Did Livraria Lello inspire Harry Potter? The myth J.K. Rowling denied

What's the story about Lello and Harry Potter?

The version that does the rounds goes roughly like this: in the early 1990s, during her time in Porto, Rowling was a regular at Lello, and its wooden staircase gave her the idea for the ones at Hogwarts. Over time it became one of the city's tourist myths, and some people still look the place up as "the Harry Potter bookshop".

Who told it first? Nobody knows. No one has traced the story back to its source, and we haven't managed to either.

What did J.K. Rowling say?

On 21 May 2020, Rowling said on social media that she was thinking of adding a section to her website on the supposed inspirations and birthplaces of Harry Potter, and gave some examples. One was Lello, and her answer left no room for doubt: "I never visited this bookshop in Oporto." Then came the rest: she hadn't even known it existed, she thought it was beautiful and wished she had gone, but it had no connection with Hogwarts whatsoever.

The myth has no known date of birth. The denial does, and it comes from the best possible source.

Was J.K. Rowling ever in Porto?

Yes, and this is where the grain of truth in the whole business shows through. That same day, Rowling said she sometimes sat down to write at the Majestic, on Rua de Santa Catarina, and that she'd probably never written in a more beautiful café. What came out of those tables isn't recorded.

The Majestic, incidentally, opened in 1921 under another name: the Elite. According to the café itself, the name was changed because "Elite" sounded too monarchist for its middle-class, republican customers. It closed for restoration in the early nineties and reopened in 1994.

It's easy to imagine how a café turned into a bookshop in the retelling, but that's our guess, not a fact. And whether any other corner of Porto inspired her is something we've found no evidence for.

What makes Livraria Lello special in its own right?

Take Harry Potter away and you're left with a booksellers' story that needs no wands. It begins in 1869, when a Frenchman, Ernesto Chardron, opened his Livraria Internacional nearby, on Rua dos Clérigos. In 1894 the Lello brothers bought Chardron's business. And on 13 January 1906 they opened the building you see today.

Who designed it? Even that isn't settled, which is rather ironic for such a photographed building. The entry on the official historic shops programme names Francisco Xavier Esteves; Portugal's architectural heritage inventory names two others, Abel Botelho and Xavier Neves. The sources don't agree, so we won't pick a winner.

The façade alone is worth stopping for: neo-Gothic, with pinnacles, a broad, low three-bay arch and, above it, the shop's name in coloured letters, "Lello & Irmão", Lello and Brother. Two painted figures stand for Art and Science.

Inside is the famous staircase, which splits into two flights. Above it there's a stained-glass window eight metres by three and a half, bearing a Latin motto, Decus in Labore: honour lies in work. For a family of booksellers, it's hard to think of a better one.

And there's a working detail with nothing magical about it: rails. Ox carts brought the books in, and a little wagon ran them along the rails to the stockroom. When the shop was restored in 1995, a replica of that wagon was made.

Why are there nuns in this story?

Because the bookshop stands on the site of a former convent, São José e Santa Teresa, which belonged to Discalced Carmelite nuns. It sounds like a footnote, but those nuns are the missing piece in another local myth: the hidden house squeezed between two churches, just a few steps away. That one's told at the end of the same route, and we're not going to spoil it here.

Fact or legend?

• Fact: Lello grew out of the bookshop Ernesto Chardron opened in 1869; the Lello brothers bought it in 1894 and opened the building in 1906. The stained glass with Decus in Labore and the replica wagon are real. Rowling said she sometimes wrote at the Majestic.
• Myth: that Rowling was a regular at Lello and that its staircase inspired Hogwarts. She denied it herself on 21 May 2020. Nobody knows who started it.
• Not documented: what Rowling wrote at the Majestic, and whether anywhere else in Porto inspired her.
• Unresolved: who designed the 1906 building.

Where to hear it

This story is told in front of the façade, at the stop "The bookshop Rowling never visited" on "Myths and Mysteries of Porto": twelve stops, from the old Olival Jewish quarter to the Carmo, sorting what people say from what actually happened, from the gallows tree to the hidden house. The Majestic has a stop of its own on another route, "The Baixa: from Rua das Flores to Bolhão".

If you're planning your trip, our Porto guide has the practical side covered.

Further reading

• Rita Cipriano, "A Lello não inspirou Harry Potter, mas J.K. Rowling admite que escreveu no Majestic", Observador, 21 May 2020, with J.K. Rowling's posts from that day (in Portuguese; the posts in English): https://observador.pt/2020/05/21/afinal-a-lello-nao-inspirou-harry-potter-j-k-rowling-diz-que-nunca-entrou-na-livraria/
• DGEMN/DGPC, Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA), "Livraria Lello & Irmão" (IPA.00003972), in Portuguese: http://www.monumentos.gov.pt/Site/APP_PagesUser/SIPA.aspx?id=3972 (consulted in a 2020 archived copy at web.archive.org)
• DGAE, Comércio com História programme, "Livraria Lello": https://www.comerciocomhistoria.gov.pt/en/?p=22316
• DGAE, Comércio com História programme, "Majestic Café": https://www.comerciocomhistoria.gov.pt/en/listings/majestic-cafe-3206