"Is this all real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"
The subject of this article is a real-life person, company, product, or creative work that has been mentioned "in-universe" in a canon source. The Harry Potter Compendium is written from the perspective that all information presented in canon is true (e.g., Hogwarts really exists), and, as such, details contained in this article may differ from real world facts.
London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. Located in southeastern England, London is the centre of British commerce and government for both Muggles and wizards and witches.
Eldon Elsrickle, the "Spectral Thief of Old London Town".
In the early 17th century, wizard thief Eldon Elsrickle returned to London after having fled to Africa for a time to evade imprisonment. In Africa, he learnt about the Unlocking Charm (which was, at the time, an unheard of spell in the western world) from an ancient African sorcerer.[1]
Elsrickle terrorised London with his new spell, burgling Muggle and wizarding homes alike. It was only when fellow Londoner Blagdon Blay invented the Anti-Alohomora Charm (in response to having his house broken-into nineteen times in the course of two weeks) that Londoners found safety again, and a frustrated Elsrickle stopped.[1]
The Great Fire of London[]
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the City of London, beginning on Sunday, 2 September, 1666. The Muggles say the Great Fire of London started in a bakery on Pudding Lane, but there is debate among the wizarding community whether it began in the bakery or in the basement of the house next door, where legend has it a young Welsh Green was being kept. [2]
In the late 19th century, the conditions on the relatively impoverished neighbourhoods of London worsened: robbery, violence, prostitution, social disturbance and alcohol dependency were commonplace.[3]
As a climate of crime and fear flourished in the 1880s, Sir Herbert Varney, a vampire, started to prey on London women. He was eventually hunted down and killed by a specially-assigned task-force from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.[4] Around the same time, a Boggart, popularly known as the Bludgeoning Boggart of Old London Town, prowled the back streets of London and, feeding on people's fears, took on the form of a "murderous thug", before having been reduced to a hamster with one simple incantation[5] — these two seem to account for the "serial killer" that Muggles dubbed "Jack the Ripper".
Caractacus Phelps's prank[]
On 1 April, 1979, Caractacus Phelps exploded no less than eight-hundred Stink Pellets, by dropping them en-masse from the roof of the Daily Prophet building in Diagon Alley. The resultant gas cloud caused untold discomfort throughout London, and approximately five-hundred cases of Stinkitus were reported. The Muggle authorities explained the stinking cloud away as an unpleasant emission from a nearby factory.[6]
London is a location that the films are often filmed in; the heart of London has been used in various scenes throughout the films, including taking Harry from his home to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, in which scene he and the others flew across the River Thames. The shots of the Millennium Bridge moments prior to its destruction were also filmed in London, on the real-life bridge.
