The scene at the Elephant House Cafe following a fire at the neighbouring Patisserie Valerie in Edinburgh
(Picture: PA)The cafe table where JK Rowling wrote some of her Harry Potter series has been saved after a huge fire devastated the building.
The Elephant House cafe was gutted by fire last month after a blaze started at the Patisserie Valerie cafe next door.
David Taylor, the cafe’s owner, said he was relieved to find the antique wooden table used by Rowling among the rubble.
He told the BBC: “Thankfully I’ve found JK Rowling’s table among the rubble and although it is water and smoke damaged it was in the back room so it can be saved.
“It is going to the restorers on Thursday and I’m just so relieved this bit of history has been retained.”
He said a valuable signed Harry Potter book was still missing.
“There are piles of rubble everywhere so I’m hoping it is under one of them,” he said. “I’ve started the search.”
Rowling wrote in The Elephant House in 1996 and 1997, after her first Harry Potter book was published.
The cafe is now a popular stop-off for Harry Potter fans keen to see where Rowling wrote the famous books.
Rowling was known to write in The Elephant House and a now defunct Nicolson’s, which was co-owned by her brother-in-law.
Speaking about The Elephant Cafe on Simon Armitage’s podcast, Rowling said: “That was a lovely space with a really great view of the castle.
“I met the owner years later and he said ‘You never come in any more’.
“In a dream world I would still go in there but it is just not humanly possible to go in there anymore and write.
“I had to stop writing in cafes. I really loved it but I just couldn’t anymore.”
