noctemmods (noctemmods) wrote in noctemooc, @ 2012-05-06 18:33:00 |
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1. National Wizarding Bank of America NWBA is the only wizarding bank and is the main depository for all wealth and valuables in the magical world. People store their precious items in the underground vaults, which are among the safest locations in the world. The bank building is an imposing, 3-story white stone structure which has become an icon of Diagon Alley. It has steps leading up to bronze doors which are flanked by two goblin guards at all time. The Ground Floor is given over eniterly to the teller floor, while the other two above-ground floors are full of offices, viewing rooms, work rooms, ect and used almost exclusively by human employees. The below-ground floors and vaults are much larger and run under the entire area covered by the alleys. 2. Library The branch library at Diagon Alley is part of a series of libraries that runs throughout the country and includes Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. The Diagon Branch strives to look professional, with somber colors and statues and paintings of famous witches and wizards all over the place. There are two floors of books, comprising a rather impressive collection, and an archive room in the basement containing public records dating back to the 1700s. Books not in the Diagon branch can be requested from one of the other branches. 3. Bureau of Magical Affairs Satellite Office The Bureau of Magical Affairs Satellite Office is a squat, single-story brick building with no windows. It has liaison offices for the Hit Wizards, the Secretary of Magic, the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Department of Magical Transportation, and Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Those with routine or (in the case of the Hit Wizards) urgent matters can visit a Satellite Office to be attended to quicker rather than having to visit the Bureau proper. Records are not kept permanently at the Satellite Office and they can only serve a limited range of routine functions. 4. Diagon Alley Civic Offices The Civic Committee of Diagon Alley is a civilian-run organization that regulates business practices on Diagon Alley and lobbies to the Ministry of Magic on behalf of residents and business owners. Locals visit this office to lodge a complaint about a neighbor or business, and monthly meetings are held to allow community members to discuss current topics up for debate. The building itself is a squat, red-brick affair with abnormally large windows looking out over Whimsick Alley. 5. Owl Post Office The post office is a privately-run store where one can send letters and packages by owl for a small fee. The owls are colour-coded for short distances and long distances, and also for how fast one wants the letter to be delivered. The shop is kept as clean as possible, but still has a pervasive smell. 6. Office of the Daily Prophet The building for the Daily Prophet was once a respectable, tidy little thing that, over the years, has had so many expansions added onto it that the end result is ramshackle and confusing. Few of the updates were done in compatible styles, so entire floors (or just sections of them) will look completely different from the original building. The inside is cramped and full of workers, but visitors are rarely permitted to venture past the Front Office which, surprisingly, looks much tidier than the outside would suggest. 7. The Leaky Cauldron - Owner: Thomas 'Tom' Ogden The gateway between the muggle streets and the alleys, the Leaky Cauldron has been a main attraction on Diagon Alley since it was built in 1500. It is a compact three story building with functional and comfortable furnishings and decorations. It has rooms for let over the main room and several private parlors on the ground floor in addition to the main dining room. 8. Carousel - Owner: Teun de Smet A moderately sized, trendy establishment that is popular with the young adult crowd. It's got a varied menu with dishes from all around the world (made with varying degrees of success). The decorations are eclectic and almost as varied as the food; short tables and ground cushions are as popular as chairs and paintings of English wizards hang beside paper lanterns and aboriginal masks. Live music is sometimes performed in the evenings, with open mike night being the most popular. 9. Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour - Owner: Florean Fortescue Built in 1974 by Florean Fortescue, the Ice Cream Parlour has quickely become a familiar stop on Diagon Alley. The small, narrow shop has large windows on the front and wrought iron tables and chairs set out front under brightly coloured awnings. Florean sells sweets in addition to ice cream and loves to visit and chat with his customers. 10. Ciao Trattoria - Owner: Gregorio Conti Ciao's is a fine, upscale restaurant run by head chef Gregorio that has been in operation for over a decade. The carefully cultivated atmosphere makes it popular as a romantic spot and among the higher class, even though the prices are surprisingly reasonable. Reservations have to be made weeks in advance, although if you grease the palm of the maître d’ enough he can usually find you an empty table. 