Harry Potter: 10 Hidden Details About The Burrow You Never Noticed

One of the most fascinating things about the Harry Potter universe is the many locations that were created for the film. Though they filmed on-location whenever possible, utilizing castles and churches throughout the UK, as well as Oxford college to complete certain shots, the set designers built expansive sets that truly brought Harry Potter to life.

Of these many amazing sets, one of the most interesting places is The Burrow, the Weasley family homestead that is full of strange muggle artifacts and seemingly held up by magic. It is the first wizard home Harry ever sees, and it is everything No. 4 Privett Drive is not. It is untidy, homey, and full of magical surprises. Here are 10 details about The Burrow that even the biggest Potter-heads might not know.

10 Children’s Art

Though it takes a keen eye to spot this little detail, the walls of The Burrow are covered in hand-drawn children’s paintings in The Chamber of Secrets. These drawings are meant to have been drawn by the many Weasley children, and it would be fitting that Molly and Arthur would want to showcase their children’s artistic talent. In reality, the paintings were actually completed by the children of members of the film’s Art Department.

9 Studio Tour

The kitchen of The Burrow is seen throughout the films (especially in Chamber of Secrets and Half Blood Prince) and is featured prominently in the books. It runs rampant with blatant magic, like the self-washing pan in the sink, and is a place where Harry feels safe and at home. It is also one of the places to be featured on the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio tour, as it is incredibly popular with fans of the franchise.

8 The Burrow Burns

Though this part of The Half-Blood Prince never occurred in the books, a prominent part of the sixth film is when a group of Death Eaters, including Fenrir Greyback and Bellatrix Lestrange, attack The Burrow. The scene ends with the home burning fiercely. After this, The Burrow was rebuilt ahead of the wedding in the next movie. For the set designers, this scene meant building a scaled-down version of The Burrow, lighting it on fire, and re-designing the second version of the building.

7 Magic Clock

One of the most fascinating magical objects in The Burrow is Molly Weasley’s magical clock. Rather than telling time, it tells the exact location of each Weasley family member, whether they are traveling, studying hard at Hogwarts, relaxing at home, or are stuck in prison.

Everyone knows about the clock but something else might have gone unnoticed. The franchise saw two versions of this clock. The first was featured in The Chamber of Secrets through The Half-Blood Prince and was painted a garish blue. After the razing of The Burrow in the sixth film, a different version of the clock shows up in The Deathly Hallows. This one was unpainted.

6 Redecoration

Many movies and years separate The Chamber of Secrets from The Deathly Hallows — it might be difficult to notice that, while the entire Burrow changed after the fire, the kitchen specifically underwent a serious redecoration. In the version seen in The Deathly Hallows, all new furniture is featured alongside a piano and a kitchen that looks very little like its original version. The one constant is the iron fireplace, as set designers thought that the fireplace, but nothing else, would have survived the fire.

5 Chesil Beach

In keeping with their theme of filming as much on location as possible, The Burrow was built and filmed on a flat grassy plain near Chesil Beach, Dorset, which is a popular tourist attraction and one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Part of the reasoning behind this location was that the flat landscape allowed for The Burrow to be the only vertical thing in the shot, adding to the drama surrounding the home.

4 Mortal Peril

This is not at all surprising, but ever since Lord Voldemort’s return in The Goblet of Fire, all the hands of Mrs. Weasley’s magical clock were stuck, fittingly, on ‘Mortal Peril.’

The hands would move when a family member was traveling, but they remained on Mortal Peril until Voldemort’s demise.

3 Reflective Surroundings

Harry Potter is a coming of age story. As the themes of each film grow darker, so too do the landscapes and color schemes. The most obvious example of this is the Warner Bros symbol that precedes each film. At the beginning it was gold, but by the end, it was black and ghostly. An aspect of The Burrow that reflects this growing darkness is the land that surrounds it. By the time Harry is attacked in The Half-Blood Prince, the water is dried up, the grass is wild, yellow, and untamed; essentially reflective of the encroaching chaos of his world.

2 Architect Arthur

The Burrow is said to have been built by none other than Weasley senior himself. With that, it is designed in a manner that fits his own eclectic tastes. The most obvious aspect of this style is the shambling salvaged sense that the house gives off. The carpet on the stairs changes every third step, there are bits of stained glass in random windows and doors, and the roof is made of salvaged timber and randomly placed tiles and wooden shingles.

1 Magical Magic Clock

Mrs. Weasley’s magic clock was not just a favorite among Harry and Albus Dumbledore, it was also one of the more cherished props of the set, with both Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) and Danielle Radcliffe himself (Harry Potter) exclaiming how much they enjoyed the eclectic little clock.

“That’s my favorite prop from all the films,” Radcliffe said of the clock, according to Harry Potter Page to Screen, The Complete Filmmaking Journey. “It shows where they are and what’s happening to them, even if they’re in mortal peril.”

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