Close To Holmes Read online

  First edition published in 2009

  © Copyright 2009

  Alistair Duncan

  The right of Alistair Duncan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

  All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

  Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book, as of the date of publication, nothing herein should be construed as giving advice. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not of MX Publishing.

  Paperback ISBN 9781904312502

  Published in the UK by MX Publishing

  335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive, London, N11 3GX

  www.mx-publishing.co.uk

  This book is dedicated to my wife (my own Mary Morstan) and to the memory of Pippa

  Contents

  About the author

  Acknowledgements

  Foreword

  Introduction

  Baker Street

  Upper Wimpole Street to Regent Street

  Regent Street to Pall Mall

  Pall Mall

  Northumberland Avenue and its hotel mysteries

  The Strand

  The Lyceum Theatre and William Gillette

  Sherlock Holmes and the railways

  British Museum and Museum Tavern

  Holborn

  Tottenham Court Road

  Covent Garden

  St Bartholomew’s Hospital

  Brook Street

  Scotland Yard

  Royal College of Surgeons

  Kennington Road

  The Three Norwoods

  Croydon

  Conclusion

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the author

  Alistair Duncan is an I.T. Consultant and Sherlock Holmes enthusiast. Since the early 1980s he has been a fan of the Great Detective and in February 2008 he released his first book Eliminate the Impossible which was a look at the Sherlock Holmes stories and films. He is a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and a member of the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment.

  He lives with his wife in South London.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to formally acknowledge the following:

  Steve Ball, Catherine Cooke (Sherlock Holmes Collection: Marylebone Library, Westminster Libraries), Phil Cornell (Vice-President of the Sydney Passengers), Christine Corner et al. (Croydon Local Studies Library), Crystal Palace Library, John Hickman, Roger Johnson (Sherlock Holmes Society of London), Brian Pugh and Paul Spiring (authors of Bertram Fletcher Robinson - A Footnote to the Hound of the Baskervilles).

  Efforts have been made to identify material still under copyright and seek permission for use. If I have overlooked any item the copyright holder is asked to contact the publisher so that the matter can be rectified in any future edition of this book.

  Cover design by Staunch with central illustration by Phil Cornell.

  Foreword

  Of the dozen or so guides to Sherlock Holmes’s London there are two that I recommend to visitors: Arthur Alexander’s Hot on the Scent and Thomas Wheeler’s Finding Sherlock’s London. Now, thanks to Alistair Duncan, I’ll have to add a third.

  The point being that the three books complement each other. Mr Alexander offers thirty-five walking tours, all within an area stretching from Whitechapel in the east to Kensington in the west, and all enhanced with anecdote and description. Mr Wheeler deals with each story separately, directing the traveller to the nearest Underground station to each site, and pithily summarising the essential details.

  Mr Duncan takes a different approach, as the subtitle of this book indicates. Most importantly, it is, I think, the first of its kind to give equal emphasis to those places associated with Arthur Conan Doyle. We may have wondered why so many of Sherlock Holmes’s cases took him south of the Thames, but Alistair Duncan makes all clear: that was the part of London that his creator knew best.

  Reading Close to Holmes we feel that we are in the company of a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and witty friend. He guides us through most, but not all, of Holmesian London. He doesn’t follow Irene Adler to St John’s Wood, or Charles Augustus Milverton to Hampstead, but perhaps that would have taken us too far from Conan Doyle. On the other hand, in mentioning “The Priory School,” an investigation that took place far from the capital, he advances an interesting and, as far as I’m aware, original idea about the location of “Mackleton” in the Peak District.

  In any case, I couldn’t possibly be unenthusiastic about a book that features a photograph of the beautiful Maude Fealy! (Intrigued? Then read on…)

  Roger Johnson

  Editor, The Sherlock Holmes Journal

  Introduction

  One of the great aspects of the Sherlock Holmes stories is that he operated in a world that still, to a certain extent, exists. When it comes to London this is even truer as a large number of the streets and buildings that existed in the time of Holmes still exist today. Some have changed significantly others have not but it is still very much possible to walk those streets and imagine what it might have been like to have walked them at the end of the nineteenth century.

  The idea for this book came about when I was writing my first book - Eliminate the Impossible. I intended that it should include a section on locations in London with a connection to the stories. However it soon became apparent that this was a project in its own right and consequently it was left out of that book to be included in this volume.

  It also seemed appropriate that this work should not limit itself to areas with links to Holmes but that it should also extend itself to his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As we look at each location we shall not only look at some of its history but we shall also see in what way it was linked to either Holmes or Conan Doyle and we will also look, in some cases, at the theories about these locations in relation to the Holmes stories.

