Baker Street

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is open daily 9.30am to 6pm. Entry costs £6 for adults and £4 for children.

020 7935 8866

Who was Sherlock Holmes?  He is possibly the most famous of all detectives who struck fear among the criminal fraternity, greatly respected by Scotland Yard, with an intellect of mammoth proportions. He is famous for skilful use of “deductive reasoning” while using abductive reasoning (inference to the best explanation) and astute observation to solve difficult cases. He was also, alas, purely fictional. He was created by the great Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He lived at 221B Baker Street London from 1881, in a flat up seventeen steps where he shared many of his professional years with his good friend Dr Watson before Watson’s marriage in 1887. The residence was maintained by his landlady, Mrs Hudson.

Dr Watson acted as Holmes’ Boswell chronicling most of Holmes’ cases. Many films have been made about the great man, but in may opinion the nearest, or purist, characterisation by any actor was that of Basil Rathbone in the 1930s and 1940s.  Nigel Bruce played Watson but tended to act as a buffoon rather than as the author intended. Holmes would in no way have suffered fools, or buffoons, gladly and the Watson characterised by Nigel Bruce would not have been tolerated.

Holmes worked with many of Scotland Yard’s finest, including Tobias Gresson, Stanley Hopkins, Alec MacDonald and Athelney Jones and also Francois Le Villard of the French police. Holmes’ tactics and methods of detection were vastly superior to his professional contemporaries and often left them completely baffled. However, they had great respect for him and bore no ill feeling or jealousy.

Holmes’ arch enemy and nemesis was the brilliant, but totally evil, Professor James Moriarty, sometimes referred to as the Napoleon of Crime!  During a fight both Moriarty and Holmes fell to their deaths, but such was the outpouring of protests and letters demanding that he bring back his creation that Conan Doyle relented and wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of the Empty House. Conan Doyle explained that during their fight only Moriarty fell over the cliff and Holmes had pretended to die to avoid the vengeance of the Moriarty gang.

Holmes was not romantically inclined towards women in general, but he did show some interest in Irene Adler. According to Watson she was referred to by Holmes as “the woman”. She is possibly the only woman who managed to break through Holmes’ reserve. Holmes did demonstrate some interest in other women but purely on the basis that they were able to assist him in his investigations. Once these were over so was his interest in the female gender.

Holmes, though dispassionate by nature, did show compassion for victims. He had a remarkable ability to soothe and reassure people who were suffering from distress. This ability was very useful when dealing with male and female clients who were in a state of extreme fear or nervousness.

Holmes was fearless and sometimes arrogant. He worked well with the police but did enjoy baffling some Inspectors with his superior deductions. Holmes was very proud of being British and this was demonstrated by the patriotic “VR” (Victoria Regina) made in bullet holes in the wall of his flat with his gun. He also often did secret work for the Government.

With the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1930 Sherlock Holmes had no more cases to solve. And so, along with his creator, Holmes completed his last investigation and went into retirement.

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