YouTube star to open Harry Potter inspired magic shop on Derbyshire high street

Matlock resident Cherry Wallis, 34, has spent six months stirring away at the Lost Cauldron, on Matlock Green, ready for a spellbinding grand opening on Saturday, April 27, 10am to 6pm.

She said: “It’s probably the hardest, most challenging passion project I’ve ever taken on. I’ve visited a lot of magical shops to make videos over the years, showing my audience these beautiful places. I always feel happy in them, so I’ve created my dream shop.

“I wanted to diversify a little bit, and I’m in the fortunate position to do so. I can’t think of anyone else in my industry who’s gone from online into a shop like this, so I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m really looking forward to letting people through the doors.”

Anticipation has been bubbling away, with Cherry regularly clocking up around 250,000 viewers for her videos about renovating the former hair salon via the YouTube account she has run for more than a decade.

She said: “It’s just exploded. There’s been a lot of interest and supportive comments from people who are excited to come and see it on Saturday. We’ve had a lot of passers-by trying to sneak a glimpse into the shop too while we’ve been working on it.

“It was an empty shell when we got here, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing it transform into what it is today. The vision we had for it has come to life like a magical set.”

Both Cherry and business partner Leslie Lenaghen are self-described perfectionists who have been hands-on with every detail of the shop, from building bespoke furniture to fixing gilded stars to the ceiling, all while designing and curating the product range.

Cherry, who has filmed with many of the famous names associated with Hogwarts, said: “It’s a mix between witchcraft and Harry Potter – a little bit of everything that might appeal to people who love the wizarding world, and things you won’t see in many other shops.

“We have our own exclusive candle range, crystals, sage sticks, stationery, pin badges, all sorts of gifts, and we’re official stockists of MinaLima, the design studio behind the graphic props of the Harry Potter films and the illustrated books.

“There are even plushy owls which can be adopted by younger witches and wizards. We really hope they’ll feel all the magic between our walls.”

So far the project has been more blood-and-sweat than hocus pocus, but Cherry is now free to focus on first weeks of trading, when she will be in store every day before handing over the reins to the full-time staff.

She said: “Doing YouTube can be quite a lonely and isolating job, I miss the interaction with real people and I’ve not done any meet-and-greets since Covid.

“I hope we won’t break Matlock, but that in the long-run we can bring a lot more people into town and support the other wonderful local businesses we have here.”

For updates from the shop, follow @lostcauldron on Facebook or Instagram.

For all Cherry’s videos, check out youtube.com/@cherrywallis.

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