise your wand if you’re a Harry Potter fan! Well, you’d better hold on to your broomsticks because you’re going on a ride in this guide to filming locations in Lacock, England featuring your favourite wizard!
Fear not my muggle friends, if the Wizarding World doesn’t draw you in, Lacock has also been used as a filming location for many of your favourite period dramas and page to screen adaptations – Pride & Prejudice (1995), Downton Abbey, Cranford, The Hollow Crown, Wolf Hall…the list goes on!
Or if you’re looking for another addition to your UK travel bucket list, this Wiltshire village makes for a lovely day trip or stopover on your journey.
So, whether you’re a witch or wizard, a lord or lady, or traveller, keep reading for more information on how to get there, food stops, and a budget breakdown.
First, a bit of info…
The lovely village of Lacock in Wiltshire looks as if it has been suspended in time. That’s probably why it’s such a popular village to film all the amazing period and fantasy film and series that have captured the imagination of viewers around the world. It can pass for Tudor, Edwardian, Regency…and even a forays into fantasy! Lacock is a National Trust owned village and has remained largely unchanged for the last 200 years, preserving picturesque tranquillity and history of a bygone era with its traditional stone cottages and thirteenth century abbey.
With all this hubbub of filming activity, you’d be surprised to learn that the entire village revolves around a central grid of just four streets. Amazing, right?
Okay, here’s what to look out for to fulfil all your Harry Potter and period drama dreams.
Follow along with this handy National Trust map.
Period Drama Filming Locations in Lacock
The Red Lion
I’ll start here as this will most likely be one of the first buildings that you’ll see when you get dropped off or park. Do you recognise it?
The High Street and The Red Lion was transformed into the town of Meryton and the Meryton Assembly Room exteriors in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.
Yes, the first dance where Darcy first locks eyes with Elizabeth and where…well, you can see for yourself in this clip. As far as first impressions go, this one would be a mega blow to the ego.
Compare the image of the Red Lion below with the actual scene from the series here!
“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me…“
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride & Prejudice
The Lacock Bakery
While this bakery is an important place to fuel up for your wanderings, this beautifully quaint shop is also the bakery BBC’s Cranford series! Walking through Lacock is essentially walking through the town of Cranford that you see on screen.
Can you pick out some familiar sights in the trailer? If you haven’t seen Cranford, I most definitely recommend it! Based on the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell (the same author of North & South and that Richard Armitage adaptation), and features an outstanding cast of British actors – you’ll recognise a few familiar Harry Potter and Downton Abbey faces – and you’ll no doubt pick out a certain God of Mischief in series two as well.
Church Street
Speaking of Downton Abbey, just down the road from the bakery is the main area of Church Street which was featured the series and in the movie! It was used as a livestock market in the final season of the series and as the street where the royal parade moves through when the King and Queen visited the Downton estate.
There are many, many more features in your favourite period dramas but these are just the ones that I visited on my short but sweet trip!
Harry Potter Filming Locations in Lacock
You’ll recognise the main Harry Potter filming locations in Lacock below from the Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince. More recently, Lacock was used in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
We’ll start in the muggle world in the village before heading over to Hogwarts at Lacock Abbey.
Let’s go!
Harry Potter’s Parents’ House
If you have seen Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone countless times like me, you will no doubt recognise this house and hear Hagrid’s voice re-telling the tragic tale of how Harry’s parents died. Maybe even see a shadowy hooded figure walking up to the door? Just me trying to recreate the scene in my head. Yep, okay.
It is a privately owned house so you cannot (and must not) walk through the gate to take pictures.
You only get a short glimpse of it in the film, but it’s definitely a must visit for any Harry Potter fan!
Sign of the Angel Inn
Otherwise known as the Babberton Arms in the fictional village of Budleigh Babberton, where Harry and Dumbledore find Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
If you watch this clip from 3:11, you’ll see Budleigh Babberton in action as well as a shot of the next featured location!
Slughorn’s House
“Alright, I’ll do it. But I want Professor Merrythought’s old office, not the water closet I had before! And I expect a raise. These are mad times we live in. Mad!”
Horace Slughorn, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
The house that features as Slughorn’s house in the Half-Blood Prince is another private residence in Lacock, with its exteriors used in that scene where Slughorn accepts the Potions teaching position at Hogwarts.
Lacock Abbey
Lacock Abbey is a big Harry Potter filming location in this lovely village. Multiple areas of inside the Abbey were used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and really was our onscreen introduction to some of our beloved scenes at Hogwarts.
