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I know that the students have to change into robes before arriving at Hogwarts, but where do they do this? They usually seem to just get members of the opposite sex to leave the carriage, pull down the blinds, and then put on the robes.

So, are there toilets on the Hogwarts express?

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    "Where exactly the Hogwarts Express came from has never been conclusively proven, although it is a fact that there are secret records at the Ministry of Magic detailing a mass operation involving one hundred and sixty-seven Memory Charms and the largest ever mass Concealment Charm performed in Britain. The morning after these alleged crimes, a gleaming scarlet steam engine and carriages astounded the villagers of Hogsmeade (who had also not realised they had a railway station)"; pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-hogwarts-express - Muggle trains invariably have toilets.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:27
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    @Randal'Thor - What you are describing are local trains. Perhaps I should have said long-distance trains invariably have toilets.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:41
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    tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobodyPoops
    – TGnat
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:48
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    @MikasaPinata - don't pay attention to naysayers. It's a perfectly valid question. Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 5:09
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3 Answers 3

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Yep, absolutely.

The journey home on the Hogwarts Express next day was eventful in several ways. Firstly, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - p.761 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 38, The Second War Begins

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  • @Skooba I like railways so I liked your answer, but yeah, it was in the books :P
    – Au101
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:53
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    @Skooba Nope, don't have any ebooks, this is the old fashioned way - having read the books too many times and thumbing through my treasured hard backs for the exact bit :P Still, they're only four paces away :P
    – Au101
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:55
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    @Au101 +1 for a brilliant find. I've read the whole series (exept the cursed child) about 20 times from cover to cover and I still wasn't sure about this before I read your answer. So good job!!
    – Renttutar
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 9:44
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TL;DR - YES; because Muggle trains from the same period would have had bathrooms, and the Hogwarts Express started as a Muggle one.


I preface this answer knowning full well the many in the SFF.SE community refer to the films as "nonsense", however off I go!


The train used in the films to portray the Hogwarts Express was the Olton Hall, no. 5972, 4-6-0 Hall class locomotive. This locomotive was built in 1937 (with the first Hall class being built in 1928). This would mean it was probably not the first engine to be used as the Express, but even with reading the Hogwarts Express piece on Pottermore, it is hard pin down an exact in-service date for the train. I would assume that coaches are from the same period (but the newer the coaches are the even likelier chance of them having a bathroom).

As toilets would probably be considered a necessity on trains traveling inter-city, bathrooms were installed on the passenger trains. Early trains used a hopper toilet, which would deposit the waste directly on the tracks.

Now the Hogwarts Express was a Muggle train (as we see in the above linked Pottermore article) and was modified before being put in magical service.

The Hogwarts Express underwent several magical modifications before the Ministry approved it for school use. Many pure-blood families were outraged at the idea of their children using Muggle transport, which they claimed was unsafe, insanitary and demeaning; however, as the Ministry decreed that students either rode the train or did not attend school, the objections were swiftly silenced.

One would surely hope that one of the "magical modifications" was not to remove sanitary facilities!

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Yes, there are. Some people are comfortable changing in their cabins, but others change in the bathrooms. It is a long journey, so there are toilets, definitely.

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    Do you have a source for this answer?
    – Blackwood
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:12
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    @Blackwood everyone poops?!
    – Himarm
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:21
  • @Himarm I agree it's a reasonable assumption, but the answer includes more than that and reads as though it is meant to be authoritative.
    – Blackwood
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:25

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