The house JK Rowling lived in from age nine to eighteen is up for sale. It has many features that seem to have inspired the Harry Potter author when creating the series, including a trapdoor and a cupboard under the stairs.
Church Cottage, as it is called, is located in the town of Tutshill, Gloucestershire. In the Harry Potter novels, Tutshill is featured as the home of a top Quidditch team, the Tutshill Tornados.
The cottage’s architecture is a lot like Hogwarts School, complete with vaulted ceilings and stone windows. It also includes a small, dusty cupboard under the stairs, just like the place where Harry was forced to sleep before receiving his letter from Hogwarts, and a trapdoor to a cold, creepy cellar resembling the one leading to the Philosopher’s Stone.
In Rowling’s old bedroom, there is even a patch of graffiti on the wall: “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982.” The current owner, Julian Mercer, says that every time he renovated the house he painted around the words.