Walking In The Footsteps Of Sherlock Holmes Across London

The utter failure of his medical practice gave Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plenty of time to write about a consulting detective who solves crimes by applying deduction and logic. It is believed that Sir Arthur was inspired by Dr Joseph Bell, one of his tutors from medical school in Edinburgh, while creating the character. Dr Bell’s great grandfather— Benjamin Bell was credited with the invention of the science of deduction. In the early drafts of A Study of Scarlet, which was initially called A Tangled Skein, Sir Arthur described ‘Sherringford Holmes’ as someone who works in a chemical laboratory and collects rare violins.

However, he didn’t want Holmes to be the narrator of the story, so he created Ormond Sacker, who had seen military service in Sudan. In the story that finally got published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in August 1887, Sir Arthur changed Sacker to Dr John Watson, an invalid military doctor who was shot in the shoulder in Afghanistan. Since then, the duo has gone to enjoy stellar careers in books, on stage, in film, and on television.

On a chilly November morning, I joined a motley group of Sherlockians (as Holmes fans refer themselves as) to explore places in Central London featured in Sir Arthur’s original stories and locations that have featured in numerous film and television adaptations of the detective’s great adventures. Like the first original story, my Holmes adventure started at the Savini at Criterion, at Piccadilly Circus.

It was here at the Criterion Bar that Watson learns from an old friend about ‘a fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital (St Bartholomew’s)’, looking for someone to share lodgings with. This is also where I met my guide from Brit Movie Tours. “My name is Michael. If you haven’t enjoyed the tour for whatever reason, my name is James Moriarty,” he says in greeting.

For the next two hours, as we traipsed along Pall Mall and The Strand in the cold November rain, he kept us engaged with Holmesian trivia generously peppered with classic Conan Doyle Brit humour. In his stories, Sir Arthur never described Holmes wearing a deerstalker cap and the Inverness cape. Sidney Paget, an illustrator at The Strand Magazine that published most of the Holmes stories, added this detail.

The second stop on our walk is the Burlington House, home to the Royal Academy of Arts , of which Paget was a member. This was also a location in Murder by Decree (1979) that featured Christopher Plummer as Holmes. In this multi-award winning film, Holmes is investigating murders committed by Jack The Ripper. Plummer, who is best known as Captain Georg von Trapp from The Sound of Music 0(1965), had another Holmes connection.

The author, who was one of the many eminent members of the library, featured it in The Adventures of the Illustrious Client, where Holmes asks Watson to go the library and learn as much as he can about Chinese pottery in 24 hours. The 150-year-old Charing Cross Hotel (now Amba Hotel Charing Cross) was a favourite of the author and appeared in multiple stories. In front of the Charing Cross Hotel, is where Holmes caught a spy in the Hound of the Baskervilles; where Watson banked (and kept his box of notes); where, just across the street, they sent off urgent telegrams. Irene Adler made her first appearance in the Holmes sagas as a resident of the Charing Cross Hotel in A Scandal in Bohemia.

NAME GAME

The protagonist of the series was originally called ‘Sherrinford’, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle later changed it to ‘Sherlock’ after a cricketer he was a big fan of.

Near Charing Cross Hotel is the Sherlock Holmes Pub, a mecca of sorts for Sherlockians. “In 1951, there was a small exhibition of Sherlock Holmes paraphernalia. This included objects Sir Arthur Conan Doyle collected through his life. The exhibition is housed there, in what was originally called the Northumberland Arms, but subsequently renamed as the Sherlock Holmes Pub,” adds Michael. Exhibits inside the pub include a facsimile mounted head of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson’s newly framed portrait of General Gordon, and on the first floor is a reproduction of the sitting room of 221 Bakers Street complete with bullet holes on the wall. The pub is close to the ‘Turkish baths’ frequented by Holmes and Watson in the stories.

Gentlemen’s Clubs are an integral part of Holmes’ sagas and Doyle drew inspiration from many to create the fictional Diogenes Club that Holmes’ brother Mycroft belongs to. The Reform Club on the iconic Pall Mall was a location used in the first Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes film. “There is such a strict dress code at most of these clubs that even the crew had to be dressed in suits,” says Michael.

Most of the Cumberbatch-Freeman series is shot in Cardiff . “Steven Moff at, who is the producer of both Sherlock and Doctor Who decided to shoot in Cardiff . All the shots fi lmed indoors at 221 Baker Street are shot at a studio here. Most of the exterior locations are also within 20-30 miles of the studio in Cardiff because it’s just easier for the crew. They travel to London only if they need a very specific location,” says Michael.

In the original stories, Mycroft is meant to live on Pall Mall, just opposite the Reform Club. In the BBC series, the exterior of the Diogenes Club is shot at 10 Carlton House Terrace, which used to be the home of the British Prime Minister William Gladstone. For The Blind Banker, the second episode of the BBC series, the makers shot a few scenes in the very touristy Trafalgar Square. “It’s very expensive to close down the Square during the day so these scenes must have been shot very quickly and with a bare-minimum crew. The crowd in the scene would be the regular public. If you look closely at the scene where Cumberbatch and Freeman walk up the stairs of the National Gallery, you can see the faces of members of the public who have recognised the actors.