JK Rowling has denied that locations in Edinburgh inspired places and characters in her Harry Potter books. Fans of the novels flock to the city's Victoria Street as it is thought to have been the inspiration for the wizarding world's Diagon Alley.
However, the author has insisted she had never visited the street at the time she created the cobblestoned street where Harry and his Hogwarts friends stock up on their supplies. Victoria Street is featured on many Harry Potter walking tours of Edinburgh as well as Greyfriars Kirkyard where Rowling was said to have used names on gravestones for characters in the books.
However, the writer said that story is also bogus and she only discovered it after one of her children went on one of the walking tours with a friend. Although real-life locations such as London's King's Cross feature in the books, Rowling said the only "wizarding world" place which has a real-life inspiration is Harry's home at 4 Privet Drive.
The 56-year-old said it was based on the second home she lived in as a child. Replying to a fan on Twitter who asked what inspired Diagon Alley, she said: "No real street inspired Diagon Alley, I'm afraid. It came out of my head!
"I've never seen 99 per cent of the places that claim to be the inspiration and I'd never seen Victoria St when I created Diagon Alley (I have since, obviously, as it's in Edinburgh, where I live). I feel bad for the tourist boards saying it, but all locations in Potter are entirely imaginary bar one, which is the most boring.
"It was only when I'd written the first three books that I realised I'd given 4 Privet Drive exactly the same layout as the second house I lived in as a child (which did have a cupboard under the stairs). Dull but true: I haven't even been to many of the cities containing the self-proclaimed 'real' Diagon Alleys."
The author was then asked by another of her 14 million followers whether there was any truth to the rumour about the Edinburgh graveyard.
She replied: "Afraid not, but I know the graveyard you're talking about because unbeknownst to me, one of my children was at a loose end one afternoon and went on one of those Potter walking tours with their best mate for a laugh.
"They came home with a ton of information that was news to me."
In 2020, Rowling questioned an Edinburgh cafe's claim to be the birthplace of Harry Potter. The Elephant House proclaimed itself as the place where the boy wizard was dreamt up by the writer.
Rowling did write parts of the first Potter book at the cafe while a single mother on benefits in the 1990s. However, she said calling it the birthplace was wide of the mark and she had started work on the story long before she went there for cups of coffee.
She said: "I was thinking of putting a section on my website about all the alleged inspirations and birthplaces of Potter. 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!"
Rowling has said she first had the idea for Harry Potter while delayed on a train travelling from Manchester to London King's Cross in 1990. Over the next five years, she began to plan out the seven books of the series.
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