• Businesses, merchants, and shops According to Muggle legend, the 1666 great fire of London started in a bakery in Pudding Lane; according to wizarding legend, however, the fire actually started in the basement of a neighboring house, where a wizarding resident secretly kept a young dragon (JKR). Read More
• Towns Ballycastle is a town on the north coast of Northern Ireland, and home of the Ballycastle Bats, who are members of the British and Irish Quidditch League (QA7). Location: County Antrim, Northern Ireland… Read More
• Towns Banchory, near the east coast of Scotland, was once the home of the Banchory Bangers, a Quidditch team known for their awful skills and reckless shenanigans that eventually led to the team’s disbanding in 1814 (QA5). Read More
• Towns Bandon is a small market town located in southern Ireland, roughly ten miles from the Celtic Sea, Bandon was presumably the home of the Bandon Banshee, which Gilderoy Lockhart claimed to have banished (CS6). This may have even been the inspiration for the title of his book, Break with… Read More
• Countries Located east of India on the coast of the Indian Ocean, Bangladesh is one of the world’s most populated countries despite its tiny size. Quidditch has never caught on much here, primarily because in this region flying carpets are used for transportation rather than brooms (QA8). Read More
• Cities Barnsley is a sizeable city of about 200,000 people and is located in Yorkshire in north central England, just south of Leeds. It also has its own college, which shares the city’s name. The Five Feathers in Barnsley is home to Bungy the waterskiing budgerigar, about whom Harry heard a… Read More
• Towns Barnton is a small village located east of Liverpool in the North-West of England. It was also the home of a notable amateur Quidditch team in the nineteenth century (QA6). Read More
• Cities Located in southwestern England near Bristol, Bath was so named because it was once home to an elaborate Roman public bath, fed by Britain’s only hot springs. A replica of the Roman structure has now been built there above the ruins of the original. Ron mentioned Bath in CS13,… Read More
• Houses and addresses Now filled with the “odor of old age, of dust, of unwashed clothes and stale food,” the Bagshot house has been home to Bathilda Bagshot for many years. The house is located in Godric’s Hollow, in between the town square and the Potter cottage (DH17). It was here that… Read More
• Schools Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is a European school of witchcraft and wizardry, one of at least three magical schools in Europe, Beauxbatons participated alongside Hogwarts and Durmstrang in the Triwizard Tournament. Headmistress: Olympe Maxime Location: A beautiful chateau in the Pyrenees Mountains, France (Pm)… Read More
• Character Benedita Dourado was the Headmistress of Castelobruxo in the 1940s. She is famous for offering to send then-Headmaster of Hogwarts, Armando Dippet, a few of the annoyingly mischievous Caipora who guard the Brazilian school to show him how easy he has it with Peeves (Pm). Read More
• Mysterious places An imaginary triangle formed by drawing lines between Miami, Bermuda, and San Juan, the Bermuda Triangle is a region of the western Atlantic Ocean famous for unexplained disappearances of ships and planes, though there is no scientific evidence that points to a reason for such disappearances. It is mentioned in… Read More
• City places A neighborhood on London’s East End, historically known as a poor area. Bethnal Green was also where Willy Widdershins pranked Muggles with exploding toilets, which Mr. Weasley had to investigate (OP9). Location: Map of Wizarding London… Read More
• Books and Literature Big Foot’s Last Stand was a book by Ortiz O’Flaherty detailing the Great Sasquatch Rebellion of 1892, which caused the Magical Congress of the United States (MACUSA) to relocate for the fifth time (Pm). Read More
• Towns Bigonville is a small city in western Luxembourg, not far from the border with Belgium. The Bigonville Bombers, a Quidditch team known for high scoring, presumably make their home here (QA8). Read More
• Cities Birmingham is located in west-central England and, after London, is the country’s second most populated city. The second time Harry rode the Knight Bus, the bus jumped from Grimmauld Place to “just outside Birmingham,” according to Stan Shunpike (OP24). Location: Map of Wizarding Britain… Read More
• Forests Shortly after Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys travelled via Portkey to the Quidditch World Cup, Basil told them that they needed to move out of the way because a big party would arrive from the Black Forest in a few minutes (GF7). This party was travelling via Portkey, then,… Read More
• Public places There are now three separate piers at Blackpool, on the northwestern coast of England on the Irish Sea. The North Pier, however, was once referred to as Blackpool pier, and for nearly 150 years has been an entertainment center, now featuring a theatre, shops, restaurants, and bars. Apparently the Longbottoms… Read More
• Oceans and seas The Black Sea, sandwiched between Ukraine and Turkey in eastern Europe, was the site of a near-tragic accident in 1799 when a Ukrainian Ironbelly Dragon carried off a sailing ship. Thankfully, the ship was empty at the time (FB). Read More
