Pilgrims from all over the world flocked to the Elephant House to romance their idol. It's was on every adventuring Harry Potter fan's bucket list, a desire to be a little bit closer to Rowling's genius, wisdom and compassion, just for a moment, just for a heartbeat.
Or maybe it was Harry. The Boy Who Lived shares the same birthday with his authorā¦ it's easy for senior wizards to grow confused š¶āš«ļø
What was the attraction?
Some say that on a cold winter's day, nose bitten by the cold, a warm Elephant House cuppa thawing your hands, if you listen very very carefully, and concentrate very very hard, you can still feel the magic, and it can feel you too. It still lingers from all those years ago.
The wealthy family who owned the eight level tenement has been embezzled and gone bankrupt. So the building is now in care of the Banks. But it's not. They want to sell it on.
It's part of Edinburgh's cherished world heritage site so is subject to a large amount of red tape and expensive renovation requirements which means revenues from it's renewal would have to fill vaults and vaults at Gringotts. Consequently the building is rotting, nothing is happening š
David Taylor has a 10 year lease on the bridge-level rooms for the cafe, this is slipping away fast. So the Elephant House has now relocated. Where? Greenhills Shopping Centre, Manilla.
The cafe has been franchised. The franchise owners are being coached by The Elephant House's David Taylor and Andrew McRae, owner of Edinburgh's most celebrated Harry Potter shop. Franchise owner John-Michael Hilton said
ā This franchise will offer Filipinos and tourists a unique and appealing experience, combining Harry Potter fandom, immersive ambience and merchandise sales.
So the self-proclaimed āBirthplace of Harry Potterā has relocated. To the Phillipines šµš
An espresso & Iron Pot Stew, 6 minutes away in, what was Nicolsons, is presently your best bet to capstone any Edinburgh Potter pilgrimage āØ
If youāve been to nearby Tom Riddle's grave, retire for a restorative hot chocolate or expresso in the Elephant House, just like Rowling. They even have a Fleur's Fantasy tipple which is just how you imagine, expensive but dreamy.
If there's a queue, that's how they won that superb rating. The queue's for tables to become free, it may be a long wait. Legend has it they once gave you one of the ornamental elephants if you didn't get served within five minutes, but the cafe became depleted of pachyderms.
According to their website an Elephant cuppa
will give you a full round taste of unparalleled freshness,
It will bring back warm memoriesā¦
It will ease your painā¦
It will get you back on the fast trackā¦
Or help you pause in the slow laneā¦
Bloody magic eh!
There is argument over which cafe Rowling first wrote in Edinburgh. Rowling appears to have written more in the Elephant House but she wrote first in Nicolsons.
Discover the full history of Nicolsons cafe, now āDun Dun Deliciousā. The room is only 6 minutes walk away, it celebrates the Potter connection & still serves Rowlingās favoured tea & Espressos, but also offers Manchuria stews served in a cauldron which bubbles in front of you. Kind of.
We have free council wifi in the Old Town: EdiFreeWiFi
Rowling endured years of failure and self doubt, emptiness and hardship, you can see the delight at her fortune cautiously bubbling upon her face. And her determination to forever and always be a writer "until I lose my marbles".
Itās begun to grow dim in the gents toilets, peoples' love for JK Rowling is beginning to blot out the light. Every surface is now so full of puns, quotes and gratitude that visitors have given up with the walls and begun writing on the windows.
Staff have spent many late evenings painting the walls with rollers but have now conceded it is a waste of time.
Bewitched pilgrims from all over the world come and leave messages, cramming every inch of the womenās loos too, ranging from expressions of devotion: āYou taught me how to read, love and believe, thank you JK alwaysā to the risque āTick here if I can Slytherin to your bedā.
Toilets seats are having to be constantly replaced as they crack and break from die hard fans standing on them to reach clear writing space on the ceiling.
Asked if the pilgrims are then transported to the ministry of magic, the manager said āNo, they just get wet feetā.
When Rowling first arrived in Edinburgh she experimented with various cafes, and by trial and error found the ones whoād permit her to sip a single cup of espresso for a couple of hours and write.
In those early years she was depressed, on uppers, the Elephant house wasnāt open then but
if her 28 year old self wrote in the Elephant house now, the womenās toilet seat would
counsel her:
āHappiness can be found, even in the darkest of places, if one only turns on the lights.ā
After the Philosopher's Stone was released her fame made her feel self conscious writing in her beloved Nicholsons and she discovered this house of pachyderms.
And they seeped into the saga, she wrote part of the Prisoner Of Azkaban in the cafe. One of the portraitās on the 7th floor of Hogwarts is an Elephant. When Sirius Black slashes the portrait of the fat lady in the movie the Elephant is amongst those shocked.
Another happy tribute reads: āIād get sleazy for Ron Weasley.ā
The messages cover the sinks, hair dryers, sanitary bins and hand wash dispensers. The mirrors and frosted glass.
The menus are translated to Chinese and many of the messages left are in foreign languages, āChris from Ecuador loves Harryā, while in red pen āThanks for the sage. Love Argentinaā. Saga? Or Dumbledore?
What Rowling thinks she put in Dumbledore's mouth, his wisdom is hers, and I too am grateful.
The 22 year old manager Roxy Hessami, said:
āWe used to paint them at the end of every Fringe festival, but I donāt think weāve painted
them for three years.
āAfter it was painted once, a note about who was in Dumbledoreās Army had three tallies next to it, by the end of the day it was at 83.ā
Roxy added: āWe try to get rid of it from the mirrors. Weāve had toilet seats broken because people have been trying to write things on the ceiling.
