Angie BrownEdinburgh and East reporter
The Elephant House
JK Rowling seen writing a section of one of her Harry Potter books on the table in The Elephant House
An Edinburgh cafe where JK Rowling wrote parts of the Harry Potter books has reopened more than four years after being badly damaged in a fire.
The Elephant House was one of several properties badly damaged in a blaze on George IV Bridge in August 2021.
Rowling has described working on her early books in The Elephant House in the late 1990s and often sat at an antique wooden table which was salvaged from the blaze.
The cafe has become a destination for Harry Potter fans visiting the city.
David Taylor in The Elephant House, which reopened on Monday
Its status among fans persisted through its long period of closure.
They continued to visit, taking selfies outside the site even when its windows were boarded up.
Mr Taylor, who has owned it for 30 years, said he had also been inundated with emails from fans all over the world asking when it was going to reopen.
“People have been asking to come in too, it’s just been non-stop, it’s a Mecca for Harry Potter fans,” he said.
“It’s tragic to think we have been closed for four-and-a-half years.
“The whole thing has been a bit of a emotional rollercoaster, to be honest, from day one of the fire until now opening the doors again.”
The part of the property which housed the cafe was owned by a company which went into liquidation shortly after the fire.
This held up the £500,000 refurbishment.
The new owners of the building have signed a 20-year lease with Mr Taylor.
Andrew Neill
The alarm was raised shortly after 6am by a cleaner at Edinburgh’s Elephant House cafe in August 2021
Mr Taylor said Rowling was a regular customer in the 1990s.
“I was only introduced to her when her first book was published. We knew her but she wasn’t famous at that point so we congratulated her that she had had her book published.
“She was really lovely but just another customer at that point. She kept herself to herself.
“She then did an interview at The Elephant House and that’s how we have pictures of her at the table here.”
The room where Rowling used to sit now displays her portrait, alongside those of fellow Edinburgh writers Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and Irvine Welsh.
“They have all written here and Ian Rankin has mentioned us in five of his books and Sandy McCall Smith has written about The Elephant House on many occasions,” Mr Taylor said.
“They have all been regular customers.”
