Geekstalt
Platform 9 3/4s - Official Location
I think I may have confused a few people with yesterday's image. I apologize. I posted it with only the title "Platform 9 3/4s". Never thought to explain it given the Harry Potter coverage. Sometimes I'm too geeky. Apologies to everyone who didn't get it. Some people did get it though, and I think some that did get the reference believed it was a joking reference.
I wasn't joking. That is Platform 9 3/4s. Honest. The real thing.
I took that shot in King's Cross Station, which is the train station where J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, has Harry and his friends leave from at the start of each year to travel to Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.
That column is the actual column you see in all the Harry Potter films and read about in the books. When Harry and the Hogwart's students from London leave for their year at Hogwart's they run "into" that brick column. It's a sort of gateway to a special train platform that's hidden in another "dimension" so normal non-magical people (called "muggles") can't see it. The platform is number "9 3/4s" as it lies 3/4s of the way from platform 9. Actually, I think J. K. Rowling called it that because it's just a more interesting name than Platform 9 1/2 or Platform 9A (there actually is a 9A and a 9B Platform in the real world so that really wouldn't have worked).
However there was a problem that was only discovered after the books were published. The column to Platform 9 3/4s is in the older part of King's Cross. The problem is: the older part of King's Cross only goes up to Platform 8. Platforms 9 through 11 are in a modern addition to King's Cross and look nothing like the older section.... and there are no brick columns. As well, Platform 9 lies on the other side of the ticket booth behind a security wall. The kids of Hogwarts couldn't get to the platform without "muggle" tickets, and even if they did their parents definitely couldn't have accompanied them as they do in the books. I suppose magic could have solved all that though.
So the film crew had to fudge it and pretend the landing between Platform 4 and 5 is where Platform 9 3/4's is. And frankly, who's to say that the Wizards didn't add it to King's Cross magically but get the platform location wrong? ;-)
The management of King's Cross didn't have it so easy, though. When the books became popular they were inundated with thousands of children who wanted to see Platform 9 3/4s, but where do you hang the sign?? If in the old section it would be wrong (and goodness, think of all the little children who would be so confused by that encounter they could never again navigate their way through a British Train Station! ;-). Unfortunately, there was nothing to hang a sign on in the new wing, and you couldn't let any kids past the security to see it anyway! So a compromise was come to: Management found a quiet little archway next to the entrance to the new wing where they could hang the sign. Technically it's close to being the right location, but it's not in the new spiffy, steel and glass wing that has no brick columns and it's outside the security area. To finish it off they also took one of the station luggage carts the Hogwarts students use in the books and mounted the rear section to the wall so it looks like it's "passing through" the wall on its way to Platform 9 3/4s.
Hence the title of this shot: "Platform 9 3/4s Official Location"
Platform 9 3/4s - Official Location
I think I may have confused a few people with yesterday's image. I apologize. I posted it with only the title "Platform 9 3/4s". Never thought to explain it given the Harry Potter coverage. Sometimes I'm too geeky. Apologies to everyone who didn't get it. Some people did get it though, and I think some that did get the reference believed it was a joking reference.
I wasn't joking. That is Platform 9 3/4s. Honest. The real thing.
I took that shot in King's Cross Station, which is the train station where J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, has Harry and his friends leave from at the start of each year to travel to Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.
That column is the actual column you see in all the Harry Potter films and read about in the books. When Harry and the Hogwart's students from London leave for their year at Hogwart's they run "into" that brick column. It's a sort of gateway to a special train platform that's hidden in another "dimension" so normal non-magical people (called "muggles") can't see it. The platform is number "9 3/4s" as it lies 3/4s of the way from platform 9. Actually, I think J. K. Rowling called it that because it's just a more interesting name than Platform 9 1/2 or Platform 9A (there actually is a 9A and a 9B Platform in the real world so that really wouldn't have worked).
However there was a problem that was only discovered after the books were published. The column to Platform 9 3/4s is in the older part of King's Cross. The problem is: the older part of King's Cross only goes up to Platform 8. Platforms 9 through 11 are in a modern addition to King's Cross and look nothing like the older section.... and there are no brick columns. As well, Platform 9 lies on the other side of the ticket booth behind a security wall. The kids of Hogwarts couldn't get to the platform without "muggle" tickets, and even if they did their parents definitely couldn't have accompanied them as they do in the books. I suppose magic could have solved all that though.
So the film crew had to fudge it and pretend the landing between Platform 4 and 5 is where Platform 9 3/4's is. And frankly, who's to say that the Wizards didn't add it to King's Cross magically but get the platform location wrong? ;-)
The management of King's Cross didn't have it so easy, though. When the books became popular they were inundated with thousands of children who wanted to see Platform 9 3/4s, but where do you hang the sign?? If in the old section it would be wrong (and goodness, think of all the little children who would be so confused by that encounter they could never again navigate their way through a British Train Station! ;-). Unfortunately, there was nothing to hang a sign on in the new wing, and you couldn't let any kids past the security to see it anyway! So a compromise was come to: Management found a quiet little archway next to the entrance to the new wing where they could hang the sign. Technically it's close to being the right location, but it's not in the new spiffy, steel and glass wing that has no brick columns and it's outside the security area. To finish it off they also took one of the station luggage carts the Hogwarts students use in the books and mounted the rear section to the wall so it looks like it's "passing through" the wall on its way to Platform 9 3/4s.
Hence the title of this shot: "Platform 9 3/4s Official Location"