Australia House: Gringotts Behind Closed Doors

Australia House in London, designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie and opened in 1918, served as the lavish interior filming location for Gringotts Wizarding Bank in the Harry Potter films. The 160-foot exhibition hall contains 1,200 tonnes of Australian marble and original crystal chandeliers seen on screen. Concealed beneath the building is a 900-year-old holy well fed by London's subterranean River Fleet.

London Β· from the walk β€œMuggle London, Wizarding Secrets” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Australia House, Strand, London WC2B 4LA

Which Harry Potter location was filmed inside Australia House in London?

Look at this grand building on the corner of the Strand and Aldwych... with its towering columns and that bronze sculpture of Apollo riding a chariot atop the roof. This is Ostralia House. And behind those heavy doors lies one of the most famous rooms in movie history... the Great Hall of Gringotts Wizarding Bank.......... The glorious marble interior of Australia House became the interior for Gringotts, the wizards' bank run by goblins, in the Harry Potter films. But here's what makes this location extraordinary. Australia House was chosen for its lavish interior, requiring little modification to portray Gringotts. The production designers walked in... and realized they barely needed to change a thing. The real room was Already more magical than anything they could build.......... And the history of this place runs deep. It was designed by the Scottish architect Alexander Marshall Mackenzie as a monument to the young Australian nation. Although construction began in nineteen thirteen, World War One caused a delay in the project, and it officially opened in nineteen eighteen. The day King George the Fifth opened Australia House, the Exhibition Hall was filled with distinguished guests... and taking pride of place among them were some three hundred wounded Australian servicemen, specially invited by the High Commissioner. Think about that. This hall of marble and crystal... first filled not with diplomats, but with soldiers.......... And what marble it is! You enter into the spectacular one hundred sixty foot exhibition hall. On display is twelve hundred tonnes of Australian marble, crystal chandeliers, and a glass-covered rotunda above. The building sits on a base of trachyte from Australia. Various marbles in the interior include Buchan marble from Victoria, Caleula from New South Wales, and Angaston marble from South Ostralia. All of this... shipped halfway around the world during a world war.......... Now, if you step up to those glass doors and peer inside... what are clearly visible are the magnificent crystal chandeliers that are a prominent feature of Gringotts banking hall in the films. Those are the Real chandeliers you see in the Philosopher's Stone!......... But here's a secret that even most Harry Potter fans don't know. Instead of housing enchanted items and wizarding money in its basements, Australia House actually conceals a nine hundred year old holy well below. The holy well is believed to be around nine hundred years old and to have come from the River Fleet, London's largest subterranean river. The wells were used for ceremonial purposes and plays were performed around them. According to well researcher David Furlong, the first known mention of the spring is thought to be by a monk as far back as the twelfth century. And the water? Lab tests confirmed it is safe and drinkable. So beneath this goblin bank... lies an Actual ancient source of mysterious water. J.K. Rowling couldn't have written it better.......... One more detail. The bank appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone And Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two. In that final film, a dragon crashes through the banking hall, shattering everything. In case you haven't guessed, they didn't actually destroy the interior of Australia House for this memorable scene... they rebuilt the interior of Gringotts at the Leavesden Studios, and it was That one that was destroyed. The real hall survives, untouched and magnificent... still guarding its secrets behind these doors.

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