Charing Cross Road: London's book street and the way into Harry Potter's Diagon Alley

Open a map of central London and you'll find a narrow, busy street between Trafalgar Square and Oxford Street — Charing Cross Road. Tourists walk past it. Londoners know it as the city's book street, and Harry Potter fans know it as the place where the entrance to Diagon Alley is hidden. Here's what is actually there, and what's worth knowing before you go.

Where the name comes from: Edward I's memorial cross

The name comes from Charing Cross itself — a cross that King Edward I raised in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile. The queen died in 1290, and the king set up twelve stone crosses along the route of her funeral procession from Lincoln to London. The last, by the hamlet of Charing, was built in 1291–1294. In 1647, during the Civil War, Parliament ordered it torn down.

ONLYWAY NEWSLIVELife · 27.10How to write to your MP in the UK, and what they can actually doLife · 27.10Charing Cross Road: London's book street and the way into Harry Potter's Diagon AlleyTravel · 27.10London bus fares rise on 1 November: £1.85 instead of £1.75Life · 27.10What you can take in hand luggage at UK airportsLife · 27.10Bus lane penalty: how to challenge a PCN and pay nothingMoney · 27.10Bank of England rate decision on 5 November: three of nine already vote to raiseLife · 27.10Oxford Street: why it is being pedestrianised and what comes nextMarkets · 27.1035p a mile after 10,000 business miles: government sets out planJobs & Business · 26.10How to find a job in the UKMoney · 26.10Debt collectors: what they can and cannot doONLYWAY NEWS · appInstall the ONLYWAY NEWS appFresh UK news, classifieds, key dates and exchange rates on your home screen, one tap away. Free.NewsClassifiedsCalendarRates

The cross standing today outside Charing Cross station is not the original. It is a Victorian version from 1865, built to mark the station's opening, designed by architect E. M. Barry with carving by Thomas Earp. It is taller and more ornate than the original and stands about 200 metres from the historic spot.

On the original site now stands an equestrian statue of King Charles I. By tradition this point is the centre of London: distances to the city on maps and road signs are measured from here.

Why it's the book street

The street itself was built late — under an 1877 Act of Parliament, to ease the cramped medieval lanes of the West End and clear one of the worst slums. But it became famous not as a thoroughfare but as London's book capital: by the end of the 19th century it was lined with publishers and new and second-hand bookshops.

The division still holds today. Between Leicester Square and Cambridge Circus are the antiquarian and second-hand dealers: Quinto, Henry Pordes, Any Amount of Books. Just off it runs the tiny pedestrian lane Cecil Court — a row of old antiquarian bookshops that Potter fans often call a living model for Diagon Alley. Between Cambridge Circus and Oxford Street the shops are larger, including the street's grand old survivor, the Foyles bookshop.

"84 Charing Cross Road" — the book about this street

The street's most famous story is the book "84 Charing Cross Road". It grew out of a twenty-year correspondence between New York writer Helene Hanff and the staff of a London second-hand bookshop, Marks & Co. It was published in 1970 and filmed in 1987 with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. The shop is long gone — the ground floor is now a restaurant, and a brass plaque on a stone pilaster marks where it stood.

ADV · A001ONLYWAY JEWELRY — gold, silver and platinumRings, chains, bracelets, earrings and pendants. Delivery across the UK.Advertise here

Harry Potter: where the entrance to Diagon Alley is

In J.K. Rowling's books, the pub The Leaky Cauldron stands on Charing Cross Road — the door, invisible to Muggles, between ordinary London and Diagon Alley. Rowling explained the choice simply: the street is known for its bookshops, old and new, a fitting place for the way into a world built on books.

A correction for anyone going to look for the pub: it is not on Charing Cross Road — in the books it is fictional. In the films, the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was shot elsewhere — in the Victorian covered Leadenhall Market in the City, at Bull's Head Passage. So "that door" and the literary address are at opposite ends of town.

What to see on one walk

• Second-hand dealers near Leicester Square: Any Amount of Books, Henry Pordes, Quinto — rare and used editions, often cheaper than you'd expect.
• Cecil Court — a pedestrian lane of antiquarian book and map shops, old bookish London at its purest.
• Foyles, towards Oxford Street — one of the city's largest bookshops, with a café and a big foreign-language section.
• The "84 Charing Cross Road" brass plaque — for those who read the book or saw the film.
• The Eleanor cross and Charles I statue by Charing Cross station — the south end of the walk and the symbolic centre of London.

Getting there: the nearest Tube stations are Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road; from the south, Charing Cross station. The whole street takes about fifteen minutes to walk — but allow extra time for the bookshops.