Walk into House of MinaLima on Wardour Street and you’ll immediately feel like something is different about this place. It doesn’t feel like a merchandise store. It doesn’t feel like a museum either. It’s something in between — dense, layered, and packed with details that most visitors absorb without fully understanding.
We visited in April 2025 and came away with more questions than we walked in with. We went looking for answers. Here’s what we found — 25 facts timed to a milestone year, because 2026 marks both 25 years of the Harry Potter films and 25 years of MinaLima as a studio.
- THE WHOLE THING STARTED AS A THREE-MONTH POP-UP
MinaLima was never supposed to be permanent. When Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima opened their first shop on nearby Greek Street in 2016, the plan was three months — six at the outside. It was an experiment, a “what if?” as Eduardo has described it. Then the fans showed up, and when the closure date arrived, more than 3,000 of them signed a physical guest book asking the shop to never close. Not an online petition — a book, passed around the store by hand. They stayed.
That pop-up became a flagship, the flagship became a global brand, and the global brand now has seven locations across four continents. It started because people picked up a pen.
- THE CURRENT STORE WAS BUILT DURING A PANDEMIC
The 157 Wardour Street space you’re standing in today opened in 2020. Mira and Eduardo found it — a former office building — right as everything shut down. They brought builders in anyway, knocked down walls, and designed the whole thing from scratch during one of the most disruptive periods in recent memory.
They describe it the same way they describe designing a prop: start with a blank page and figure out what story you want to tell.
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- “I SOLEMNLY SWEAR” IS PAINTED DIRECTLY ON THE WALL
Most visitors photograph the staircase and move on. What they’re actually photographing is a piece of architectural design. The words “I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good” are painted in gold directly onto the burgundy wall above the staircase landing — not a print, not a sign, part of the building itself.
It’s one of the first things you see when you descend toward the gallery and it sets the tone for everything below.
- THE DAILY PROPHET PAGES WERE MADE WITH COFFEE
The staircase walls are lined with Daily Prophet pages, and they look aged because they are. Every page was washed by hand with a mixture of coffee and water, then laid flat across the floor of the entire MinaLima design department to dry. The process left permanent coffee stains in the carpet.
Mira and Eduardo’s response to this: “All for the wizarding world.” None of this was in any brief. They did it because a real newspaper that had been printed and read and carried around would look like that — and theirs needed to as well.
- THE EDGES WERE PERFORATED WITH A CUSTOM-MADE TOOL
While we’re on the Daily Prophet pages — look at the edges. They’re not straight. They’re not torn. They’re perforated, like something that came off a real press. MinaLima made a custom tool specifically to cut the edges of every page so they wouldn’t look machine-cut. It’s the kind of detail that exists entirely to be not noticed — and that’s the point.
- EDUARDO’S HOMETOWN IS HIDDEN IN THE WEATHER SECTION
Every Daily Prophet contains the name Caxambu — a small town in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where Eduardo Lima grew up. He put it in the weather section quietly, and it stayed in every film that featured the newspaper. The wizarding world’s weather reports have been covering a small Brazilian town since 2001.
People now make pilgrimages there specifically because of this.
- THEY HAD TO BECOME JOURNALISTS
A real newspaper has no empty space. Every column is filled, every section has copy, every classified ad has a product. Which meant Mira and Eduardo had to write all of it — every headline, every horoscope, every advice column, every weather report, every classified advertisement. Some of the headlines they wrote: “Vampire Admitted to Casualty After Garlic Bread Overdose.” “Drunk Muggle Conducts Traffic with Wand.” “Rogue Howler Disrupts Muggle Conference.”
These were never meant to be read on screen. They wrote them anyway.
- THE AIRBROOM AD ENDED UP ON A BUILDING AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO
One of those classified ads was for a product called the Airbroom — a fictional flying broomstick pitched with the practicality of a family station wagon. It was a throwaway joke written to fill a column in a background newspaper prop. It ended up on the side of a building at Universal Studios in Orlando. Mira and Eduardo confirmed this at the store, visibly delighted that something written as filler for a prop nobody was supposed to read became permanent park architecture.
