EXCLUSIVE Spreading like magic: Why Harry Potter gift shops accused of selling 'poor quality and overpriced' souvenirs are springing up around England - as new HBO series gets set to give franchise fresh lease of life

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Unofficial Harry Potter shops are spreading from London to other tourist cities across England as retailers try to cash in ahead of the hotly-anticipated new TV series.
Many of the stores sell a range of expensive but genuine merchandise based on the books and films despite being unaffiliated with Warner Bros or author JK Rowling.
They are most prevalent in London's West End where there are at least six, with names such as 'Magical Platform', 'Spellbound Emporium' and 'House of Wonders'.
But others can now be found in towns and cities popular with tourists such as York, Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Liverpool, Alnwick and Stratford-upon-Avon.
While some are respected local businesses that have existed for years, others are relatively new openings which are being compared to the candy stores phenomenon - with experts accusing them of selling poor quality and overpriced souvenirs.
Names for the independent stores range from 'The Shop That Must Not Be Named' and 'House of Wizard' to 'The Department of Magic Gifts' and 'The Potions Cauldron'.
Now, nearly 25 years after the first film came out, shop owners will be hoping that the popularity of the boy wizard is about to be turbo-charged again - with new ranges of merchandise expected when the new HBO series is set to be released in 2027.
The original Harry Potter movies starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint grossed nearly $10billion - but it has been 14 years since the last one came out.
Many of the products on sale at the stores are inspired by the films, with visitors eager to spend their holiday money on Hogwarts-themed paraphernalia – and the new TV series therefore represents another huge merchandising opportunity.
The first unofficial store to open in England was The Shop That Must Not Be Named in York in May 2017, located on The Shambles which is said to be one the inspirations for Diagon Alley in the Potter films.
This store was a spin-off from a general gift shop called Give The Dog A Bone, with the owners opening the dedicated Potter store as their range continued to grow.
Soon after, the first Potter store in Cambridge - The Department of Magical Gifts - opened in 2018 after the founder Roger Lefever was inspired by what he saw in York.
This remained the only Potter store in Cambridge for six years until two more opened in 2024 to cash in on the growing popularity - House of Wonders and House of Wizard.
Speaking about his competitors, Mr Lefever told the Sunday Times last week: 'You go in there and you can see they don't care. It's just a money-making exercise.'
A pattern of multiple shops in the same city is being repeated across the country – with other stores popping up in York, including The Potions Cauldron which also opened in 2018 and specialises in magical-themed soft drinks.
In Oxford, where some Potter movie scenes were filmed, The Shop of Secrets opened in 2019 – with two other stores opening since, named House of Wonders and Wizards Emporium.
Other Potter shops to have opened in further towns or cities in recent years include Bowring Hepple Black in Alnwick – close to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, another filming location.
Meanwhile a House of Secrets can be found in Canterbury, Kent; and a House of Spells in both Liverpool and Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
In Central London, there are at least six such shops – including Magical Platform on Whitehall; Wizards & Spells on Oxford Street; and House of Wonders on Buckingham Palace Road.
The others are House of Spells on Charing Cross Road; another House of Spells on Henley Street; and Spellbound Emporium on Southampton Row.
Proponents of the stores point to this being part of the positive economic impact of the Potter brand, after a study in 2016 by the London School of Economics estimated that it was worth £4billion to the UK tourism industry.
But others have raised fears that they are another example of an increasing trend of poor quality shops selling overpriced tat, amid ongoing concerns about the proliferation of US-style candy stores opening in empty retail units since the pandemic.
Retail expert Jonathan De Mello told MailOnline: 'I suppose it's filling a need of some sort where these shops are located in tourist destinations like Oxford Street, West End, Victoria, and also Oxford, Cambridge and anywhere where there's a significant amount of tourists.
'It's supply and demand. Harry Potter is very much a British thing and JK Rowling and the rest of it, so it makes sense that it fills that need for people who want that sort of merchandise in the home.
'But if you look at the structure and who's behind it, and it's quite nebulous really in the same way that the candy shops were structured in a particularly convoluted way.'
He added: 'Most of them are fairly low quality fit outs, minimal investments. They are certainly a bit more expensive to fit out than the candy shops which are literally bare bones.
'These shops have a bit more about them than that, but it's marginal really because inside the products are displayed in a very poor way. It's just trying to entice young kids to come in with their parents and get them to buy whatever products are in there.'