First, a very brief history. The abbey was founded in 1232 by Ela, the third Countess of Salisbury as an Augustinian convent for Catholic nuns. She laid the first foundation stone in that year and later joined the abbey as a nun in 1238. Today, Lacock Abbey is one of the most complete survivals of a medieval nunnery in England. Aside from Harry Potter filming, the abbey courtyard was used in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana.
Alright, we’re ready to dive back into the Wizarding World!
The Chapter House
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone
Did you guess which scene was filmed in the Chapter House? That’s right, this room was the room where Harry found the Mirror of Erised in the Philosopher’s Stone. This also featured in the Chamber of Secrets as the revision room.
Watch the Mirror of Erised scene here. A little bit of history behind the room – the nuns of the convent would gather here every morning to listen to a chapter being read from the set of rules that governed their daily life.
The Sacristy
“I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.”
Severus Snape, Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone
The Sacristy was the room where all the church’s most valuable possessions were stored. It’s also the filming location for Snape’s classroom. Can you recite along word for word?
Watch Harry’s first Potions class here.
The Cloisters
Hogwarts corridors! The Hogwarts corridors are filmed across numerous historical buildings (in Oxford, for example), but Lacock Abbey is one of them.
In abbey life, the cloister area was used by the nuns for quiet contemplation for over 300 years.
The Warming House
Otherwise known as Quirrell’s classroom! Remember the scene where he’s holding up an Iguana when McGonagall and Harry burst in asking for Wood? That’s the one!
Want a refresher? Watch it here. The cauldron that you can see next to Quirrell in the scene and in the actual room itself is not a prop. It was made in Antwerp in 1500 and no one knows why or when it arrived at Lacock Abbey. This room was the only room in the abbey that had a fire. The nuns were allowed to have a fire in the time between All Saints’ Day on 1st November to Good Friday.
We have come to the end of the Ultimate Guide to Filming Locations in Lacock!
How can you visit this amazing village? Keep reading!
Food Stops
The Lacock Bakery is a must for every person who visits the village. Located right in the centre of town, it’s a perfect place to refuel for your adventures.
There are also a few options around for a sit-down meal or an afternoon tea.
How to get there
Lacock was actually stop number two on an epic day trip from London – Castle Combe – Lacock – Bristol – London.
Yep, we did that. Are we crazy? Not too sure. Were we tired? Definitely. Were we happy travellers? That’s a big yes!
The route we took to visit Wiltshire was a direct train from London Paddington to Chippenham station. There are limited public transport options available, but we found that a taxi was the fastest route for us to get to Lacock as we weren’t driving ourselves.
A taxi ride from Lacock to Chippenham station is a quick 11-minute journey. Easy!
Lacock Abbey is a 6-minute walk from the centre of the village (I’ll make Lacock Bakery as the starting point for the purposes of this post).
Budget Breakdown
As this was one stop in our day trip, I’ll outline the cost that we paid for travel around the Lacock section of the day trip. Stay tuned for posts for Castle Combe and Bristol – coming soon!
A single ticket from London Paddington to Chippenham station totalled £9.55 for one person with a Railcard. This was booked in advance via Great Western Railway.
The taxi from Lacock to Chippenham station was £11.80 (one way). We arrived via taxi from Castle Combe so double this for a rough estimate for a return trip to the station if you are not going anywhere else.
Standard adult entry to Lacock Abbey (part of the National Trust) was £15.20. If you have a National Trust membership, you will have free entry to the abbey and the grounds. You also have to option to upgrade your ticket to a membership if you fancy checking out a few other National Trust sites. Read more about National Trust Memberships here.
You can find very affordable eats from the Lacock Bakery for under £5 for one person. For reference, a huge steak and vegetable Cornish pasty from the Lacock Bakery was £3.80. This was a huge portion for me and kept me going all the way to Bristol.
Budget more in for food if you are planning on having a meal at a restaurant or if you want more from the bakery – it’ll be hard to pick what you want!
As this was just a portion of my overall day trip, the rough estimation based on what I spent above for a return trip to Lacock from London would be between £60 – £65 for one person.
Visit National Trust for more information on visiting Lacock Abbey.
Are you looking for more novel wanderings? (See what I did there?)
These posts will be right up your alley:
Jane Austen Travel: A Trip to Chawton
Beautiful London Bookshops: Daunt Books
Don’t forget to follow @novelwanderings on Instagram for more travel recommendations!
