Which Harry Potter book did J.K. Rowling write in a café in Edinburgh?

J.K. Rowling wrote parts of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in an Edinburgh café. The first book was developed over several years, and Rowling worked on it in different locations while caring for her daughter and living in Scotland.

The café most often associated with the writing is Nicolson’s Café, later known as the Elephant House. Rowling has said that she wrote in several places, so the popular claim that the entire novel was written there is inaccurate. The café became a literary tourist site because of its connection with the book’s early development.

Rowling began imagining Harry Potter in 1990 during a delayed train journey from Manchester to London. She then planned much of the series before drafting the first novel. The manuscript was completed in the mid-1990s, acquired by Bloomsbury and published in 1997. The Edinburgh café is therefore linked to the first novel, not to the whole seven-book series.