Victorian London, Diagon Alley, Muppets, Legos etc.

Post by **paulrace** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:42 pm

For the holidays, I have dedicated one portion of my outdoor railroad to a sort of tribute to Harry Potter, with trashbashed Fisher Price castles, a battery-powered Lionel Hogwarts Express, and "flying" figurines of Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

When it snows, some of my little peak-roofed houses look vaguely like Hogsmeade.

So I started thinking how could I create a weather-resistant Hogsmeade village to add to the display?

Then, when we rewatched Muppet Christmas Carol again this year, I realized that that movie's version of Victorian East London wasn't that far removed from EITHER Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley.

In other words, a person could make buildings for any of those settings and use them for Christmas as well as Halloween. To be fair to the authors, I could easily come up with my own names and signage for any of those buildings.

I started collecting examples, including one fellow who converted Dickens-inspired ceramic buildings into Diagon Alley buildings, fellows who built Diagon Alley, Hogsmead, and Hogwarts Castle from scratch, etc.

I haven't done ANYTHING physical yet - there's hardly a rush, and I'd like to find the best path forwared.

But then I got the new Legos catalog in the mail. I don't do Legos, really, but their two-page spread on their new Diagon Alley set was worth saving JUST for the ideas it gave me.

So these photos AREN'T meant to make you rush out and buy a set, even if you can find them. They're just here as a source of ideas for anyone considering a similar Victorian-themed project.

I have higher-rez versions of both photos - if you'd like them, just e-mail me or use the contact page.