Maintaining Hogwarts: How to Keep the Castle Clean!

It’s spring cleaning season, a time for us to refresh and reorganize anything that’s getting a little dusty, and this year, even Hogwarts is getting in on the action!

If you’ve visited the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, you’ll know just how impressive the model version of Hogwarts is. Taking up a large portion of the room, the model is breathtaking to look at, and every detail is as perfect as possible – something we owe largely to those who maintain it!

Given the scale of the model, it understandably takes a long time to clean. José Granell, the model unit supervisor on the Harry Potter films, provides further insight:

Now that [Hogwarts] is a part of the Studio Tour, we access it by climbing and walking over the model, which can be tricky.

The cleaning of the model, which is currently undergoing maintenance by the team from the Magic Camera Company, is subject to a lot of intricate planning and preparation, often taking weeks to get ready.

We bring in a team of technicians, who worked on the model during filming. We prepare all the new ground dressing weeks ahead of schedule before we start working on repainting the landscape and placing new trees and vegetation.

As you can probably imagine, given that the Studio Tour is such a popular attraction, random items end up being left behind – something that could somewhat detract from the magic of Hogwarts…

Small bits and pieces inevitably get dropped into the model … then someone has to crawl under the model with a [flashlight] to retrieve it. It’s like a rabbit warren under there, you almost need a map to find your way out.

As for the most unusual thing to find its way on to the model? Well, you might be surprised!

The strangest thing we ever saw on the model happened when a fox was caught on CCTV cameras. The building hadn’t been sealed at the time, so one paid us a visit.

Have you been lucky enough to see the model of Hogwarts? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!