JK Rowling ‘secretly’ bought childhood cottage that's home to Harry Potter’s cupboard under the stairs

Property's walls said to 'echo the corridors of Hogwarts'

JK Rowling has “secretly” bought her childhood home, which is said to have inspired several moments from the Harry Potter series.

According to the BBC, the author is reportedly now renovating the cottage in Tutshill – that she lived in between the ages of nine and 18 – after purchasing it for approximately £400,000 in September 2011.

The company that bought the property, Edinburgh-based Caernarfon Lettings Ltd, lists Rowling’s husband Neil Murray as a director.

When the house was up for sale, reports said that the cottage’s Gothic-style “echoes the corridors of Hogwarts”.

There is also a cupboard under the stairs, which mirrors that of the one Petunia Dursley forced the boy wizard to sleep in when he wasn’t at school.

Even the name of cottage’s village is featured in the book series: Tutshill is one of the teams that play popular sport Quidditch.

Julian Macer, the BBC producer who Rowling bought the house from, once said that Potter fans used to regularly make pilgrimages, believing the building to be the “home of Harry Potter”.

In one room, the words: ”Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982” can be found written on the wall.