11. Mara's Corner - Owner: Perla Ricci Mara's is a casual, comfortable restaurant that is popular with the local businesses for lunch. They are usually crowded and bustling during the day and the front wall is made entierly off large windows that open out to patio seating. Decor is simple and efficient, with solid primary colors and plastic seating, and the service is brisk but friendly. 12. Dos Diablos - Owner: Andres Rebane Dos Diablos is a pub that has been called everything from 'delightfully bawdy' to 'disgustingly distasteful.' It strives to be seedy, but is a little much fun to really achieve it. Mostly the patrons are those that enjoy the laid-back atmosphere; the pub is always crowded, noisy, and highly encouraging of crude jokes and crass behavior. Regulars who wouldn't dare in 'polite society' will happily let loose here. Portraits of libatious wenches in devil costumes grace the walls, but the waitresses have a strict 'hands off' policy. 13. The Serpent's Fang - Owner: Domnall Lynch The only pub on Knockturn Alley, the Serpent's Fang is a surprisingly tidy place. Decorated with dark colors and silver fixtures and far too much leather on the furniture, it has the feel of an older, more worldly Slytherin Common Room. Not surprising, given that the owner is an alumnus of that house and very proud of that fact. The Fang is quiet and dark and always smells faintly of tobacco and generally feels like a 'quality establishment' gone a touch seedy. 14. Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions - Owner: Apirka Malkin Madam Malkin's is the go-to location for reasonably-prices robes of all sorts. One can purchase everyday robes or dress robes or anything in between. The store is large and inviting, with plenty of off-the-rack options available, and any necessary alterations are done in-store by Madam Malkin and her staff. 15. Magical Menagerie - Owner: Giles Pokeby A very cramped and noisy shop with cages full of animals lining all the walls. The Magical Menagerie sells magical pets of all types and sizes, as well as the equipment and supplies to care for them. 16. Nature's Garden - Owner: Phyllida Spore A large, airy shop that is combination nursery and herbology supply store. The shop in front is kept meticulously neat and orderly and is stocked with everything from pots and gardening tools to magical fertilizer. The small shop building leads to a large greenhouse in the back, which is split into sections to keep the more dangerous plants separated from the rest. 17. Wizard's Workshop - Owner: Zuberi Badat Delightfully chaotic, the Wizard's Workshop is filled with parts, tools, odds, ends, and everything in between. Providing the tools and materials needed for witches and wizards to complete their home projects, anything from plumbing fixes to paint stencils can be found here, although only the owner can navigate his 'organization system'. The owner is exceedingly friendly and full of helpful tips, willing to order any needed part that isn't carried in the store. 18. Spinners Inc - Owner: Duane Mason This craft store manages to feel cluttered and organized at once. They sell everything from painting supplies to magical knitting needles to fake flowers (the singing ones will cost you extra, though). The shelves tend to be overflowing, but at least everything is in a logical location. 19. Le Joli Magasin - Owner: Adeline Wright A small store selling high-end collectibles. Porcelain and glass figurines grace the front window displays and inside the shop is lined with tidy, orderly shelves displaying the rest of the wares. The store has a 'no touching' policy, and if you break it then not only are you buying it but you're also enduring a lecture from the shop's ancient and very irritable owner. 20. Snippets - Owner: Candace Griffiths A discount barber shop where patrons can come to get their hair cut. The service is quick and professional, if not the most stylish on the Alley, but the price more than makes up the difference. No appointment necessary. 21. Orchard Produce - Owner: Garland Ford An organic produce market where locals can buy the finest the earth has to offer. Produce is guaranteed to be fresh and grown without pesticides or harsh potions, although the selection is seasonal. It's hard to know exactly what you'll find at Orchard, as the owner tends to be a bit picky about the quality of things sold in his store, but has an unhealthy fascination with 'unusual' produce. 22. Charming - Owner: Ithel Rees A charms shop where you can bring your broken or outdated magical objects and have them repaired and refurbished. There's very little actually for sale here; you simply bring in the object that needs to be serviced and leave it with Ithel, and he'll tell you when you can come back to pick it up. 23. Twilfitt and Tatting's - Owner: Harold Tattings and Reggie Twilfitt A higher end clothing store that caters mainly to the higher-end crowd. Twilfitt and Tattings has very little off-the-rack clothing options and either custom-tailors their wares or makes items to order for their customers. The shop is very tiny, with a small but well-lit sales floor and work rooms in the back. 24. Ollivander's Wand Shop - Owner: John Ollivander Founded in 382 B.C, some say it was the first shop built on Diagon Alley. It's a tiny shop, almost lost between the two stores on either side, and contains nothing in the front room besides a single stool and floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with narrow boxes. Ollivanders is said to be maker of the finest wands in all Europe. 