• Source Second online chat with JK Rowling for the Barnes & Noble website. Read More
• Moors Bodmin Moor is located in Cornwall at the southwestern tip of England. It is a historical farming region that also features a Quidditch stadium, where several matches of the British and Irish Quidditch League have been held (DP2, DP3, DP4). It is the location… Read More
• Countries An island near the Phillipines and the South China Sea, Borneo was once covered in rainforests, though many have been destroyed through logging and farming. Acromantulas are native to Borneo (FB). Read More
• Bridges This bridge, which spans a river near the Lovegood house in Ottery St. Catchpole, is where Luna Lovegood fishes for Freshwater Plimpies. That is, she does so according to the lies spun by her father, Xeno (DH20). Read More
• Cities Braga is a beautiful historic city in northern Portugal, and home of the Braga Broomfleet, one of the best Quidditch teams in the world (QA7). Location: Map of Quidditch Teams of Europe and Africa… Read More
• Ministry of Magic The Brain Room is located in the Department of Mysteries on Level Nine of the Ministry of Magic (OP34). This long, rectangular room is lit by lamps hanging low on golden chains from the ceiling. It is quite empty except for a few desks surrounding an enormous… Read More
• Countries The largest country in South America (and also the only one with a primary language of Portuguese, rather than Spanish) Brazil is home to much of the Amazon rainforest. The snake which Harry freed from the zoo was native to Brazil, though it was bred in captivity (PS2). Bill Weasley once had… Read More
• Cities Bristol is a seaside city (and county) located in southwestern England near Chipping Sodbury, where Rowling grew up. Hagrid flew the motorcycle over this city on his way to Privet Drive, at which time baby Harry fell asleep (PS1). Location: Map of Wizarding Britain… Read More
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Posted by in Essays
Some American fans have raised the issue of being confused about the British education system. I am a Brit who is exactly the same age as JKR (a mere 5 weeks older) so I can explain, step by step, British schooling as we both knew it in the 1970s. Obviously… Read More
• Bridges The Brockdale Bridge was less than ten years old when, thanks to Death Eaters, it collapsed and killed a large number of Muggles who were on it (HBP1). There doesn’t seem to be an actual Brockdale Bridge, and there isn’t enough information given to pinpoint a location for it,… Read More
• Regions, counties, and territories Brookshire is almost certainly a fictitious county in England, home to the town of Crawford and therefore to Robert Wood. Robert is a (presumably fictitious) Muggle fan of J. K. Rowling, who writes to her on www.jkrowling.com in the F.A.Q. Poll section. Read More
• Pubs and inns The Three Broomsticks is a well-known inn and a frequent haunt of Hogwarts students in Hogsmeade. It’s warm and comfortable, is packed every time Harry goes in, and is a great spot to drink butterbeer (PA10), although they also serve firewhisky (GF25), gillywater, mulled mead, red currant rum,… Read More
• Towns Budleigh Babberton is a small Muggle town with a war memorial in the center and a church. Horace Slughorn took up residence in a Muggle house there for a week while its owners were on holiday in the Canary Islands, and this is where Harry and Dumbledore visited him to… Read More
• Countries Bulgaria is a country in eastern Europe. Appearances The Bulgarian National Team played in several Quidditch World Cup matches, finally winning the tournament in 2014 (GF8, QWC). During the 1994 tournament, we also learned then that Bulgaria has a Ministry of Magic, including their Minister for Magic,… Read More
• Towns Bulwark is a residential area in Chepstow, in the county of Monmouthshire, South Wales… Read More
• Countries Burkina Faso is a tiny country in western Africa. We know that it has a Ministry of Magic and that the runespoor is native to here (FB). We also hear in CS9 about one of Gilderoy Lockhart’s supposed adventures that took place in Burkina Faso, specifically in… Read More
• Houses and addresses Introduction Home to the Weasley family, the Burrow is a house just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole (GF6), and is built so crazily that it must certainly be held up by magic. It is likely to have once been a farmhouse (though it looks more like it… Read More
• Creatures' homes, lairs, and territories • Gardens and farms • Houses and addresses The Burrow’s garden is full of weeds, overgrown grass, gnarled trees, various magical and non-magical plants, a big green pond full of frogs, a broom cupboard and an infestation of garden gnomes that the Weasley’s can’t get rid of because Mr. Weasley is too soft on them; he finds them funny. Read More
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Posted by in What's New
So after a fairly lengthy morning of in-depth research and writing, I have now completely re-vamped our page for the Burrow. Among other things, I determined what floor each room had to fall on, and organized the page accordingly. The explanation for why the floors line up the way… Read More