JK Rowling has taken to Twitter to reveal where she began writing the Harry Potter franchise, stumping fans who believed for decades that Edinburgh was its birthplace.
While the Elephant House Cafe in the Scottish capital is widely regarded as the place where the 54-year-old novelist began writing the fantasy novels, with her being known to frequent the location during the early days of her writing career, yesterday Rowling disclosed that she actually started penning the series in London, in a flat above a sports shop in Clapham.
Referring to the sign on the Elephant House Cafe which reads "birthplace of Harry Potter", Rowling tweeted: "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!”
She then proceeded to share a picture of a Clapham flat where she first started writing. "This is the true birthplace of Harry Potter,” she said. “If you define ‘birthplace’ as the spot where I put pen to paper for the first time."
"I was renting a room in a flat over what was then a sports shop. The first bricks of Hogwarts were laid in a flat in Clapham Junction."
She added: “[But] If you define the birthplace of Harry Potter as the moment when I had the initial idea, then it was a Manchester-London train.”
"I’m perennially amused by the idea that Hogwarts was directly inspired by beautiful places I saw or visited. because it’s so far from the truth."
Rowling also shared a picture of a bookshop in Porto, Portugal, which cites itself as an inspiration for Harry Potter. "I never visited this bookshop in Oporto", she claimed. "Never even knew of its existence! It’s beautiful and I wish I *had* visited it, but it has nothing to do with Hogwarts!"