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Over two decades since it took the literary world by storm, Harry Potter remains one of the most revered film and literary series of all time, with an almost cult-like global following. Much credit for this success is owed to author J.K. Rowling, whose rich and detailed world building brought to life a magical universe that continues to resonate with millions around the world.
Though the acclaimed author has come under fire in recent times for airing her controversial views on the trans community, the fascination surrounding her most famous literary work is yet to wane. Fans were, therefore, particularly intrigued when Rowling purchased a cottage in Gloucestershire, England in 2011, which many believed inspired several elements in the Harry Potter series. So, was Harry Potter really the reason J.K Rowling’s decided to purchase the picturesque stone cottage? Read on to find out.
J.K. Rowling Purchased An Off The Grid Property Back In 2011
In 2011, Harry Potter author J.K Rowling made headlines when she purchased an off the grid property in Gloucestershire, England. The three-bedroom stone cottage, which sits on a large plot of land surrounded by trees and gardens, had reportedly been on the market for several months before it was sold to Rowling for about $505,000.
Rowling reportedly lived in the picturesque Tutshill cottage between the age of nine and nineteen, before her father sold it to BBC producer Julian Mercer in 1995. According to Gloucestershire Live, the acclaimed author secretly purchased the picturesque cottage through a real estate company listed under her married name, Murray, and is currently working to restore it to its former glory.
Why Did J.K Rowling Buy Back Her Childhood Home?
Though J.K. Rowling did not comment on the purchase, it’s clear that the cottage holds a great deal of sentimental value for the author. For one, Rowling spent most of her teenage years in the property, rendering the house a key fixture in some of the memories that later inspired her writings, particularly the Harry Potter series. The author even marked the wall of her bedroom window with the words “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982,” a testament to the building’s nostalgic value.
Rowling might also have bought and renovated the cottage for more pragmatic reasons. In 2012, the acclaimed author’s Edinburgh home, in which she wrote four of the seven Harry Potter books, sold for over $3.6 million, becoming one of only six Merchiston area properties to fetch over $3.2 million in that year. Before it finally sold to a Scottish-based firm, the house received over 16,000 unique visits, with most potential buyers being American and Asian.
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“The phenomenal interest from around the world just because she was J.K. Rowling,” real estate agent James Whitson told the Scotsman newspaper at the time. “To be honest, it was a refreshing change to the normal house.
There was a bit of magic involved, which was quite fun to deal with.” With such overwhelming interest, it’s fair to say that there’d be no shortage of buyers willing to pay handsomely should Rowling decide to sell the picturesque stone cottage.
Did J.K. Rowling’s Childhood Home Really Inspire The Harry Potter Franchise?
J.K. Rowling did not confirm swirling rumors that the Forest of Dean property, known as Church Cottage, had inspired the Harry Potter franchise. In fact, the author seems to have gone to great lengths to conceal her purchase, preferring to use a company registered in her more obscure married name in the transaction.
However, it’s difficult not to grant credence to these speculations, given the striking similarities between the cottage and some elements of the Harry Potter universe.
For one, the cottage contains a dingy cupboard beneath its stairs, akin to the one Petunia Dursley made Harry Potter sleep in during his time in Privet Drive. The home also features a trapdoor, leading to a cellar, which calls to mind the trap-door guarded by Fluffy the three-headed dog in Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone.
Even more telling is the fact that one of the Quidditch teams in Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, the Tutshill Tornadoes, was named after the small village where the cottage is located.
These eerie similarities notwithstanding, Church Cottage did not directly inspire Rowling to create the Harry Potter universe. “If you define the birthplace of Harry Potter as the moment when I had the initial idea, then it was a Manchester-London train,” Rowling clarified on Twitter back in 2020. “But I’m perennially amused by the idea that Hogwarts was directly inspired by beautiful places I saw or visited, because it’s so far from the truth,” she continued.
“If I’d genuinely been inspired by every old building, creepy alleyway, pub, graveyard and underpass that’s claimed, I’d have spent my late twenties on a non-stop road trip between locations, and I promise I didn’t. I was mostly sitting in places I could get a cheap coffee/could afford the rent and making it all up.”
