LONDON — A suburban house that starred onscreen as Harry Potter’s childhood home is on the market — complete with a cupboard under the stairs.
Fans of the boy wizard will recognize 12 Picket Post Close as 4 Privet Drive, home of Harry’s dastardly aunt and uncle, the Dursleys.
The couple grudgingly took Harry in after his parents were murdered. For awhile, his bedroom was a cupboard under the stairs.
The house in Bracknell, 30 miles west of London, was used in the 2001 film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” A studio set of the house was built for later installments of the eight-film series. That set and others used in the movies still can be visited as part of the Harry Potter Studio Tour, in Leavesden, north of London.
Real estate agency Chancellors says the three-bedroom house “has recently undergone complete renovation to an extremely high standard.” It’s listed at a price of £475,000 ($616,000).
Real estate agent Paul Bosanko said “the original plan was to take this property to market without using any reference to Harry Potter.”
But since news of the connection got out, interest has shot up, “and that may or may not influence the final price that we achieve at this property,” Bosanko said.
Neighbor Karen Field said that the house still attracts Potter fans a decade-and-a-half after the film crews left.
When the movie first came out, “there were tour buses, literally tour buses coming down the road,” Field said.
“It’s a lot quieter now,” she said. “School holidays, you still get people coming along.”
A cupboard under the stairs, which was replaced by one filmed in a studio, is shown in the house for sale that starred onscreen as Harry Potter’s childhood home in the town of Bracknell, England, just over 30 miles west of central London. Fans of the boy wizard will recognize it as the fictional address of 4 Privet Drive, home of Harry’s aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, who made him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. | Matt Dunham/Associated Press