25. Flourish and Blotts - Owner: Patrick Allenby A comfortable, cluttered two-story bookstore that sells books and stationary supplies of all sorts. 26. Quality Quidditch Supplies - Owner: Jacqueline Lejeune A bustling shop stuffed to bursting with all the latest of Quidditch supplies. It can almost always be counted to be the busiest store on the Alley, especially when summer comes and the kids get out of school. QQS also carries a selection of used supplies and will buy used equipment from customers. 27. Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions - Owner: Giselle Primpernelle A combination store and day spa, witches can come here to buy every beauty potion from shampoo to wart removers. They can also make appointments to get their hair done, have a manicure, or sign up for a full day of pampering treatments. Madam Primpernelle occasionally holds workshops for witches as well, covering topics from how to apply make-up to the importance of self-esteem. The shop is decorated in light shades and flowery patterns and is about as decidedly feminine as a place can be. 28. Shoots'n'Roots - Owner: Tilden Toots A combination herbology and potions store, this establishment offers both potions ingredients produced in-house and the magical plants themselves. Also available are finished potions produced by owner Tilden Toots, most of them of his own creation. Both plant and potion sections are housed under the same roof and the place tends to have a musty smell. Toots also records his Toots, Shoots 'n' Roots radio programme from the back room and broadcasts it over the WWN. 29. Pottidge's Cauldron Shop - Owner: Patricia Pottidge A general store that sells more than just cauldrons, Pottidges sells all you potions making supplies in one convenient location. Scales, knives, instruments, portable fires, ingredients, instruments, anything and everything the potions-master-within could want! Pottidge's is a dark and somewhat musty-smelling shop due to the piles and piles of wares (most of them cauldrons) stacked around the store and blocking the windows. 30. Scribbulus Writing Instruments - Owner: August Hoffmann An office supply store that sells quills, parchment, and ink along with other minutia. They also sell furniture such as desks and filling cabinets, but their main income comes from the smaller supplies, of which they carry a truly impressive variety. 31. Slug & Jiggers Apothecary - Barnabus Jiggers and Harold Slug A store selling potions supplies. The store's interior is packed full of goods, with barrels of "slimy stuff" on the floor, jars containing herbs, roots, and brightly-coloured powders along the walls, and bunches of feathers, fangs, and claws hanging from the ceiling. All of these ingredients give the store an unpleasant aroma described as a combination of bad eggs and rotten cabbage. 32. Terrortours - Charna Wojcik This small office is the front for a travel agency that arranges trips for witches and wizards. The specialize in 'adventure tourism' and offer trips such as getaways at vampire-owned castles in Transylvania and and cruises in the Bermuda Triangle. The office is tiny but comfortable, with overstuffed chairs for seating and pictures of smiling tourists in terrifying situations hanging on the walls. 33. Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment - Travis Holl A shop in Diagon Alley that sells a wide variety of magical instruments like telescopes and hourglasses. It's a cheery, airy store with neatly organized shelves, but the owner discourages touching the items unless one intends to buy, as many of them could be set off by accident. 34. Eeylops Owl Emporium - Wilson Robinson A small, dark shop that sells owls, owl supplies, and owl food. It can be rather smelly and noisy, due to the number of caged owls kept in the store. 35. Wizarding Wireless Network - Owner: Jerome Murray Broadcasting out of a tiny, cramped, cluttered building, the privately-owned network is the original and most popular station on the air. They have a tiny recording studio in the back for their talk shows, although anyone with the space for recording at home will generally do that and just send their shows in. The front office is the size of a shoebox and the receptionist tends to send anyone with a complaint up to the offices on the second story rather than deal with them herself. 36. Harford's Theater - Owner: Kelly Lane The center of entertainment in wizarding London, the Harford Theater was built by the current owner's grandfather in 1913. The auditorium can be adjusted to host anything from plays and concerts to political debates and private parties. The theater hosts plays almost every Thurs-Sun and is available for bookings other nights of the week. 37. Number 37, Diagon Alley - Manager: Weston Watson This large, professional-looking brick building rents out office space to anyone who needs it. Home to anyone who needs an office but not necessarily a store-front (lawyers, accountants, marketing execs, ect), the building has a rather eclectic mix of tenants. The lobby of the building is spacious but stark, and a security service posts a guard 24/7 at the front desk, paid for by the building management. 