Why the writing’s on the wall for JK’s cafe
IT is known across the world as the café where JK Rowling did much of her Harry Potter writing.
Now fans of the boy wizard do their writing there, too – covering every inch of the toilet walls in graffiti.
So determined are devotees of the book and film series to scribble Harry Potterinspired epithets in the loos that staff at The Elephant House have had to accept defeat and stop painting over them.
As a struggling writer on benefits, Miss Rowling spent hours in the George IV Bridge café crafting Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, eking out a coffee for as long as she dared.
Now it has become a key landmark for fans – particularly female ones – many of whom
‘The ladies’ loos are worse than the gents’
cannot bear to leave without paying homage to Harry on the toilet walls.
Elephant House manager, Roxy Hessami, 22, said staff used to spend hours painting over the graffiti, but had now accepted it was a waste of time. He said the ladies’ loos were far worse affected than the gents.
‘We used to paint them at the end of every Fringe festival, but I don’t think we’ve painted them for three years.
‘After it was painted once, a note about who was in Dumbledore’s Army had three tallies next to it. By the end of the day it was at 83.’
Mr Hessami added: ‘We try to get rid of it from the mirrors. We’ve had toilet seats broken because people have been trying to write things on the ceiling. There’s no point spending something like £5,000 to have them ruined again.’
Messages from all corners of the world fill every available space in the toilets. There are words of devotion, such as ‘You taught me how to read, love and believe, thank you JK always’.
Then there are more risqué offerings, such as ‘Tick here if I can Slytherin to your bed’ or ‘I’d get sleazy for Ron Weasley’.
The messages cover the sinks, sanitary bins, hairdryers and handwash dispensers, mirrors and even a frosted window.
Many of the messages are in foreign languages including French, Spanish, Turkish and Mandarin.
One customer wrote ‘The service is so slow in here anyone could write a book’.
Mr Hessami said: ‘Everyone thought it was funny, even the owner, but we had to paint over that one.’