Platform 9¾ Is In The Wrong Place 

Was in the New York subway a few years ago and wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings, looking at the route map on my phone, turned around and ran smack into the back wall of the elevator. Someone standing close by said, "MTA isn't on the Hogwarts line." Had to laugh at that.

I wonder how many people injured themselves trying to run through it.

Apparently they tried to divide Platform 0 at the beginning of 2020. I think that may explain some of the mess we're in.

They never renumbered 0.

Just create a 0¾ platform, much better.

Plot twist: Wizards actually go through Platform 0 and JK Rowling lied to us.

That's too bad that they're gonna change the numbering once the development is done. Having a platform 0 is so much cooler.

Watching this in 2023, I can assure you Tom that platform 0 still exists

The really funny thing: Not only did JKR think of the platforms of Euston Stn. and put them into King's Cross Stn., but also in the movie when they show the outside of the station, you see the outside of St. Pancras Stn. - which is in the middle of the other two. A huge King's Cross-St. Pancras-Euston-mashup! :D

The wizarding world, yet again, being one step ahead of the muggles.

You can type ¾ by holding down the alt + 0190 on the number pad on the right of a keyboard.

"and that...... is something you might not know" We do. You just told us.

Sorry Tom it’s not going to be fixed by the redevelopment, I’m a train driver and I’ve just had the briefing on the Kings Cross changes and platform 0 is staying, platform 10 is going, platform 11 will re-numbered to become the new platform 10

The film also put the platform in the wrong place. As this video shows, there is nothing between the current platforms 9 and 10. So, the filmmakers used the barrier between platform 4 and 5, with it's big brick support beams.

Is there a #savePlatformZero ? I think it should be keep as an acknowledgement to Britain's contribution to software engineering.

Every time I go to king's cross there is always a massive queue to that trolley thing. HOW WAS THERE NOT ANY FOR YOU??

When I waited for my train at King's Cross this summer, I wrote "Muggles, the REAL Platform 9 3 / 4 is over there!" in the back of an exercise book and stood there with it next to where Tom is there. Next to nobody saw me as it was crowded that day but two women saw me and laughed. Mission accomplished.

"The next train will arrive in 1/2 a minute at platform 0" "Another train will arrive in 4 1/2 minutes at platform 9 3/4"

Cardiff Central also has a platform zero. Don't know if it's temporary, but if so, it's been temporary for at least a decade!

Tom Scott, the one take king.

"It's fictional." That's why I love muggles.

All of these are really interesting, Have you thought of doing a series on things we think we know but are actually false?

It's still not in the main trainshed as shown in the film though. As I recall, that was shot between platforms 4 and 5. And in the second film the exterior shots aren't of King's Cross at all, but of St. Pancras, which is just next door. In fairness though, St. Pancras has always been a much prettier station, a nice holdover from the days of the great railway rivalries when the Midland wanted to stick it to their competitors at the Great Northern.

Dude, you're killing it with these videos. Great job!

Nobody: RU-vid algorithm: let's reccomend this to you now

Oh, that explains why I got into the wrong train and went to Durmstrang’s instead

Here’s a 2020 update: platforms are 0-11, with the tourist 9 and 3/4 in the same place. Platforms 9, 10 and 11 are in the same place as here and the spot between tracks 9 and 10 is the 6 foot way. There are developments going on right now, so what the numbers will be after that is a mystery

In addition to this, the scenes in the films where they run through the arch to get to 9 3/4 is actually the big arch halfway down platforms 4 and 5

I love happy endings.

Of course they put it in the wrong place. It takes the attention off the real platform 9 3/4 so wizards can still get through the real platform without drawing too much attention to themselves.

I can’t imagine how many computer systems will get broken when they renumber the stations

Platform 0, that's something new.

There are two really hard problems in magic: hiding it from muggles, naming spells, and off-by-one mistakes.

was expecting ½ an owl

FACT: Platform 0 is here to stay so forever and ever, 9 3/4 will still be in the wrong place!

They just predicted they would change the numbers. Riddle me that, magic deniers

I haven’t watched one of these in a while,, but one video of Tom passionately gesturing at a wall reminded me why I’m part of this fandom.🤣😍

I knew this one... I learned it when I uselessly tried to find it between 9 and 10 and then I finally discovered that I was in the wrong place. Or better, the platform was in the wrong place...

I like how i got this recommended while watching a guy ran smack to the wall and says its closed

It used to be in the actual location used during the filming and you didn’t have to queue or pay to have your photo taken, but commercial opportunities being what they are...

I really enjoy this short videos from this series (TYMNK) but i would also like to see another about language :)

You pronounced J. K. Rowling's name wrong. It's Rowling like bowling, not Rowling like howling. It seems that's something you might not have known, Tom.

--by which time it will be the only major station in England to have some sort of logic in the way the platforms are numbered.

Tom looks so smug when he finishes explaining everything

Many years ago, before the big refurb of Kings Cross, platforms 9 to 11 were off in a little side section and weren't part of the big main hall at all. There was a little walk from the main hall to this side section and someone had put half a trolley through a wall that you walked past to get to platforms 9+, and a platform 9 3/⁴ sign. This was before the Harry Potter shop and all that gubbins, and it wasn't publicised particularly. I used that little side section on my commute and I always liked being in on this semi-secret.

Platform 9 3/4: "I'm not in the wrong place, everyone else is"

It's also in a different place. It used to be at the end of the platform on the side. But it's now here.

That sort of explains the existence of Platform 0, which I think is rather more interesting than the Platform 9 3/4. Thank you Tom

It's been 7 years...and platform 0 is still there...

