The Leaky Cauldron Door at Bull's Head Passage
The Leaky Cauldron Door at Bull's Head Passage in Leadenhall Market, London, is an optician shop storefront that served as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron in the 2000 Harry Potter film. Filmmakers painted the doorway black for production, though it appeared blue on screen. Built above a Roman Forum dating to 70 AD, the surrounding market was redesigned in 1881 by Sir Horace Jones, the architect who also created Tower Bridge.
London · from the walk “Muggle London, Wizarding Secrets” · Generated
2-4 Bull's Head Passage, Leadenhall Market, London EC3V 1LU
- In 2000, filmmakers transformed an empty optician storefront at Bull's Head Passage into the Leaky Cauldron entrance.
- Director Alfonso Cuarón moved the Leaky Cauldron filming location to Borough Market for the third Harry Potter movie.
- Leadenhall Market stands over a Roman Basilica Forum built around 100 AD that was larger than Trafalgar Square.
- In 1803, workers remodeling Leadenhall Market found a Roman mosaic of Bacchus nine feet below street level.
- Sir Horace Jones designed the current Leadenhall Market structure in 1881, drawing inspiration from Milan's famous galleria.
Why was the Leaky Cauldron entrance relocated from Bull's Head Passage in Leadenhall Market after the first film?
Look around you. Those painted arches... the ornate ironwork... the cobblestones beneath your feet. This is Leadenhall Market, and right here, in Bull's Head Passage, is a door that changed Everything about this place.......... What is now an optician's shop was, back in two thousand, just an empty storefront. The filmmakers painted its exterior black, boarded up the windows, and used this very door as the entrance through which Harry and Hagrid step into the Leaky Cauldron. Remember the scene? Harry and Hagrid walk through the market, Harry reading his Hogwarts supply list, asking... "Can you find all this in London?" And Hagrid replies... "If you know where to go."
...... But here's what most people don't realize. In the film, this door was painted blue. But it's been repainted various colors over the years — so whatever you see now may not match the movie at all. And the Leaky Cauldron only appeared Here once. When director Alfonso Cuaron took over for Prisoner of Azkaban, he wanted to film with a life-sized three-story Knight Bus... and the slender alleyways of Leadenhall simply couldn't fit it. Cuaron also felt the story was taking a darker turn, so he moved the Leaky Cauldron to the sinister railway arches of Borough Market.......... But the magic runs Much deeper than Harry Potter. You are standing on one of the most ancient commercial sites in all of Britain. The first Roman Forum at Leadenhall dates from about seventy AD, rebuilt around one hundred AD to become the largest Basilica Forum north of the Alps — occupying an area bigger than Trafalgar Square. And these Roman roots weren't even discovered until eighteen oh three, when workers remodeling the market found a section of Roman mosaic artwork about nine feet below street level. A mosaic of Bacchus riding a tiger... now in the British Museum.......... Sir Horace Jones, who designed this stunning Victorian structure in eighteen eighty-one, drew inspiration from Mengoni's Galleria Vittorio EmanuEle the Second in Milan. He also designed Smithfield Market, Billingsgate Market, and Tower Bridge.......... So think about it. Two Thousand years of continuous commerce... from Roman traders in togas to medieval poulterers... to Victorian butchers... and then, one day in the year two thousand, a film crew shows up, paints a door black, and suddenly the whole world wants a photograph of... an optician's shop. That's the real magic of Leadenhall. It doesn't need spells. It just needs you to know where to look.