Pilgrims from all over the world flocked to the Elephant House to romance their idol. It's was on every adventuring Harry Potter fan's bucket list, a desire to be a little bit closer to Rowling's genius, wisdom and compassion, just for a moment, just for a heartbeat.

Or maybe it was Harry. The Boy Who Lived shares the same birthday with his author… it's easy for senior wizards to grow confused 😶‍🌫️

What was the attraction?

1. Out of the windows is Castle rock. JK Rowling envisaged Hogwarts as "next to a Loch, this big gothic thing set in the mountains of Scotland". Use your imagination to fill in the view.
2. It overlooks George Heriot's school with it's 4 towers, 4 houses, and where, allegedly Rowling sent her child Jessica for a time.
3. It had espresso and hot chocolate and sticky buns as consumed by Rowling. And a special Harry Potter tipple too.
4. It stands above Candlemaker Row (it housed candle makers), from some windows you can look out down its length. In the gloom of winter, a little boy on a tour said it reminded him of Knockturn alley. The twisting cramped stairs leading to dark shadowy basements and the black, black doorways.
5. It had toilets, but this is Harry Potter, these are no ordinary toilets. Potter fans created a shrine to the boy who lived and the woman who gave him life.

Some say that on a cold winter's day, nose bitten by the cold, a warm Elephant House cuppa thawing your hands, if you listen very very carefully, and concentrate very very hard, you can still feel the magic, and it can feel you too. It still lingers from all those years ago.

The owner, David Taylor, told the media it's a good business and he was racing to reopen for the August festival in 2022. JK Rowling's writing table was sent for restoration. In the dawn of 2024 it remains shut. So what happened?

The wealthy family who owned the eight level tenement has been embezzled and gone bankrupt. So the building is now in care of the Banks. But it's not. They want to sell it on.

It's part of Edinburgh's cherished world heritage site so is subject to a large amount of red tape and expensive renovation requirements which means revenues from it's renewal would have to fill vaults and vaults at Gringotts. Consequently the building is rotting, nothing is happening 😔

David Taylor has a 10 year lease on the bridge-level rooms for the cafe, this is slipping away fast. So the Elephant House has now relocated. Where? Greenhills Shopping Centre, Manilla.

The cafe has been franchised. The franchise owners are being coached by The Elephant House's David Taylor and Andrew McRae, owner of Edinburgh's most celebrated Harry Potter shop. Franchise owner John-Michael Hilton said

❝ This franchise will offer Filipinos and tourists a unique and appealing experience, combining Harry Potter fandom, immersive ambience and merchandise sales.

So the self-proclaimed ‘Birthplace of Harry Potter’ has relocated. To the Phillipines 🇵🇭

---

An espresso & Iron Pot Stew, 6 minutes away in, what was Nicolsons, is presently your best bet to capstone any Edinburgh Potter pilgrimage ✨

Find the Elephant House

If you’ve been to nearby Tom Riddle's grave, retire for a restorative hot chocolate or expresso in the Elephant House, just like Rowling. They even have a Fleur's Fantasy tipple which is just how you imagine, expensive but dreamy.

How to have the best time

If there's a queue, that's how they won that superb rating. The queue's for tables to become free, it may be a long wait. Legend has it they once gave you one of the ornamental elephants if you didn't get served within five minutes, but the cafe became depleted of pachyderms.

• It may be best to return near opening time or after 20.00, it closes 22.00.
• If you have a choice sit in the backroom overlooking the Castle.
• Open the drawers beneath the tables to discover a treasure of kinship. Gratitude letters from fellow fans thanking JK Rowling for years of escape and wonder. People who express gratitude experience more contentment, so grab a napkin (or better) and scribble your own.
• The loos are shrines of love, but they get busy. Watch the doors and wait until fans' mischief is managed.
• If you decide to scrap your visit and just skip to the loo, they will charge you £1. But it genuinely does all go to a local charity. The staff have seats waiting in Grimmauld Place.

According to their website an Elephant cuppa will give you a full round taste of unparalleled freshness,
It will bring back warm memories…
It will ease your pain…
It will get you back on the fast track…
Or help you pause in the slow lane…

Bloody magic eh!

Elephant House too busy?

There is argument over which cafe Rowling first wrote in Edinburgh. Rowling appears to have written more in the Elephant House but she wrote first in Nicolsons.

Discover the full history of Nicolsons cafe, now ‘Dun Dun Delicious’. The room is only 6 minutes walk away, it celebrates the Potter connection & still serves Rowling’s favoured tea & Espressos, but also offers Manchuria stews served in a cauldron which bubbles in front of you. Kind of.

