The Sherlock Holmes is a

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

themed

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

in Northumberland Street near Charing Cross railway station and

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...

which contains a large collection of memorabilia related to the fictional detective

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

. The original collection was put together for display in

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

in London during the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

in 1951.

Northumberland Arms

The Sherlock Holmes was originally a small hotel, known briefly in the 1880s as the Northumberland Hotel, and later as the Northumberland Arms, under the latter name appearing in the 1892 Sherlock Holmes story " The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor". The

Turkish bath A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

that Holmes and Watson used to frequent in the stories was located right beside the hotel at 25 Northumberland Avenue. The entrance to the adjacent women's Turkish baths can still be seen in Craven Passage at the rear of the men's baths. It has been conjectured by some Holmes enthusiasts and scholars that the present building was the Northumberland Hotel which featured in the 1901 novel ''

The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set i ...

''.

Festival of Britain

The displays in The Sherlock Holmes grew out of the

of 1951, when Marylebone Public Library, with the support of the

Abbey National The Abbey National Building Society was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Abbey Road and the National building societies. It was the first building society in the United Kingdom to demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The bank expanded throu ...

(which had its headquarters on the purported site of

221B Baker Street 221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate a separate address within ...

), decided to create an exhibition based on the fictional detective

. Four Holmes enthusiasts (with the support of the family of Sir

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

) designed and planned the exhibition, collecting materials (many of them donated) for display, including a Persian slipper to hold Holmes's tobacco, a

gasogene The gasogene (or gazogene or seltzogene) is a late Victorian device for producing carbonated water. It consists of two linked glass globes: the lower contained water or other drink to be made sparkling, the upper a mixture of tartaric acid and s ...

for Dr Watson's soda, and a jack-knife for Holmes to pin his unanswered correspondence to the mantelpiece with. In Abbey House on

Holmes' sitting room at 221B Baker Street was created. Each day crumpets were supplied by a local baker and these were left on a plate in the sitting room with two different sets of bite marks. Sherlock Holmes tableau 1

The Northumberland Arms was refurbished and reopened under its present name in December 1957. Its owners, Whitbread & Co., were fortunate to be able to purchase the entire

Sherlock Holmes exhibit after it returned from a world tour, including New York where it was displayed at the Plaza Galleries. The idea was to install the exhibit in its own permanent home in a

theme pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

in the centre of London where it would appeal to Holmes enthusiasts from around the world who visited that city. The pub was restored to a late

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

form and the main exhibit, a detailed replica of a corner of Holmes' fictional apartment, was installed on the upstairs floor, where it can be viewed behind a plate glass wall from both the roof garden and the first-floor Sherlock Holmes restaurant and through small windows in the upstairs hallway. The displays in the bars include theatre posters, Dr Watson's old service revolver, political cartoons and the stuffed and mounted head of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Over the years the exhibits in the downstairs bar areas have been augmented with photographs of the actors who have played Holmes and Watson since the original display was set up. The collection is curated and maintained by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. Today The Sherlock Holmes is owned by

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

based brewer Greene King.

Gallery

File:Milky Holmes in London (5080111841).jpg, The Sherlock Holmes public house File:The Sherlock Holmes bar.jpg, The bar, showing some of the memorabilia on display, including the head of

File:Sherlock Holmes tableau.jpg, The reconstruction of the sitting room of

in the restaurant

References

External links

The Sherlock Holmes
on British Pathé News News (1958)
The Sherlock Holmes on the London Town websiteThe Sherlock Holmes on the Visit London websiteThe Sherlock Holmes
on the ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' website {{DEFAULTSORT:Sherlock Holmes, The 1957 establishments in England Pubs in the City of Westminster Sherlock Holmes