- THE WEASLEYS’ PACKAGING WAS DELIBERATELY BAD DESIGN
One of the prints in the lower gallery is the Skiving Snackbox advertisement — yellow, loud, slightly off, with competing fonts and energy that doesn’t quite cohere. That’s intentional. MinaLima made the Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes packaging look like two teenage boys designed it, because two teenage boys did design it, in-world. Not so bad it’s unreadable, but not good enough to look professional. The design decision is invisible when it works, and it works completely. Most people feel the Weasley shop is right without ever knowing why.
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- THEY HAD TO LICENSE THEIR OWN WORK BACK FROM WARNER BROS.
When MinaLima decided to start selling prints of their Harry Potter designs, they ran into a complication: Warner Bros. owned the work. They had created it, but the studio held the rights. So they did something almost unheard of in the film industry — they went to Warner Bros. with sample prints and negotiated a license to sell their own designs commercially. The studio said yes. They launched with four prints in 2012. They now have over 200. The prints in this store are sold under a license the designers had to ask for permission to hold.
- MIRA AND EDUARDO’S PORTRAITS AT THE ENTRANCE ARE ALSO ON THE BOOKPLATES
The welcome wall features two painted portraits — Eduardo in a blue wizarding hat, Mira in a dark top — framed formally like Hogwarts headmaster paintings. These aren’t decorative. They’re the same illustrations used on the personalised bookplates that come with every book purchase at the store. When you buy a book at MinaLima and get your bookplate, the faces on it match the portraits watching you from the entrance wall.
- MIRA DESIGNED THE HOGWARTS ACCEPTANCE LETTER BEFORE THE SETS EXISTED
In the lower gallery, among the original film props, is the Hogwarts acceptance letter — the very first graphic prop Miraphora Mina ever created for the Harry Potter franchise. She designed it before there were sets, before there was a confirmed cast, before anyone knew if the films would work. One envelope addressed to a cupboard under some stairs, and then eleven films followed. “Without this letter,” she has said, “we wouldn’t be here.”
- YOU CAN BUY ONE, HAND-WRITTEN BY MIRA HERSELF, FOR £2,495
On display in the lower gallery is a prop replica case — a Hogwarts acceptance letter in a silk-lined display box, with a brass botanical decoration. The card reads: “Recreated by Miraphora Mina exactly as it was made for the film… your hand-written acceptance letter and envelope will come presented in a deluxe silk, hand-bound display box. Available to purchase as an exact film replica or personalised with your own name.” The price is £2,495. The person who designed the original will write your name on the envelope. That’s not merchandise. That’s something else entirely.
- THE STAFF DOOR IS LABELLED “RARE BOOKS RESTRICTED SECTION”
The staff entrance in the lower gallery is a full-height dark wood door with gold lettering that reads “Rare Books — Restricted Section.” It is a staff-only door. It is also perfectly in keeping with the rest of the space, which means most visitors assume it’s a display element rather than an actual door. It’s both. MinaLima designed their own staff entrance to look like it belongs in a library that shouldn’t exist.
- THE PROPS IN THE GALLERY ARE ORIGINALS, NOT REPRODUCTIONS
The “Original Props from Harry Potter Films” badge on the display cabinet in the gallery is not decorative labelling. The case contains originals — including first-edition copies of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, exactly as they appeared in the films. These aren’t reproductions. The art prints on the walls are exact reproductions of original designs. The objects in the cases are the originals.
- MIRA AND EDUARDO GAVE THEMSELVES MINISTRY OF MAGIC ID CARDS
Among the gallery props: Mira and Eduardo’s personal Ministry of Magic identification cards, which they designed themselves and placed themselves in the “Rooms and Symbols” department. When you are the person responsible for the entire visual identity of a government institution, you get to decide which department you work in. They chose well.
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- THE OLLIVANDERS PRINT HAS ACTUAL GLITTER IN IT
The Diagon Alley building series — original MinaLima artwork, not from the films — includes an Ollivanders print that has what appears to be actual embedded sparkle or glitter in the paper itself, visible when the light catches it. It’s the kind of production detail you only notice in person. On a screen it looks like a very good illustration. On the wall at MinaLima it looks like a wand shop window at dusk.
