The name of the street where the Dursleys live is a reference to that most suburban plant, the privet bush, which makes neat hedges around many English gardens. I liked the associations with both suburbia and enclosure, the Dursleys being so smugly middle class, and so determinedly separate from the wizarding world. The name of their area is 'Little Whinging', which again sounds appropriately parochial and sniffy, 'whinging' being a colloquial term for 'complaining or whining' in British English.
J.K Rowling:
Although I describe the Dursleys' house as big and square, as befitted Uncle Vernon's status as a company director, whenever I wrote about it I was unconsciously visualising the second house I lived in as a child, which on the contrary was a rather small three-bedroomed house in the suburb of Winterbourne, near Bristol. I first became conscious of this when I entered the number four Privet Drive that had been built at Leavesden Studios, and found myself in an exact replica of my old house, down to the position of the cupboard under the stairs and the precise location of each room. As I had never described my old home to the set designer, director or producer, this was yet another of the unsettling experiences that filming the Potter books has brought me.
For no very good reason, I have never been fond of the number four, which has always struck me as a rather hard and unforgiving number, which is why I slapped it on the Dursleys' front door.
J.K Rowling:
Although I describe the Dursleys' house as big and square, as befitted Uncle Vernon's status as a company director, whenever I wrote about it I was unconsciously visualising the second house I lived in as a child, which on the contrary was a rather small three-bedroomed house in the suburb of Winterbourne, near Bristol. I first became conscious of this when I entered the number four Privet Drive that had been built at Leavesden Studios, and found myself in an exact replica of my old house, down to the position of the cupboard under the stairs and the precise location of each room. As I had never described my old home to the set designer, director or producer, this was yet another of the unsettling experiences that filming the Potter books has brought me.
For no very good reason, I have never been fond of the number four, which has always struck me as a rather hard and unforgiving number, which is why I slapped it on the Dursleys' front door.
Dumbledore's office
*Dumbledore's office, a quiet retreat and study for the sage Headmaster, was located in one of the highest towers of Hogwarts. Dumbledore's fascination with the universe and the skies became the room's defining feature.
*One of the most expensive props in the film was the working telescope in Dumbledore's office which was rarely seen on screen.
*On the shelves in Dumbledore's office are hundreds of books, many of which are actually old phonebooks covered in leather and dust.
Gryffindor common room
*The Gryffindor common room and the boys' dormitory were actually built as two connected sets. The staircase spirals up to a hallway that in one direction led to the boys' dormitory set. In the other direction a doorway simply drops off into nowhere.
*Dumbledore's office, a quiet retreat and study for the sage Headmaster, was located in one of the highest towers of Hogwarts. Dumbledore's fascination with the universe and the skies became the room's defining feature.
*One of the most expensive props in the film was the working telescope in Dumbledore's office which was rarely seen on screen.
*On the shelves in Dumbledore's office are hundreds of books, many of which are actually old phonebooks covered in leather and dust.
Gryffindor common room
*The Gryffindor common room and the boys' dormitory were actually built as two connected sets. The staircase spirals up to a hallway that in one direction led to the boys' dormitory set. In the other direction a doorway simply drops off into nowhere.
