The Sherlock Holmes

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 Victorian Turkish baths 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.

Festival of Britain

The displays in The Sherlock Holmes grew out of the Festival of Britain of 1951, when Marylebone Public Library, with the support of the Abbey National (which had its headquarters on the purported site of 221B Baker Street), decided to create an exhibition based on the fictional detective. Four Holmes enthusiasts (with the support of the family of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) designed and planned the exhibition, collecting materials (many of them donated) for display, including a Persian slipper to hold Holmes's tobacco, a gasogene for Dr Watson's soda, and a jack-knife for Holmes to pin his unanswered correspondence to the mantelpiece with. In Abbey House on Baker Street Holmes' sitting room at 221B Baker Street was created.

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 Festival of Britain Sherlock Holmes exhibit after it returned from a world tour, including New York where it was displayed at the Plaza Galleries.

The pub was restored to a late Victorian form and the main exhibit, a detailed replica of a corner of Holmes' fictional apartment, was installed on the upstairs floor,

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 the Bury St Edmunds–based brewer Greene King.

Gallery

|File:DSC5733 - Flickr - dconvertini.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 the Hound of the Baskervilles |File:Sherlock Holmes tableau.jpg|The reconstruction of the sitting room of 221B Baker Street in the restaurant

References

References

1. Thomson, Henry Douglas. (1958). "The Sherlock Holmes Catalogue of the Collection in the Bars and the Grill Room and in the Reconstruction of Part of the Living Room at 221 B Baker Street". Whitbread.
2. "Northumberland Street". Sherlockology.
3. "Charing Cross Turkish Baths for Gentlemen".
4. [http://www.westminsteronline.org/holmes1951/history/began.html Sherlock Holmes Exhibition] Westminster Libraries & Archives. Retrieved 28 March 2024
5. "History". The Sherlock Holmes Public House and Restaurant.
6. "Sherlock Holmes 221B Baker Street London". John H. Watson M.D. website.
7. "Collection – The Sherlock Holmes Pub". The Sherlock Holmes Society of London.
8. (2011). "''The Sherlock Holmes''". Greene King.