- THERE’S A TRIBUTE TO A COLLEAGUE HIDDEN ON THE STAIRCASE
Among the Daily Prophet pages on the staircase wall, there is a framed photograph. It belongs to Stephanie McMillan, the set decorator who worked alongside MinaLima on the Harry Potter films and is no longer alive. The photo is not labelled. It’s not explained anywhere in the store. Mira and Eduardo keep it there, they’ve said, to have her “keep an eye on everyone.” You can walk past it a dozen times and not know it’s there. Now you do.
- THE PIN BADGE CABINET IS A PIECE OF ART IN ITSELF
One wall of the store features a large antique wooden cabinet whose entire interior face is covered in hundreds of MinaLima pin badges, arranged in a sweeping arc. Every badge the studio has ever made appears to be represented. It functions simultaneously as display, merchandising, and installation — an object that exists to be looked at as much as to sell from. Most visitors walk past it to get to the framed prints. It’s worth stopping at.
- THE MYSTERY POSTCARDS COME IN TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SERIES
The mystery postcards (£3.45) aren’t one product — they’re two distinct series with different themes. Series 01 covers the Fantastic Beasts universe. Series 02 covers Diagon Alley buildings. Each pack contains one random postcard from within that series. The format rewards repeat visits and makes low-budget gift decisions considerably more interesting.
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- THEY SPENT FOUR YEARS ON EPIC UNIVERSE’S MINISTRY OF MAGIC LAND
The Ministry of Magic area at Universal’s Epic Universe in Orlando — which opened May 2025 — is MinaLima’s most ambitious theme park project. Every sign, every French-language Circus Arcanus poster, every piece of graphic ephemera in the land was designed by the same studio whose gallery you are standing in. They spent four years on it. If you’ve been to Epic Universe and then you’re here, you’re looking at where all of that came from.
- THEY DESIGNED THE GRAPHICS FOR DIAGON ALLEY AND HOGSMEADE TOO
Epic Universe wasn’t the first time. MinaLima designed all graphic elements for Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida (opened 2014) and for Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure before that. Every aged shop sign, every notice board, every product label in those lands traces back to this studio. Theme park fans who’ve spent time in any Wizarding World have been surrounded by MinaLima’s work without necessarily knowing the name behind it.
- THE WALLPAPER IS THE BLACK FAMILY TAPESTRY
The dark, intricate wallpaper covering large sections of the lower gallery walls isn’t decorative wallpaper with a vague wizarding feel. It’s the Black Family Tapestry — the actual prop design from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, printed at wallpaper scale. MinaLima has said it became one of their unexpectedly best-selling products. It reads as atmosphere when you’re in the room. Up close, the family names and burn marks are all there.
- THE PORTRAITS OF MIRA AND EDUARDO ARE ALSO THE BOOKPLATE PORTRAITS — AND THEY WERE PAINTED IN THE WIZARDING STYLE INTENTIONALLY
Go back to the welcome wall. Eduardo is wearing a blue pointed wizarding hat. The portraits are painted in a style that sits somewhere between a formal oil portrait and a Hogwarts headmaster painting. This is deliberate. When you purchase a book at MinaLima and receive your personalised bookplate, those same painted faces are on it. The founders of the studio placed themselves in the visual language of the world they spent 25 years building.
- THIS YEAR MARKS 25 YEARS OF BOTH THE FILMS AND THE STUDIO
The Philosopher’s Stone premiered November 16, 2001. MinaLima was founded the same year. That means 2026 is the 25th anniversary of both — the films that made them famous and the studio they built around that work. It’s as good a reason as any to walk through that Wardour Street door this year rather than waiting.
The thing about House of MinaLima is that none of this is hidden, exactly. It’s all there. The coffee stains on the Daily Prophet pages, the staff door labeled Restricted Section, the photograph of Stephanie McMillan — it’s all in the room. The store just trusts you to look for it yourself. Now you know where to look.