The Home Which Inspired Ollivander’s Harry Potter Wand Shop Is For Sale

Just a few cobbled streets away from the pompous arches of Covent Garden, it’s easy to get lost down the dingy alleyways of London. The kind where you could imagine witches and warlocks peddling their wares.

Among all of the twisty-turny streets of London’s West End, it is Goodwin’s Court that is said to be the inspiration behind Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley – a badge shared by the connecting Cecil Court, Shambles in York, and (most convincingly considering Rowling’s Scottish writing roots) Victoria Street in Edinburgh.

While there is probably a Harry Potter tour guide repeating the same magical claim down every winding Medieaval road in the country, most tour groups now agree that the eerie spirit of Goodwin’s Court was actually the inspiration behind the more dark and deadly Knockturn Alley where Harry (after a fumbled Floo Powder attempt) accidentally finds himself in The Chamber of Secrets. 

Despite Goodwin’s Court’s associations with darker wizardry (with many of Voldermort’s cronies, the Death Eaters engaging in illicit trades and suspect spells around the fictional street), it is a property in the alley – as opposed to the more wholesome shops of the nearby Cecil Court – which is said to have inspired Ollivander’s wand shop.  

A 325-Year-Old Covent Garden Home

Credit: Simon Stone

The History

Built around 1700, just 34 years after the Great Fire of London, 1 Goodwin’s Court sits in a winding row of similarly Grade II* listed buildings in the Covent Garden Conservation Area. Purchased by its current owner in 2013, the property has recently been subject to a ‘painstaking’ revival project, led by owner of Heritage Building Conservation & Repair, Stephen Bull. Having started life as a haberdashery, in peeling back the layers of this building’s 325-year-old history, ‘conservation not restoration’ remained Bull’s mantra throughout.

This effort to conserve can be seen in the many remnants of its past life which remain, including one of London’s last surviving gas lamps fixed to the exterior wall, providing a mystical glow to the street. Below the front door, the caving stone steps are so well-trodden for their age that historians believe they must come from a much older building (Medieval or earlier) which was demolished around the same time that construction on the alleyway began.

Credit: Simon Stone

Step Inside

Inside, the kitchen boasts a York stone floor and period fireplace with a Mrs Beeton ‘beetonette’, with original beams (recently exposed and re-instated) sitting overhead. From the kitchen, a reclaimed door connects to a Georgian inspired tiled shower room with an antique WC and wash hand basin to replace the historic Night Soil Alley – the narrow alleyways where human waste was collected prior to the invention of modern plumbing (one step better than Rowling’s suggestion that historic wizard’s simple magicked their excrement away). 

The star of the ground floor, however, is the reception room, which includes an intricate bow window – a surviving relic from the early 1700s that remains largely in its original state – as well as a central fireplace, flanked with recessed shelving and adorned with original Wainscot panelling. Holding the memories of its former life as a haberdashery, two softly worn patches in the floorboards mark the spot where a shopkeeper would have once stood. 

Credit: Simon Stone

Travelling up the original staircase, a double bedroom occupies the first floor with forward facing sash windows overlooking the historic alleyway. Combining a mix of historic pieces with faithful replacements, the bluish paint colour of the room was recreated from the original pigment samples taken from the walls, with other features including the original plasterwork between the windows and above the wainscot, the authentic fireplace, and reclaimed wood pennelling. On the floor above is a second double bedroom with lime rendered walls and aged, waxed reclaimed floor boards, alongside traditional cupboards and a reinstated fireplace. To explore the best preserved corner of the property, poke your head inside the historic loft void with its original 1700-era pegs and roof tiles.

Where Is It?

Sandwiched between St Martin’s Lane and Bedfordbury, in the heart of Covent Garden, 1 Goodwin’s Court sits in a narrow street full of former Georgian shops. Charing Cross and Leicester Square stations are both nearby. 

1 Goodwin’s Court is on the market for £2m. Find out more at uniquepropertycompany.co.uk