The Special Significance of 'Harry Potter's King's Crossing to JK Rowling

Today, one of the real life places a Harry Potter fan can visit to feel closer to the Wizarding World is of course King's Cross Station in London. It served as the magical gateway into a whole new world, but for author J.K. Rowling, the train station isn't just a gateway for her books, but part of a special memory.

The author previously explained on Pottermore that she always knew where she wanted Harry to leave the Muggle world from, and ultimately it wasn't that hard of a decision to pick King's Cross Station.

"King's Cross, which is one of London's main railway stations, has a very personal significance for me, because my parents met on a train to Scotland which departed from King’s Cross station," Rowling said. "For this reason, and because it has such an evocative and symbolic name. . . . I never knew the slightest indecision about the location of the portal that would take Harry to Hogwarts, or the means of transport that would take him there."

Many Harry Potter fans will also remember that the famed author first thought about the idea for the books while on a train.

Legend has it that the train station was built on either the site of Boudicca's last battle or Boudicca's tomb. Boudicca was an ancient British queen who fought against the Romans. Apparently her tomb is supposed to be right under platforms eight through 10, a fact that is creepy, considering Rowling had no knowledge of this when writing Harry Potter.

The station's name comes from a now-demolished monument of King George IV, and has a halfway stuck trolly in the wall between platforms nine and 10.

[h/t: Pop Sugar]