  One cannot hope to cover a subject such as this comprehensively and my choice of locations may seem odd to some readers. Many of the locations will be expected as to omit them would have been absurd (Baker Street for example). Similarly some will be unexpected and where this occurs I hope you will appreciate why they were included and learn something new.

  I very much hope that this book illustrates how the London of Conan Doyle and Holmes both has and has not changed and that it also helps you to tread those streets yourself.

  Alistair Duncan, London 2009

  Baker Street

  Arguably Baker Street is the ultimate destination for the Sherlock Holmes fan. As most Sherlockians are aware, in the time of Holmes 221b Baker Street did not exist as an address and the part of the street where the Sherlock Holmes museum is situated used to be referred to as Upper Baker Street. Interestingly, in his original manuscript for A Study in Scarlet, Conan Doyle described Holmes and Watson as living in Upper Baker Street but changed it to the regular Baker Street prior to publication. Naturally there has been much speculation as to the location of the house that Conan Doyle really had in mind.

  Sherlock Holmes Museum at ‘221b’ Baker Street (2007)

  The initial reference to Upper Baker Street in the manuscript does lend some weight to the suggestion that Conan Doyle did have the address of the present museum in mind. The house is representativ
e of the period and the layout both inside and out conforms very much (but not totally) to the descriptions provided by Conan Doyle throughout the stories. The museum management’s belief that they occupy the ‘real’ 221b is largely based on these similarities.

  However, as with most aspects of Sherlockian study, there are many competing ideas about the location of 221b with some books detailing theories that the actual site is around the 30s1. These theories are often based upon the descriptions of the surrounding streets that appear in some of the stories2. The problem with any of these theories is that they are destined to remain just that as there are no known notes of Conan Doyle’s that detail the exact address. Given that he was partial to inventing addresses and sometimes entire streets it is quite possible that the 221b of the books is an amalgamation of several addresses. This is the easiest explanation for why people believe it to be in so many different places.

  In the 1930s Upper Baker Street was absorbed into the main Baker Street and the street numbers were reallocated. As a result number 221 was one of those allocated to Abbey House which was built in 1932. This building, which was occupied by the Abbey National Bank until 2002, is a huge Art Deco construction that covers numbers 215 to 229. A commemorative plaque exists on its outside to signify its association (albeit tenuous) with the great detective. As soon as it was renumbered the bank started to receive letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes and they arrived at such a rate that an employee was appointed full time to answer them. The late Richard Lancelyn Green edited a collection of these letters which were published in paperback by Penguin3.

  The plaque on the wall of Abbey House – unveiled by Jeremy Brett on October 7th 1985

  Between May and September 1951 Abbey House was also home to the Sherlock Holmes Exhibition which was part of the Festival of Britain.

  The Catalogue for the 1951 Sherlock Holmes Exhibition (Reproduced with the permission of the Sherlock Holmes Collection: Marylebone Library, Westminster Libraries)

  An adult admission ticket for the Sherlock Holmes exhibition (Reproduced with the permission of the Sherlock Holmes Collection: Marylebone Library, Westminster Libraries)

  The exhibition consisted of over two hundred items and each of these was listed in the exhibition catalogue. All manner of photographs, paintings, books and letters were featured and many of the items were lent by members of the Conan Doyle family. One of the most notable exhibits was the desk at which Conan Doyle had written many of the Holmes adventures. It was one of the many items that made up the recreation of the sitting room of 221b put together by Michael Weight. Another significant item was a dressing gown which had previously belonged to Sidney Paget, the famous Holmes illustrator, and was lent by Winifred Paget.

  The 221b recreation was undoubtedly the centrepiece of the exhibition and after it closed it was purchased by Whitbread who have since had it on display at the Sherlock Holmes Public House (see later). It remained the only recreation of 221b in London until 1990 when the Sherlock Holmes museum opened.

  The museum enjoys the distinction of being one of the most successful private museums in the country. Visit on almost any day (the museum is only closed on Christmas Day) and you will find it full of curious visitors posing for photographs seated in Holmes’s chair and generally wearing a deerstalker hat. However the chances are that the majority of these visitors will be what might be regarded as casual fans of Holmes rather than serious enthusiasts. The reason for this stems from the fact that the museum generated a considerable amount of controversy both before and after it opened for business. Conan Doyle’s daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, was against the museum from the outset. She was very much opposed to the idea of encouraging the belief that her father’s famous creation was a real person and knew that the presence of the museum would clearly go contrary to that wish4.

  The other aspect of the museum that excites comment, particularly amongst Sherlockian societies, is the presence of a commemorative blue plaque on the outside which states the building’s link with the great detective. At first glance it appears similar to the blue plaques issued by English Heritage but it is not one of theirs and is slightly different in design. The plaque, which was unveiled in the same year that the museum opened, was in fact commissioned by the museum itself.

