I step onto the third floor landing with a disappointed hesitation. I feel lost- I have been promised something great, and as my heels send echoing clicks against the yellowing linoleum, I wonder if I’m in the wrong place. I must be.
Three flights up, around the corner and through a seven foot door sits Queen’s University’s best kept secret. As the stairs turn into the final floor of the library, I am overcome with the sensation that I may be in some kind of abandoned public high school. The thing is, I am a lover of old things, and as I have been promised something magical, I am preemptively disappointed. At this stage in the game, I expect to be disappointed- Kingston is beautiful and historic, but Queen’s students have a penchant for ruining nice things, and Queen’s administration seems to have a similar inclination, given the botched restoration and preservation efforts all over campus (Kingston Hall? Yikes). As I ease open the door, however, a great sense of relief washes over me. I have found The Harry Potter Room- the famed reading space that looks quite like Hogwarts- and might be just as magical.
The Harry Potter Room, or the 1923 Reading Room, is a favorite space and well kept secret among Queen’s University students.
In 1923, Queen’s University contracted and opened the reading room, a bright, open workroom at the top of the Douglas (Science and Engineering) library. In the seventies, it was called the old reserve reading room for its seemingly ancient domed ceilings and old oak furniture- the space is complete with stained glass windows, reading nooks and church-wood panels. Back when it was first built, the ceiling’s domes were accented with cathedral-dome trim that met the tops of the bookshelves like rounded branches growing from trunks of shelved literature. The door’s push-panels were intricate copper Artdeco sculptures and the floor was an oak herringbone. Some of these delicate vestiges remain, though many of the room’s more beautiful original features have been erased with time. Still, the Harry Potter room is a genuine escape from reality. Perfect rows of color blocked bibliography resources line each wall, and the smell of books permeates every corner, alcove and quiet, lamplit desk space.
Nearly ten years ago, the space was ‘restored’ and though few pictures remain of its original state, and it would be fair to say that the restoration reduced the space’s charm, but only slightly. Rather than being warm and ornate, the new baby blue walls seem clinical against the rich wood. Still, I will settle with what I am given. Just above the special collections library, the space isn’t entirely abandoned, but it certainly is one of Queen’s University’s final purely-academic spaces. Small groups of students sit at the old desks, and if you abstract yourself just enough, it starts to feel… magical.
Those with a keen eye for aesthetics will appreciate the qualities that the Harry Potter room shares with Cambridge’s reading library, and many other restored spaces with architecture that dates back to the 1920’s, but perhaps Hogwarts is a stretch. The space is no longer nearly ornate enough to be given such a grand title, or for such a comparison to be made. Still, those who like the witch and wizard aesthetic could really fall for this space.