Elephant House is not Harry Porter’s birthplace, JK Rowling says

Harry Potter author JK Rowling on Thursday (local time) made a surprising revelation on Twitter that the Elephant House café in Edinburgh, Scotland, is not the birthplace of the Harry Porter Series.

As rumor has had it that Rowling started writing the Harry Porter Series at the small café in the Scottish capital, its avid readers from all over the world have so far wished to make a “pilgrimage” to Harry’s birthplace. Surprisingly, however, Rowling made it clear while chatting with a fan on Twitter that the rumor is not true. Asked if the Elephant House is where she first wrote Harry Porter, she said, “I’d been writing Potter for several years before I ever set foot in this cafe, so it’s not the birthplace, but I *did* write in there so we’ll let them off!”

She went on to say, “If you define the birthplace of Harry Potter as the moment when I had the initial idea, then it was a Manchester-London train. I was renting a room in a flat over what was then a sports shop.”

The bestselling author made further clarification about other rumors. For example, she told that she came up with Quidditch while staying in a hotel in West Didsbury, Manchester in 1991. As for the Hogwarts Library, she denied the rumor that she was inspired by a bookstore in Portugal.

JK Rowling last month shared a video on how to relieve respiratory symptoms online while confessing that she struggled with COVID-19 symptoms for two weeks.


Youn-Jong Kim zozo@donga.com