Credit: @jk_rowling via Twitter

This kid’s had more birthplaces than Elvis.

For as long as the Harry Potter series has been in the public consciousness, people have repeatedly asked J.K. Rowling where and when she first came up with the idea. For a long time, the prevailing theory was that she came up with the concept while on a Manchester-London train, but various other spots around the world, from humble cafes to glorious libraries have taken credit. After some prodding on Twitter, Rowling finally decided to let the owl of the bag.

As it turns out, the Manchester-London train theory is technically true, but only halfway. The train is where Rowling came up with the idea of a boy in a wizard school, but it was not where she first started it. No, according to Rowling’s Twitter, the very first time she put pen to paper to write out the life of the young Mister Potter was in a humble flat in Clapham Junction.

This is the true birthplace of Harry Potter, if you define 'birthplace' as the spot where I put pen to paper for the first time.* I was renting a room in a flat over what was then a sports shop. The first bricks of Hogwarts were laid in a flat in Clapham Junction. pic.twitter.com/HVORnPVboK

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 21, 2020

The topic was first broached when a fan tweeted a picture of the Elephant House, a cafe in Edinburgh, to Rowling. The cafe rather prominently displays the sentence “”birthplace” of Harry Potter” on its sign. Rowling admitted that while the cafe was very much not the birthplace of the series, but she definitely did write there a few times, so she’s fine with letting them keep the sign up.

I was thinking of putting a section on my website about all the alleged inspirations and birthplaces of Potter. I’d been writing Potter for several years before I ever set foot in this cafe, so it’s not the birthplace, but I *did* write in there so we’ll let them off! https://t.co/xDOsrbiZwu

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 21, 2020

Rowling mentioned that one of her favorite theories about Potter inspiration landmarks was a parking meter in Edinburgh she allegedly used while writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is completely false because, in Rowling’s own words, “I can’t drive.”