Clock Tower

Clock Tower
Location information
Location	Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, Great Britain
Owner(s)	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Affiliation	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The Clock Tower was one of the older features of Hogwarts Castle. It housed an antique clock which had a clear glass dial. The mechanism ran within the tower. There was an old courtyard at its base.

Description

The tower began on the third floor level of Hogwarts Castle because it was placed on a hill. The entrance had a large hall with flights of wooden stairs on the right and left side. The pendulum of the Clock Tower could be seen slowly swinging on the third level. The first landing was on the fourth floor, which contained the clock face and had a long corridor leading to the entrance to the Hospital Wing. The same corridor connected the tower to the rest of the castle.

Up another flight of wooden stairs was a second landing on the fifth floor, which housed the clock's bells and the suspension spring of the pendulum. They were four large gold and copper bells which chimed and struck every hour. There was another corridor on the landing which linked the tower to the main castle.

There was space between the clock's movement and the dial for a person to either repair the clock or to stand and look out over the courtyard on a balcony.

As some students were scared of the many large mechanical gears in the clocktower they chose to avoid it, creating a solitude that some students preferred.

Clock

The clock had a clear glass dial. It had four bells of varying sizes appearing to have been made of copper. The clock chimed every half hour and struck a small bell at the beginning and conclusion of class sessions. What powered the clock's mechanism is currently unknown, but it is presumed to be weight-driven. The clock had a visible pendulum swing of 46 beats per minute, due to the length of it.

History

The Crossed Wands duelling club, run by Lucan Brattleby, was based in the Clock Tower during the 1890–1891 school year.

Clock Tower of Hogwarts Castle in 1994

During the 1993–1994 school year, the Clock Tower Courtyard was where students waiting to visit the village of Hogsmeade would gather.

The Clock Tower's destruction during the Battle of Hogwarts

During the Battle of Hogwarts on 2 May 1998, the Clock Tower was heavily damaged by Death Eaters, especially on the front side. The clock face was nearly obliterated and the clock mechanism was badly damaged. One of the bells, belonging to the Clock Tower or the Bell towers somehow ended up at the Viaduct Courtyard. The tower was likely reconstructed and the clock mechanism fully restored to working order sometime after the battle concluded.

Behind the scenes

• The Clock Tower first appeared in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and is never mentioned in the books. This may be intended to highlight the theme of Time, which plays a central role in the film, and also to foreshadow Harry and Hermione's use of Hermione's Time-Turner at the film's climax to travel back in time in order to rescue Sirius Black and Buckbeak. However, at the beginning of the first book, there is a picture of Hogwarts depicting a tower with a clock.
  • Throughout the books, they do say that there are bells to signal the beginning and end of classes. However, they never identify the source of the bells.
• The design of the clock appears to be based on the Old Town Clock (also called the "Orloj" - pronounced "OR-LOY") in Prague, Czech Republic. The Orloj tells not only the time, but shows the month, the sign of the Zodiac, and shows the relative positions of the moon and sun. This type of clock is known as an "astronomical clock", and may be used by astronomy and divination students. 
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the sound of the bell chiming sounds very similar to the chiming of the bell inside the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster in London, popularly known as Big Ben. However, in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the sound of the bell is changed, and is not heard chiming in the subsequent films.
• The film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban only shows the third and fourth-floor landings and the outside of the Tower. All subsequent films only show the outside building of the Tower. In the video game version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we are only shown the outside of the Tower, inside being the Entrance Hall, but in the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince all the Tower is shown, including all the landings and the exterior.
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire onwards, when students are shown in the Clock Tower courtyard or down the hill from the Clock Tower, we never see the Clock's pendulum swinging in the background as it does in the the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a giant swinging pendulum can be seen behind Dolores Umbridge as she stands at the far end of the Great Hall during the Charms O.W.L. This is similar to what was shown in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
• In the video game of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , you get the mission to sabotage the Clock Tower so Dolores Umbridge cannot plan her lessons.
• In the scene were Harry and the Gryffindors run out of the Clock Tower with Harry's new Firebolt in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban they do not come down from the wooden staircase, but from the inner part of the Clock Tower Entrance. This may be an error on the filmmaker's part, but it is also possible they could have used one of the shortcuts seen in the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the Clock Tower's clock face and front side is ruined due to Death Eaters.
• The clock towers dial is made of clear glass and there is a subsidiary dial attached to the main dial, this small dial most likely keeps track of the seconds.
• After the third movie for some reason, the clock towers dial does not appear transparent.
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the timing between the chimes is different between 7:30 and 10:00 at night.
• The face of the clock, as well as the pendulum bob, are currently on display for the public as part of The Making of Harry Potter studio tour.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game) (Seen in cutscenes)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Exterior shots)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Appears in deleted scene(s))
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
• LEGO Harry Potter
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
• Hogwarts Legacy
• The Art and Making of Hogwarts Legacy