Sherlock Holmes Museum

SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM

Sherlock Holmes was the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Raised in  genteel poverty, the author was the eldest son of a Scottish failed painter turned civil servant, who consoled himself with fishing and drink. His mother was Irish and said to have been a cultured, strong-minded woman. As a child, it was said of Conan Doyle that he, ‘might come home with a bloodied nose. No sooner was he in the door than his head was buried in a book.’ After university he qualified as a doctor and he began writing the stories to fill his time whilst waiting for patients, a luxury which today’s U.K. National Health doctors can only dream of. As an adult, Conan Doyle lost his Catholic faith and later became interested in spiritualism. His first wife appeared in his writings as Dr Watson’s wife. A keen sportsman, he was instrumental in raising the popularity of skiing in the United Kingdom and imported amongst the first sets of skis from Norway. Also an avid cricketer, he only ever took one wicket, nevertheless a wicket of historical significance, as he dismissed W.G. Grace, considered by many to be the greatest cricketer of all time, for one hundred and ten runs.

The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes was in the 1887 publication of Beeton’s Christmas Annual. The character was an eccentric and brilliant London based consulting detective, prone to much logical reasoning, who used his abilities as a master of disguise to help solve his cases. Sherlock Holmes was partially modelled on Conan Doyle’s university professor, Dr Joseph Bell, whose tendency to draw large conclusions from the smallest of observations was given to the fictional sleuth. Conan Doyle bestowed Holmes with many idiosyncratic habits, such as starving himself during periods of feverish mental activity, or his tendency to be a messy hoarder who knew exactly where whatever he wanted was to found.

Sherlock Holmes was a habitual user of cocaine, which he customarily injected in a seven per cent solution. He was also an occasional user of morphine, but he strongly disapproved of visiting opium dens, preferring to consume narcotics in the privacy of his lodgings. Doctor Watson, his only true friend, disapproved of his friend’s cocaine habit. Sherlock Holmes was a dispassionate man and he may have used cocaine to try to open his calcified heart. Throughout the stories, the only pleasure Sherlock Holmes derived from the company of women were the problems they brought him to solve and on those occasions he sparkled. Apart from mention of his bouts of boxing as a young man, he avoided physical contact. In one story Doctor Watson noted of his companion, ‘there is something positively inhuman in you at times.’ Doctor Watson was his only true friend. He provided practical assistance and played the role of Holmes’s chronicler. They developed a symbiotic relationship and for his part, Holmes supplied his mental vigour and the excitement that came from his extraordinary endeavours. 

At one point Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tired of Sherlock Holmes. He wrote to his mother, ‘I think of slaying Holmes…and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind off better things.’ So Conan Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty apparently plunge to their deaths down the Reichenbach Falls in the 1893 tale ‘The Final Problem.’  The public uproar resulted in Holmes being brought back, but not before twenty thousand readers of Strand Magazine had cancelled their subscriptions. Sherlock Holmes ultimately featured in fifty-six short stories and four novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle developed many layers to the detective’s character and so convincingly was Holmes’s complicated persona brought to life in the readers’ minds that many began to forget that he was fictional character.

This confusion as to whether Sherlock Holmes was a real person or not has compounded down the decades and in many ways it is hardly surprising, as there is much to help feed the enduring popularity of the detective. In 1999 a nine feet high bronze of Sherlock Holmes was unveiled outside of Baker Street Underground Station in London. It has been described as ‘bearing some resemblance to the real Sherlock Holmes’ and such comments only add a vitality to Conan Doyle’s hero. On the opposite side of the road from the statue can be found the Sherlock Holmes pub. There are frequent Sherlock Holmes walking tours with guides enthusiastically recounting all the exploits of the great detective.  A commemorative blue plaque is even displayed on Baker Street, similar to those issued by English Heritage, which further adds to confusion over his existence or not. 

For many years a financial institution occupied the site of 221b and their employees always answered the fan mail. On average a staggering twenty letters were received each day and all were answered saying that Holmes has retired to Sussex where he is keeping bees, as was written in the final story. The bank moved out in 2002 and now the fan mail is directed to the nearby Sherlock Holmes Museum.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is located at 231-241 Baker Street in central London, which is located only a short walk from the sleuth’s lodgings at 221b Baker Street. According to the stories, Holmes lived at this address between 1881 and 1904. Curiously, a real Doctor Watson, a manufacturer of artificial teeth, was found to have lived next door to the museum in the 1890’s.  It also transpired that a maid who worked in the lodging house that occupied the museum’s building in the 1930’s was related to a man by the name of Holmes.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum was founded in 1989 and opened its doors in 1990. It occupies a former Victorian lodging house, last used in 1936 and the rooms are faithfully maintained as they would originally have been. The first floor study overlooks Baker Street and it recreates much of what happened within its walls. There is evidence of the detective’s sometimes objectionable habits that Doctor Watson tells of, for example, bullet holes from Holmes’s shooting practise are marked in the wall forming ‘VR’ for Victoria Regina. Elsewhere, there is a carefully placed cigar in a butter dish. Tobacco can be seen in his slipper on top of the mantelpiece and a number of discarded opium needles can be spotted by the careful observer to spot.

Sherlock Holmes’s bedroom is adjoining the study and opposite it are stairs leading up to the second floor. Here can be found Doctor Watson’s bedroom and opposite is the landlady Mrs Hudson’s room, where she would lie in bed, sometimes disturbed by Holmes’s late night, cocaine addled violin playing. There is a further floor above, with wax figures of characters familiar from the stories. To accompany the visit, Sherlock Holmes buffs are offered a questionnaire to fill out for entertainment as they move along. After completing the tour of the rooms, a cafe bearing Mrs Hudson’s name offers Victorian cuisine and afternoon teas. A memorabilia shop sells books, replicas of his typical pipe, deerstalker hats and walking canes, etc.

A man dressed in a Victorian policeman’s outfit is usually positioned to greet visitors at the entrance to the museum. An elderly chap is generally seen, acting as Dr Watson, who guides the visitors and offers friendly chit-chat. Out of work actors, seemingly hired for their Holmes-like large noses, distribute his calling card whilst standing at the entrance to Baker Street London Underground Station. Wearing the sleuth’s customary attire, they spend the day having their photograph taken with tourists before encouragingly pointing them in the direction of the museum. 

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is open every day of the year except for Christmas Day between 9.30am and 6pm. The museum staff says that most people spend between half an hour to forty-five minutes looking around. There is no disabled access except for the shop and restaurant. Photography is permitted for non-commercial purposes. The museum is managed by members of the ‘Sherlock Holmes International Society’.

Where to view Sherlock Holmes Museum and video clips of London

London in Motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Sherlock Holmes Museum’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.