  In 1994 the museum and Abbey House became involved in a dispute over the 221b address. The museum desired to officially renumber itself as 221b and receive Holmes’s mail. They lost the argument and had to adopt a different approach. They registered 221b as a company name which allowed them to display the number above the door without any kind of official permission. This was not popular with Westminster City Council but the number remains to this day. Since the Abbey National’s departure from Abbey House all mail addressed to 221b has been delivered to the museum.

  The ground floor of the museum is free to enter and is dedicated to selling various items to do with Holmes and the Victorian era. It also sells a large number of more general items. Importantly it is from within the shop that the tickets to enter the main museum are purchased. The adjacent door leads to the foot of the steps leading up to the sitting room. The first thing that strikes you, when you reach the top of the stairs and make your way along the landing, is the small size of the sitting room. This is due to the fact that most films inaccurately portray 221b Baker Street as a rather palatial address and thus this is what most people expect to see.

  The appearance and layout of the rooms within the museum are broadly accurate and do a very good job of creating the appropriate atmosphere. It has to be said that only the dedicated enthusiast is likely to spot anything overtly amiss and the museum remains the only place in London where you can experience what it might have been like to have lived in Holmes’s world.

  Aside from Abbey House and the museum there are other Sherlockian areas of interest in the vicinity. In 1999 the Abbey National sponsored the creation of a bronze statue of Sherlock Holmes and this stands outside of the Baker Street Underground station on Marylebone Road. Prior to 1991 there was also a Moriarty’s Bar located just inside the entrance to the station but this was forced to close when London Transport introduced a ban on the sale of alcohol on any of its premises.5

  The final word on Baker Street must be reserved for the Sherlock Holmes Memorabilia Company which closed in 2006 after fourteen years. It sold a fascinating selection of Holmes related items from key rings to rare editions of the stories. It was also host to an exhibition of the props from the Granada Sherlock Holmes series that starred the late Jeremy Brett. The reason for its position on Baker Street was that it claimed to occupy the site of the ‘empty house’ from where Colonel Sebastian Moran took aim at what turned out to be a bust of Holmes. It is therefore perhaps fitting that due to rising rents the house is empty once more.

  Statue of Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street Underground Station (2007)

  Example of a letter sent by the Abbey National in response to a request for Holmes’s assistance

  1 For further details on this see Baker Street By-Ways by James Edward Holroyd.

  2 The Empty House is one of the stories from which many of the location theories are derived.

  3 The Penguin book is entitled Letters to Sherlock Holmes.

  4 Source: 221 Beware (an article by Jean Upton).

  5 Source: The Pictorial History of Sherlock Holmes by Michael Pointer.

  Upper Wimpole Street to Regent Street

  Upper Wimpole Street and Wimpole Street run parallel to Harley Street and, as with that famous street, they are dominated by medical practices. The streets are named after Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire which was owned by the Harley family who gave their name to neighbouring Harley Street.

  The door of number 2 Upper Wimpole Street (2008)

  Wimpole Street first came into being in around 1724 and from the early 1800s it became popular with doctors as did Harley Street and Queen Anne Street (see later). However Wimpole Street soon became the street of choice for opticians and dentists
. Number one Wimpole Street is the home of the Royal Society of Medicine which moved to the location in 1912 and the street’s dental connections are strengthened by the presence of both the British Dental Association and the General Dental Council.

  What makes these streets of interest to the fan of Conan Doyle is the fact that number two Upper Wimpole Street was home for a few months to Conan Doyle’s short-lived ophthalmic practice.

  A close up of the plaque erected by Westminster City Council (2008)

  Conan Doyle lived a relatively short distance away in Montague Place (see later). He had been living there since March 1891 and travelled each day on foot to his consulting rooms in Upper Wimpole Street.

  Unfortunately it is a matter of record that his practice was a disaster from a medical standpoint as not one patient set foot through the door during the entire time he leased the property. On the other hand this was a godsend from a literary standpoint as it gave him the time to devote to his fledgling writing career.

  Only a short time after setting up in Upper Wimpole Street, Conan Doyle sent his agent the manuscript for A Scandal in Bohemia. He wrote in his diary on April 3rd 1891 that he had submitted the manuscript, signed it at the end and had given his address as 2 Upper Wimpole Street6.

  The fact that he did so on this and other correspondence was fortunate as there was later to be some considerable confusion over where his ophthalmic practice had actually been. This confusion was caused by none other than Conan Doyle himself.

  In August 1892, after his move from Montague Place to South Norwood (see later), Conan Doyle gave an interview to the Strand Magazine in which he briefly described the time that he became interested in ophthalmic medicine and how he came to open a practice in Upper Wimpole Street. However by the time he wrote his autobiography his memory of events appeared to have changed. He described himself as occupying rooms at 2 Devonshire Place which is the next street up from Upper Wimpole Street.