Wizarding World - Diagon Alley Discussion - Part 2

[Teebin]

Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be between a book store and a record store, and the entrance is invisible to Muggles. We don't have the record store but there is a book store and a "hidden" entrance to LC, I presume.

I'm still confused about why the Diagon Alley entrance doesn't go through the LC like in the books; it looks like Leicester Square Tube Station is the main entrance. Speaking of which, I'm dreading hearing the incorrect pronounciation of "Leicester."

It may be that the record store is still coming. They have yet to dress the store fronts yet!

I wonder if guests will be told they must take a special muggle's door into the LC, through the station. The movie doorframe entrance was seen all sculpted just inside Leicester to the left, you may recall. Although I do not know, I believe we may end up in a LC upstairs hallway themed queue that weaves up/down/throughout the Screed building facade until we are escorted in groups to the brick wall.

But that's just me dreamy dreaming.

 

[Honor_Knight]

Does anyone have a full list of the shops that will be in Diagon, or can point me to the thread where it was already mentioned?

 

[Teebin]

Does anyone have a full list of the shops that will be in Diagon, or can point me to the thread where it was already mentioned?

 

[Magistra]

It may be that the record store is still coming. They have yet to dress the store fronts yet!

Oh, I see. So there might still be room for the record store right to the left of the Leicester Square Station sign, under the red Leicester Square arches/brick work? It's hard to tell exactly how that would work from the pictures, but it makes sense.

I wonder if guests will be told they must take a special muggle's door into the LC, through the station. The movie doorframe entrance was seen all sculpted just inside Leicester to the left, you may recall. Although I do not know, I believe we may end up in a LC upstairs hallway themed queue that weaves up/down/throughout the Screed building facade until we are escorted in groups to the brick wall.

So is the escorted in groups thing confirmed? My goodness, won't that take forever for everyone to get through? I was afraid of a bottle-neck situation with everyone going through the entrance freely; that sounds even worse. I had assumed they would just have a constantly rotating bricks effect, like this but with only the rotation of the bricks, not the resizing. That is, the doorway would already be fully open, but the bricks would still appear to be moving/rotating, as if it just slid open for the people in front of you and you snuck through just in time:

- - - Updated - - -

Does anyone have a full list of the shops that will be in Diagon, or can point me to the thread where it was already mentioned?

Universal has put up its own list of DA shops HERE.

 

[GGGhost]

There is always so much to look at, so I guess I missed that the Screed building has two-toned sections of different types of bricks. The two types of bricks are made to look like bricks and not "painted brick", yet the molding across the top implies one building. Why is that, what is this implying?

I did a little investigating on google maps.

Here is the building that I think we established that Screed and Sons is based on. It doesn't have that change in color.

BUT the building right across the street (The Porcupine) does have that dark grey brick color.

AND that building is directly adjacent to Leicester Square Station, just like in the park.

It looks like it may be a mash-up of those two buildings, giving Leicester the proper color brick to be butted up against.

 

[Teebin]

Derek Burgan just tweeted: "Hearing rumors that we'll be seeing Universal/Diagon Alley stuff this Thursday on NBC's Today Show."

RE: Two Toned Screed. I actually believe this paint job might be a last minute idea switch. The building isn't two toned in the concept art below. Too, I believe the record store will go into the first Leicester Station storefront arch. This would make more sense for entering the station and turning immediately left toward Screed/"LC".

 

[AndyP]

This is a photo-op wall in London's Kings Cross Station taken by a Facebook friend of mine. Here I am waiting for Wizarding World II to open and I never realised Platform 9 3/4 was just a few hundred miles away from me.

 

[Magistra]

I did a little investigating on google maps.
Here is the building that I think we established that Screed and Sons is based on. It doesn't have that change in color.
BUT the building right across the street (The Porcupine) does have that dark grey brick color.
AND that building is directly adjacent to Leicester Square Station, just like in the park.
It looks like it may be a mash-up of those two buildings, giving Leicester the proper color brick to be butted up against.

The Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be dark and dingy. If anything, this isn't dingy enough. Here's the door in the early movies:

And here is the building it's based upon, shape-wise:

The building is the Glass House, an optometrist at 42 Bull's Head Passage, next to Leadenhall Market.If you look that address up on Google Maps and look up, you see this:

Later, the entrance location was moved to this shop at 7A Stoney St, near Borough Market:

If you look up in maps there, well, you can't miss it:

In any case, I think dark and dingy is what they are going for. It's true that it isn't in the concept art, but I imagine JKR would have put her foot down if there weren't at least some sort of hint of dark-and-dinginess. What's the point of going to all the trouble to create a moving brick wall behind the Leaky Cauldron if you can't even get the Leaky Cauldron entrance right?

 

[Teebin]

^ The idea is that we are muggles and that we cannot see it. The limestone doorway surround inside Leicester looks exactly like this:

 

[Magistra]

^ The idea is that we are muggles and that we cannot see it. The limestone doorway surround inside Leicester looks exactly like this:

We are? Speak for yourself!

So are you saying there isn't supposed to be a visible Leaky Cauldron entrance at all and that the change in brick color is just some random mistake?

Seriously, this whole "Universal guests are Muggles, not wizards" think is a bit of a pain in the arse. We'll have access to Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts, we'll have working magic wands, we can purchase house robes and wizarding supplies, we can see 12 Grimmauld Place (can't we?), but we're Muggles. Everything requires some sort of convoluted story just to make sense of it. Wouldn't it just be easier to treat guests as witches and wizards? "Oh look - it's the entrance to Leaky Cauldron or Hogsmeade or the Ministry of Magic (plan 3), and you know that because you're a witch/wizard!" Makes so much more sense.

 

[Felipe]

So are you saying there isn't supposed to be a visible Leaky Cauldron entrance at all and that the change in brick color is just some random mistake?

Seriously, this whole "Universal guests are Muggles, not wizards" think is a bit of a pain in the arse. We'll have access to Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts, we'll have working magic wands, we can purchase house robes and wizarding supplies, we can see 12 Grimmauld Place (can't we?), but we're Muggles. Everything requires some sort of convoluted story just to make sense of it. Wouldn't it just be easier to treat guests as witches and wizards? "Oh look - it's the entrance to Leaky Cauldron or Hogsmeade or the Ministry of Magic (plan 3), and you know that because you're a witch/wizard!" Makes so much more sense.

I think the change is more about design than it is about substance (or story). But, again, all speculation. If anything, the darker should be on the other side, since that nook there is where the other Leaky door is. I was actually thinking they would continue that darker paint all the way to the edge of Kings Cross so this building would differentiate itself from KC, but that line is very precise, so it could be that they'll only paint that much of it. Who knows? Time will tell.

As far as the muggles vs. witches/wizards discussion, guests have always been referred to as muggles in Hogsmeade, so take that as you will. I am with you in that I'd rather be a wizard and part of it than a muggle, but it is how they've presented it to us.


Going back a bit to the Leaky entrance, while we're theorizing, how about this: The door in that nook between Kings Cross & Screed and Sons could be considered the witches-and-wizards'-only entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, and the opening within Leicester Suqare Station could be an opening created just for "us muggles" to visit Diagon Alley. And that could also explain why, when we enter this way (Leicester Square), Leaky is on our side. Like they've made a side entrance for us. :shrug:

 

[Teebin]

We are? Speak for yourself!

So are you saying there isn't supposed to be a visible Leaky Cauldron entrance at all and that the change in brick color is just some random mistake?

Not at all... I am saying that after much debate as it is coming together, that perhaps they decided to hedge their design. That the original LC door by KC is just too distant and out of context.

There can be a difference between seeing a concept or CGI and actually standing in front of all the buildings as they stand now.

I am sure that a few of you design types might understand what I am getting at... and it is merely conjecture on my part.