The train station at Hogwarts used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Goathland, same place they filmed that TV show "Heartbeat". The car they used in the Chamber of Secrets is also there

Wow, I wanna write a book that makes people renumber all the platforms in a station one day. Pretty disappointed that they didn't make King's Cross and Euston switch names though.

Tom here just told me it is wrong, and then that it will be right eventually. Geez, that was some informational whiplash.

I just got reccomended this video this morning. Later today, I decided to watch a video about teleporting I remember watching 2-3 months ago (according to the comment I left on that video), and I didn't realize they were by the same guy!

There's also a platform 9¾ in Wellington, New Zealand. It's between platforms 6 and 7.

Something else you might not know: Euston station doesn't have a platform between tracks 9 and 10 either.

I'm a train driver who drives trains into King's Cross and I'm sorry to say they are not changing platform 0 to 1 they have keep the platform numbers the same. So it looks like the Harry Potter trolley will always be in the wrong place

You know Tom asks the really important questions so that we don’t have to get up from the arm chair and go check it out ourselves. (Don’t make me come out there!) Tom, you do a great service and you answer the questions I didn’t even know I wanted answers to yet. Amazing. Thank you.

Think you might be wrong about the renumbering of platforms. Platform 0 was created in the area where the PO used to load/unload mail. After the PO stopped using the area (mid 90s) and they decided they needed another platform they converted the location and deliberately did not renumber the platforms to avoid confusion. I don't believe there's ever been any intention to renumber. Also, in the movies, platform 9¾ is actually filmed between platforms 4 and 5. The current location with the trolley half way through the wall is just a convenient place that tourists and fans can visit without having to go onto the platform

I don't think they plan to renumber the platforms. The cost to the signalling changes required is too prohibitive to change every reference to the platforms. It was much cheaper to add a platform reference then change them all. As the "new" platform is on the East side of the station, the only "logical" number they could use was 0.

I like how this isn’t just a pedantic video but pointing out that it would be correct soon after

the platform 9 and 3/4 was moved. i remember the original location of that trolly before they did remodeled King's Cross.

Turns out, the last 20 seconds are useless 6 years later its still platform 0

Can everyone look away for a second, i am just interested in this totally normal wall

Tom, something you might not know is that Network Rail had no intention of renumbering platform 0 to platform 1. It's not just a matter of changing the signs. All the complex signalling pathways, equipment, track circuits and control systems that lead up to KGX (as signallers know it as) would require incredibly invasive reconfiguration just to change the numbers. In short; it just isn't financially viable.

I absolutely love this channel. It's interesting. There's no bs and it's just great. (And your a Brit)

It's in the right place, just at the wrong time

Even in the movies, it's in the wrong place. I think they filmed the movies in Paddington.

6 years later still not changed...

More than three years later, all the redevelopment work is finished, and Kings Cross still has a Platform 0.

i love how he's so enthusiastic about this!

Disappointed that they didn't go the extra mile and put half an owl in there.

It's done to misdirect muggles trying to get through

This is the definition of a Tom Scott video

I would like to see it in 2022,and of course by Tom himself. Kinda an update of this, I hope.

I really needed to know that Tom thanks.

I think it'd be worth to check if it is actually at ¾ distance from platform 8 to 9

..... things you never need to know would be a better name for this channel.

this remembers me that there is a so called platform 9¼ that a school installed just for fun. just sit near it and you'll see/hear a lot of folks who run into it just for fun

I'll be honest, that was indeed something I might not have known

for years (till sometime after 1985)platforms 1 to 7 were under the eastern arch while platforms 8 to 10 were under the western arch and platforms 11,12 and 13 were in the suburban station.

It will become the correct numbered platform? To quote Paul Daniels, "Now, that's magic!"

Some thing I really don't know, @Tomscott, but am wondering about every video you make, is the colour of your hair. Is it blonde going grey? Brownish with blonde streaks? It looks different from every angle.

I admire that the British acknowledge the things that make them part of pop culture instead of thinking their too good for it, like the bank that shares Sherlock Holmes address who receives and responds letters on his behalf.

I was there two weeks ago... it's still between 8 and 9!

was there in 2019, the lines to THE GIFT SHOP were so long, not to mention to the cart

So the title of the video really should be “Platform 9 & 3/4 is in the wrong place... but not for long”

Manual breathing. A constant itch. Blinking.

Fast forward to today, there are no plans to rename Platform 0.

Cheers for this information, I can sleep better tonight.

It's like the universe tried to rearrange itself to accommodate a bit of Potter nonsense.

Before the remodelling, platform 9 3/4 was in the right place. And it also had the cart. And there was no HP shop to buy from.

At Central Railway Station, the largest station in Sydney, Australia, there are 3 sets of terminating rails in between platforms 9 and 10. ie One set of rails for platform 9, a set of rails in between with no adjacent platform, then the third set of rails for platform 10. A train would be able to drive in and 'park' on the middle set of rails, but to get off the train you'd need to climb down and walk across the other tracks, then climb up to platform 9 or 10. A train 'parked' on this middle set of rails would have to reverse out again to go anywhere, as all three rails end at Central. It's kind of weird, this extra set of rails doesn't seem to have a purpose .... unless there is some mysterious invisible platform in between.

The proper 9 3/4 is three quarters of the way between platform nine and ten. The best thing about it is there’s no 1 hour queue

So it's in the right place, just ahead of its time.

thank god it is now in the right place.

Three years later it's still in the wrong place!

Honestly this format lends itself well to TikTok and Shorts these days

Forgive me lord for I have ascended higher than you with this knowledge

Tom Scott and Harry Potter in one video. I can die in peace now.

That's why I couldn't find it when I was there :P