Or keep yourself amused

We have free council wifi in the Old Town: EdiFreeWiFi

JK Rowling in the Elephant House cafe

1. She explains why the books are a phenomenom with kids.
2. Her mother was half French, half Scottish. Rowling is quarter Scottish (& has now lived here longer than anywhere else).
3. She sneekied off from office lunches to scribble for an hour and was then asked by colleagues if she was having an affair. The fruit of lost-lunches filled draws with half finished novels.

   Rowling endured years of failure and self doubt, emptiness and hardship, you can see the delight at her fortune cautiously bubbling upon her face. And her determination to forever and always be a writer "until I lose my marbles".

4. She writes neatly on plain paper, no lines. Good for doodles.
5. It's before the movies get made & she's blown her cynical publisher away with her success and won awards voted for by children. But what she most loves is saying 'I'm big in Finland'.

The wildest t🍩ilets in Potterd🏵️m

It’s begun to grow dim in the gents toilets, peoples' love for JK Rowling is beginning to blot out the light. Every surface is now so full of puns, quotes and gratitude that visitors have given up with the walls and begun writing on the windows.

Staff have spent many late evenings painting the walls with rollers but have now conceded it is a waste of time.

Bewitched pilgrims from all over the world come and leave messages, cramming every inch of the women’s loos too, ranging from expressions of devotion: “You taught me how to read, love and believe, thank you JK always“ to the risque “Tick here if I can Slytherin to your bed”.

Toilets seats are having to be constantly replaced as they crack and break from die hard fans standing on them to reach clear writing space on the ceiling.

Asked if the pilgrims are then transported to the ministry of magic, the manager said ‘No, they just get wet feet’.

Lonliness, isolation, shame

When Rowling first arrived in Edinburgh she experimented with various cafes, and by trial and error found the ones who’d permit her to sip a single cup of espresso for a couple of hours and write.

In those early years she was depressed, on uppers, the Elephant house wasn’t open then but if her 28 year old self wrote in the Elephant house now, the women’s toilet seat would counsel her:
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of places, if one only turns on the lights.”

After the Philosopher's Stone was released her fame made her feel self conscious writing in her beloved Nicholsons and she discovered this house of pachyderms.

And they seeped into the saga, she wrote part of the Prisoner Of Azkaban in the cafe. One of the portrait’s on the 7th floor of Hogwarts is an Elephant. When Sirius Black slashes the portrait of the fat lady in the movie the Elephant is amongst those shocked.

Another happy tribute reads: “I’d get sleazy for Ron Weasley.”

The messages cover the sinks, hair dryers, sanitary bins and hand wash dispensers. The mirrors and frosted glass.

The menus are translated to Chinese and many of the messages left are in foreign languages, “Chris from Ecuador loves Harry”, while in red pen “Thanks for the sage. Love Argentina”. Saga? Or Dumbledore?

What Rowling thinks she put in Dumbledore's mouth, his wisdom is hers, and I too am grateful.

The 22 year old manager Roxy Hessami, said:
“We used to paint them at the end of every Fringe festival, but I don’t think we’ve painted them for three years.

“After it was painted once, a note about who was in Dumbledore’s Army had three tallies next to it, by the end of the day it was at 83.”

Roxy added: “We try to get rid of it from the mirrors. We’ve had toilet seats broken because people have been trying to write things on the ceiling.

“A year ago I painted the boys’, it took me fourteen hours and 2 nights to have it done, I had to do 3 undercoats and the following day it was covered again.”

“There’s no point spending like £5,000 to have them ruined again.”

“Someone once wrote ‘The service is so slow in here anyone could write a book’, everyone thought it was funny, even the owner, but we had to paint over that one.”

What would Rowling write? ‘Dumbledore is gay’? Can't believe it?

.@anakocovic21 Maybe because gay people just look like... people?

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 24, 2015

The cafe receives complaints from Muggles over the state of their loos.

“Some people do complain, but we have to tell them we can’t control it, we’re so busy, it’s not like we give people pens. But some people bring in pens designed to stay there permanently.”

Perhaps late one cold, foggy night Rowling will abandon her Edinburgh writing shed, return and witness our messages. She’s said the fandom is one of the greatest joys and privileges of her life. But I dunno... the loos... she likes nice things.

What would Rowling really think of it all? Is it a shrine? Is it a squat?

I suspect our fabulous Queen would feel it was the later.
But a rather wonderful one at that.

Enjoyed my guide?

Or still queueing? Merlin's beard... Let's have a wet weather playtime

Quiz with Professor Snape

How old is Harry Potter now?

What is Vernon Dursley's job?

Who did Hermoine first kiss?

What do you pay Owls with?

What position does Ginny play in Quidditch?

He's mental!

Not booked a tour yet?

Harry Potter sights nearby

Credits