Table where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter saved from cafe eviscerated by fire

‘I’m just so relieved this bit of history has been retained’ owner of the cafe said

A table at a cafe in Edinburgh where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter has been saved from a fire that damaged the entire building.

The Elephant House cafe was eviscerated by fire last month after a blaze started at the Patisserie Valerie cafe next door.

The owner of the cafe, David Taylor, said he was “immensely relieved” to find the wooden table used by Rowling in the rubble.

“Thankfully I’ve found JK Rowling’s table among the rubble and although it is water and smoke damaged it was in the back room so it can be saved,” Taylor, who has owned the cafe for 25 years, told BBC Scotland.

“It is going to the restorers on Thursday (30 September) and I’m just so relieved this bit of history has been retained.”

Taylor also revealed that a very important and valuable book by Rowling is still missing.

(Getty Images)

“There are piles of rubble everywhere so I’m hoping [that the book] is under one of them,” he said. “I’ve started the search.”

The Elephant House Cafe is widely regarded as the place the 56-year-old author wrote the first of the seven fantasy novels.

Before it burned down, the cafe was a popular tourist destination for curious Harry Potter fans to see where Rowling wrote the books.

During an appearance on Simon Armitage’s podcast in July, Rowling said: “That (The Elephant House Cafe) was a lovely space with a really great view of the castle.”

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“I met the owner years later and he said ‘You never come in anymore’,” she said. “In a dream world I would still go in there but it is just not humanly possible to go in there anymore and write.”

She added: “I had to stop writing in cafes. I really loved it but I just couldn’t anymore.”