 

[Nico]

Silly question, but how do we know this isnt their plan for the whole building? Maybe they did a section, and are now waiting to get it approved before finishing the rest of it, the same as how they only did a partial aging on the theater.

 

[Felipe]

Silly question, but how do we know this isnt their plan for the whole building? Maybe they did a section, and are now waiting to get it approved before finishing the rest of it, the same as how they only did a partial aging on the theater.

Yeah, hopefully. I'd prefer if it was like that all the way to the edge of Kings Cross.

 

[triggernel]

http://instagram.com/p/nUA1Fyi2NM/

http://instagram.com/p/nUAh4PC2M0/

 

[Magistra]

Not at all... I am saying that after much debate as it is coming together, that perhaps they decided to hedge their design. That the original LC door by KC is just too distant and out of context.

I'm very interested in what you're saying, but I'm super confused here in part because I'm not sure where the doors are and which lead to what (in fact I asked a question about that a few pages back but received no response). Most of the shots we've seen don't get that close, but I dug up an old shot of Hatetofly's that might help the rest of this understand this:

I see in this shot the door that we see half of, on the left, is supposed to be LC, I take it (based on the gray column we see to the right of it). And the door we see on the right of it would presumably be the record store. Then the big Leicester Square Station to the right of that is where the Muggles would enter. Correct?

Here's a pre-paint adjustment shot of Screed and Sons I pulled up for comparison's sake. Do I have this correctly labeled?

Here's the current shot, with the new LC paint job:

If so, I definitely like it better with the new paint job. It just looks like a normal door otherwise. Or was that the original plan? And if so, why bother with a "hidden" door at all?

 

[as4panthers]

The more times I see videos of people looking over the wall at diagon alley, the more I realize how obnoxious the voice of that alien is over in Simpsons land. I hope when they open the London front, they turn down the volume on that alien spinning ride and we are only able to hear whatever beautiful music they decide to play while in front of the London facade.

 

[Teebin]

I will ask for others help here in finding the doorway picture... but it is within the dark/black area under the Leicester station sign.

So, I think you understand my concept that they could be modifying the script (theme park design talk) as to how and where things play out. They've done it before, many times. Hell, I have done it many times in the design/theatrical world, in order to sell an idea.

 

[Felipe]

http://instagram.com/p/nUA1Fyi2NM/

http://instagram.com/p/nUAh4PC2M0/

Thanks for the mini update, Trig! You guys just be mindful out there. You don't want to get in trouble when this is so close to opening :thumbs:


This is the other Leaky door I'm talking about in that nook between Screen and Sons & King's Cross:

The only thing that confuses me is that we've seen a similar doorway inside the Leicester Square Station, to the left of the place where we enter:

(screen caps are from this video that was posted in this thread a few pages ago)

Here's an older picture from AllAroundOrlando for better reference:

(unpainted / gray doorway on the left side)

 

[Magistra]

I will ask for others help here in finding the doorway picture... but it is within the dark/black area under the Leicester station sign.

So, I think you understand my concept that they could be modifying the script (theme park design talk) as to how and where things play out. They've done it before, many times. Hell, I have done it many times in the design/theatrical world, in order to sell an idea.

Ok. So basically there is a big Leicester Square Station opening with another door inside that, and is that supposed to be the Diagon Alley entrance--perhaps a side/back entrance, the one that leads to the courtyard behind Diagon Alley, where the brick wall leading to Diagon Alley is, like the door we see a bit of here:

Oh wait...yay, found it!

So yes, we can see the beginnings of the Leicester Square Station sign here, plus a door leading between that area and the other area to the right that looks very much like the "hidden" LC door along the waterfront. To the right there is brick and such and another door leading to...what? It's not far enough over to be Carkitt Market. But at any rate, it looks like the narrative is still going to allow guests to identify the outside hidden LC door and the inside LC door leading to the courtyard with the brick wall where we enter Diagon Alley. We Muggles will bypass the LC but will somehow proceed directly to the courtyard (or some version of it) and through the brick wall. Does that sound right?