It's hard to believe that 15 years have passed since J.K. Rowling put the finishing touches on the 7th and final Harry Potter novel while staying in room 552 of The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh. The author walked out of the hotel on January 11, 2007, with the series complete — bringing to a close an extraordinary 17 years of work.
Choosing The Perfect Writing Place
Home, according to Rowling, was simply too full of distractions, and she needed somewhere tranquil to wrap up her book. During a 2010 interview with Oprah, she explained how she had once gone to a café, surrounded herself with a different kind of background noise, and worked that way for years and years and years. So when it came time to seek out peace and quiet, she found herself at the magnificent Balmoral Hotel — even though staying there hadn't originally been part of the plan. Writers, as she suggested, can be a little superstitious, and because that first day of writing went so well, she kept coming back. Ultimately, she wrote the last two Harry Potter books at this hotel. Hardly anyone knew she was there, which allowed her the privacy she needed to bring the beloved series to its conclusion.
An Ode To A Series
Once the book was done, Rowling left her mark in a rather unconventional way — she graffitied a marble bust of the god Hermes. Her inscription on the statue read, "J.K. Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (552) on January 11, 2007."
As one might expect, Rowling faced no consequences for this bit of vandalism. In fact, the inscription is now proudly displayed in the hotel suite, protected under glass. In time, the suite itself came to be known as the J.K. Rowling Suite.