38. Whizz Hard Books - Owner: Valerie Wisp A publishing house that publishes books on a wide variety of subjects, though they specialize in sports-themed books. The offices located on Diagon Alley are bright and airy, with large front windows embossed with the company logo. 39. Obscurus Books - Owner: Navaj Patil Obscurus Books is a small publishing house that publishes non-fiction works on all subjects, including textbooks. The main office is located on Diagon Alley and consists of a small sales front displaying many of their books and a few offices. The building itself is smaller in the front than the back and nearly eclipsed by the surrounding stores. 40. Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop - Owners: Beatrix Gambol and Wilford Japes Run by a pair of childhood friends, Gambol and Japes is the largest joke and novelty shop on the Alley. The building has large windows and is painted with bright colors, while the inside is a literal maze of shelves. (Any first-time who can find the check out counter in under 20 minutes gets a discount on their purchases.) They carry everything from gag gifts to fireworks to hobby items. If it's entertaining, it can be found at Gambol and Japes. 41. A to Z - Owner: Cibran Medina A large, sprawling, open store which claims to have 'everything you could possibly be looking for', A to Z does carry an impressive collection of inexpensive wares. Comparable to a muggle department store, many wizards who aren't used to the idea have complained about how little personality the store has. However, they rarely complain about the low prices. 42. Dominic Maestro's - Owner - Dominic Candeo A modest music shop run by a man who was once a composer who, though he never made it big in his own right, managed to make a comfortable living for himself by writing and selling songs to more popular artists. Dominic's is a rather dark and musty place, but his collection of records is truly impressive. Everything from the most popular to the most obscure can be found there, and Dominic himself is always willing to impart his vast store of music knowledge on anyone who asks. He also sells new and used musical instruments and offers lessons on the weekends. 43. Rising Loaf - Owner: Merete Birk Rising Loaf is a small, family run shop with a bright, airy atmosphere and rustic decor. Open at the crack of dawn, they sell pastries, bagels, breads (really any kind of baked goods) and coffee throughout the day. 44. Best Butcher - Owner: Haul Brys This shop has a tiny front area that is kept meticulously clean. Signs with cartoonish depictions of pigs and cows advise customers on the best cuts of meat to choose and a glass-fronted display shows off the wares. Best Butcher's guarantees only the freshest meat and is open seven days a week. 45. The Coffin House - Owner: Ivor Taaffe The Coffin House seems almost out of place on Knockturn Alley - it unashamedly declares it's intentions at every turn and yet manages to stay above the law with everything it sells. Decorated in black and silver with a skulls motif, it has often been thought of as a 'poser' among 'true' Dark Arts shops. One can buy the books and tools needed for the slightly more shady side of magic here without fear that anything will jump out and curse you. Or that the Ministry will put you on their 'To Raid Later' list. 46. The Spiny Serpent - Owner: Jaksa Koske The Spiny Serpent caters only to a select set of clients - the doors are kept locked at all times and only approved customers are allowed to come in and browse through their wares. Often viewed as a morbid collectibles shop, they sell furniture, art, and oddities of a magical nature, items that usually have a sordid or cursed history. 47. Borgin and Burkes - Owners: Uinseann Borgin and Caractacus Burke Although it claims to be a shop for generally magical items and tools, Borgin and Burkes is probably Knockturn Alley's worst kept secret. They sell Dark Arts supplies, cursed items (or just plain curses), and things of a 'curious nature' which aren't strictly illegal but which really have no legal purpose. Though they have been raided many times, the Ministry has never been able to make anything stick, so Borgin and Burkes continues to balance delicately on the line between legal and not. 48. Moribunds - Owner: Moribund Acker Moribunds is a tiny shop with shuttered windows and absolutely no signs. The interior looks like, and indeed is, the owner's house - he runs his business out of his front parlor. Moribunds is a divination shop where people go to learn the darker side of the future. The owner is a Seer who generally has no qualms with ignoring his professions ethics and looking into a third party's future. Or past, or present. One can also purchase curses and hexes there, under the table, of course. 49. The Honeypot - Owner: Kalyani Thakkar The HOneypot is London's only magical strip club, though there are others in other parts of the country. They've been attacked (in the verbal and legal sense) by many of the other businesses on the Alley, but they have endured despite it, to the relief of their many patrons. The owner describes her place as 'shabby chic', intentionally making it look like an upscale establishment gone seedy. The girls are cute, the drinks are cheep, but the security guards are big and burly and there's a strict 'no touching' policy. During official business hours, at least. 50. Roseglen Apartments 51. Alleyview 52. Park Place 53. Foxglove 54. Lane's End 55. Dittany Heights 56. Hidden Glen A neighborhood of small family homes that all sit close together. The homes tend to be as eclectic and old as the shops on nearby Diagon Alley.
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