āA year ago I painted the boysā, it took me fourteen hours and 2 nights to have it done, I had to do 3 undercoats and the following day it was covered again.ā
āThereās no point spending like Ā£5,000 to have them ruined again.ā
āSomeone once wrote āThe service is so slow in here anyone could write a bookā, everyone thought it was funny, even the owner, but we had to paint over that one.ā
What would Rowling write? āDumbledore is gayā? Can't believe it?
.@anakocovic21 Maybe because gay people just look like... people?
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 24, 2015
The cafe receives complaints from Muggles over the state of their loos.
āSome people do complain, but we have to tell them we canāt control it, weāre so busy, itās not like we give people pens. But some people bring in pens designed to stay there permanently.ā
Perhaps late one cold, foggy night Rowling will abandon her Edinburgh writing shed, return and witness our messages. Sheās said the fandom is one of the greatest joys and privileges of her life. But I dunno... the loos... she likes nice things.
What would Rowling really think of it all? Is it a shrine? Is it a squat?
I suspect our fabulous Queen would feel it was the later.
But a rather wonderful one at that.
Enjoyed my guide?
A loving Potter Tour just for youOr still queueing? Merlin's beard... Let's have a wet weather playtime
How old is Harry Potter now?
Tell me boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?
Once again you astonish me with your gifts Potter. Gifts mere mortals could only dream of possessing. How grand it must be to live your whole life a stranger to your own age š¤Ø
Draco (whispers): Stupid sack of dragon dung.
Severus: Malfoy this is my class, 50 points from Gryffindor for provocation.
What is Vernon Dursley's job?
The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter ā or at least, most minds are.
- JKR
Ah a Scot we are blessed.
Draco: Apparently theyāve got a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic. Would you like me to show you the way?Severus: Malfoy last time I checked I'm the appointed professor.
Nobody has an answer? Very well...
Who did Hermoine first kiss?
Draco (sniffs the air): I smell a creature of dirt.
Severus: Potter, Weasley in your seats now! This is a school, we are here to learn, not play at being the Ministry.50 points from Gryffindor, and we eagerly await the next Troll footed outburst of Mr Potter.
Dismal.
It's like your whole life isn't it Weasley? Pointless. Tut, tut, mop your cheeks, no need to cry over spilt potion.
What do you pay Owls with?
It's like watching Weasley's owl approach the great hall, though it tries valiantly it repeatedly flattens itself against the windows. But somehow, sometimes it gets through.
You push knuts into a leather bag tied to their leg, & pretty quick, or expect a peck.
Idiot boy! 6 years of magical education and what have we discovered Longbottom?
You can't educate an ape.
Draco: Even Dobby wouldnāt touch your socks!
Severus: Now, now, Draco, this is the finest & most historied institution of witchcraft and wizardry in Europe. It is our duty to conduct ourselves suitably. 10 points to Slytherin.
What position does Ginny play in Quidditch?
Ah another lamentable contribution from the dimest candle in the Great Hall.
Draco (whispers): You know what you remind me of Potter? A blast ended Skrewt. The blasted end. If I cut you in half will you crawl away in different directions?
Severus: Now now Draco, don't spoil Potter's fine moment of glory. He has the rest of his life to spend tragically invalid.
Again Potter? Tragic.
He's mental!
Not booked a tour yet?
Galloping gargoyles!If you've finished your refreshment, 4 minutes walk away is the grave of Professor Minerva McGonagall, or at least, Rowling says, a distant relative. A visit is mandatory for all Gryffindors. He is of course outside the school once christened by fans 'Hogwarts'.
4 minutes walk away is the grave of He Who Shall Not Be Named. Shhhh!
Or discover the story of Nicolsons, only 6 minutes walk. While Rowling appears to have written less at Nicolsons, she wrote there first. Today, if you visit with your coven you can feast from a cauldron š±
Victoria Street with it's Harry Potter shops, is 3 minutes walk, and alleged by fans (& proprietors) to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley.
NEW: Ā½ day cycle tours of JK Rowling's greater Edinburgh with a sugaring of Harry Potter.
Crack the Fidelius charm & explore where Edinburgh's most feted adopted daughter has really lived, written & caffeinated for half her life. As the battles of Voldemort's Chosen One grew more famous the caffeine had to be sought in secret.
Visiting? Choose your Avatar so we know how to greet you.
Multi-nationals, based outwith Scotland such as Sandemans, persistently ran tours which massively breached Scotlands First Ministerās guidance, thereby spreading disease. 234,000 UK citizens, no small number, have died. Loved members of peopleās families wiped.
Local companies have endured having their guides on their tours, taking notes & transcripts, to help build their own versions. They call this āsievingā or āfilletingā, their partners believe they ādo it properlyā & are... sieving for gold?
This reduces local tour operators & Scotland š“ó §ó ¢ó ³ó £ó “ó æ because their guides get little, Sandemans has circumvented our Legal minimum wage & much of the profits are sucked abroad. It also harms honest - originated the work - competition, because the multi-nationals lean on a cartel theyāve built with hotels & hostels. These partners, some āpocketedā for a fee, spotlight multi-nationalās āsievedā tours, building their review dominance.
Thereās little motivation to do original work if you expect the work wonāt pay. Weāre being sieved to the bottom. Thereās little need for tourism if its gift is congestion & hardship.
Please do not visit & norm āsievingā.
If you go on a multi-nationalās tour you empower brands who murder š¤¢
Work & ethics should pay šŖ
Reject the fatcat cartel š¾āš¼āš¾ Prefer local tour providers {Me, PotterTrail} who would love to host you, or maybe just go to Manchester instead.
Go well
Sam