It was on the doorstep of this ordinary-looking house in Picket Post Close, Bracknell, Berkshire, that a bearded wizard left a baby. In the front garden a tabby cat metamorphosed into a witch, a motorcycle landed from the skies and a congregation of owls carrying letters colonised the roof.
12 Picket Post Close is better known as 4 Privet Drive, where the boy wizard Harry Potter was reared by his aunt and uncle in a cupboard under the stairs.
The property was selected from thousands to house the Dursley family in 2001 and the exterior featured in the opening scene of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. After two weeks of filming shut down the close, it was decided to build an exact replica of No 12 and its neighbours at the film studios to serve for the ensuing films.
The film has had a magical effect on the price, which has risen 64% to £475,00 since it was last sold six years ago, but this buys you an interior rather classier than the Dursleys’.
Harry’s under-stairs bedroom has been converted into a loo. The living room is open-plan and free of Aunt Petunia’s stripey wallpaper, a breakfast bar allows for meals in the kitchen and there are three bedrooms upstairs.
If you can’t justify nearly half a million for such a small berth you can go and savour its twin up the motorway at the Warner Bros studios. And if you fancy a future here watch out for those tabbies – they may not be all they seem. The house is being sold through Chancellors.
