What do Beer, Biology and Harry Potter have in common?

As beer drinkers know, sometimes the name of a beer will catch your eye and you think "I have got to try it".  I do this all the time and usually it works better in picking an interesting beer than it does when I employ the method to pick a winner in the Kentucky Derby.  Thus, when we walked into The Lamb, a beautiful old pub in Leadenhall market, I could not help but be fascinated by Waggle Dance and Hummingbird, taps wisely poised next to each other.

I chose a pint of Waggle Dance, a light ale from the Wells and Young's brewery, which contains fair trade honey.  So now I find I have two reasons to like the beer, a great name and good economic policies.  What is a waggle dance?  Honey bees send out scouts to look for food.  When a good source of nectar is found, the scouts return to the hive and complete a rather complex dance to communicate the location.  The dance involves a series of semicircles and hind waggles to give flight directions and distance to help the other bees find the food.

There's the beer and biology, but where, you may ask, does Harry Potter fit in?  Some exterior shots for the Leakey Caldron and Diagon Alley were filmed here in Leadenhall Market.  Leadenhall Market has existed since the 14th century, but the building that stands here now is a grand Victorian structure dating from the later 19th century.   Most of Diagon Alley was a beautifully constructed movie set, which you can now take a virtual "stroll" along thanks to Google maps and Warner Bros Studios. Check it out.