An investigation by the Daily Mail in March discovered that many of the Potter shops, especially those in London, are the latest incarnation of a murky retail network that also includes the candy stores and tacky tourist souvenir outlets.
Some of these candy stores have been accused of peddling illegal or unsafe goods, with seizures made by Westminster Council - although trading standards have not found any evidence of improper merchandise being sold at the Potter shops.
Speaking about the candy stores, Mr De Mello - founder and chief executive of JDM Retail - said that business rates evasion was a particular problem.
He explained: 'As soon as they become due, then the shop closes, another one springs up under a different name and the directors are different.
'I think the landlords that own those properties, from their perspective, they just want to rent the shop out because business rates are so high and by having an occupant in place, they avoid paying the business rates - the tenant pays the business rates in theory. But actually in practice I don't think that's happening.'
Directing his attention to the Potter shops, Mr De Mello added: 'These are for me the new candy shops. There might be some that are genuine, I think some of them do have genuine merchandise in them, so I don't want to tar them all with the same brush.
'But to me, there's definitely a significant amount of them that are potentially engaged in questionable business practices, let's say.'
Some of the unofficial Potter shops empire is thought to be run by a network of at least nine Indian nationals through a series of 30 companies which regularly change names and locations and exchange directors.
A third of the companies have been struck off, wound up or dissolved, often owing debts – including four related companies which owe £400,000 to Westminster City Council.
Married couple Safoora Shafeeq and Shafeeq Pallivalappil, who live in Oxford, are directors of 11 retail companies, five of which have previous addresses linked to current Potter shops.
But they told the London Centric news site last year that previous legal operators are responsible for the unpaid rates and they were 'awaiting the updated bill to make payments accordingly', and were 'strictly adhering to all legal requirements'.
Mr De Mello explained that the Potter shops have become one of 'many examples of brands over-proliferating their products'.
The interior of the Harry Potter store at London King's Cross station following a refurbishment
Speaking about Warner Bros, he explained: 'What they do is sell their products through wholesalers and then those products are popping up everywhere.
'What these businesses are doing is buying it as cheaply as possible from maybe a more challenged market and then selling it in a higher, affluent market like the UK at a much higher price.
'Warner Bros will be responsible for how they wholesale their products. So you can buy their products through their official stores but also they'll be selling them online to third parties. That's where I think it goes.
'Especially if they're selling into China or somewhere like that – if they get bulk orders from a Chinese website, for example, then who knows where it goes to after that.
'Wholesale margins can be quite high, but they have to sell them for a low price because then the retailer that takes it on sells it for a mark-up. What I think they're doing it is they're not knowingly selling it to these shops directly.
'They're selling it to a wholesaler that's then selling it to somebody else and then these shops are buying or getting these products somehow. So they might be official, from Warner Bros originally, but they've changed hands a number of times - I would have thought - in between.'
The proliferation of unofficial Potter shops across England is in stark contrast to the low number of official stores.
There is only one official public Potter store in London called the 'Shop at Platform 9 3/4' at King's Cross station.
Elsewhere there is also the House of Minalima on Wardour Street which sells the official graphic artwork from the movies.
In addition, there is the huge shop at the Warner Bros Studio Tour just outside the capital in Leavesden, selling souvenirs for those going on the £56-a-head experience.
Large official Potter ranges can also be found in the capital within the Hamley's toy store on Regent Street; the Lego Store in Leicester Square; and the Palace Theatre where the Cursed Child play is performed.
There is also a small shop at London's Heathrow Terminal Five departure lounge - but this can only be accessed when travelling through the airport.
The oldest unofficial Harry Potter store in England is the respected The Shop That Must Not Be Named on The Shambles in York, which opened in May 2017 - and others have since copied
Mr De Mello said: 'Universal Studios obviously has a big Harry Potter element to it in the US and people love that and go and buy their wands there and that sort of thing.
'Because Warner Bros are so tight with the distribution of their products from their own stores, you have to go to those [unofficial] sorts of places.
'That's why these shops have sprung up, because if the only place you can get a wand is from Universal Studios in the US, and some people are choosing not to do that and getting it from these sorts of places instead.
'Surely Warner Bros don't want that? It means their own shops do less well because they are proliferating their products too much. I would have thought that would impact them. And if everyone's got one it becomes less desirable – that's the kind of mindset people have.'
Warner Bros is understood to employ an agency to look at suspected counterfeit products, so they can protect their brand and avoid customers being duped.