Watercress Line gets Kings Cross 'Harry Potter' bridge

Harry Potter fans would visit the bridge before it was removed in December 2009

A footbridge at London's King's Cross station that featured in the Harry Potter films is to be reinstalled on a Hampshire steam railway.

The 118-year-old Handyside Bridge will be moved to the Mid Hants Railway in December.

The bridge will span lines at Ropley to allow visitors to view the steam locomotives from above.

The heritage railway, known as the Watercress Line, runs from New Alresford to Alton.

The Handyside Bridge, which was erected in Kings Cross in 1893, was removed in 2009 as part of the station's £500m redevelopment.

Before it was removed, Network Rail said the only people still using it were Harry Potter fans and station staff.

'Railway heritage'

The iron bridge was transported to Eastleigh on the back of nine lorries, where it is being shot-blasted and repainted.

Paddy Pugh, English Heritage's planning director for London, said: "For over 100 years the Handyside Bridge had been a distinctive and well-known part of King's Cross Station, but the transformation of this great Victorian building into a 21st century railway terminus meant that it needed a new home.

"English Heritage is delighted that the bridge has now found that new home on the Watercress Line where it can continue to be part of England's outstanding railway heritage."

In the Harry Potter movies and books, the station was the boarding point for the Hogwarts Express.