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Sherlock Holmes is a work of fiction, but 221b Baker Street is a real address. You can go there today and visit it in London. It's a popular tourist destination

by Nekojoe 16y ago

Sherlock Holmes is a work of fiction, but 221b Baker Street is a real address. You can go there today and visit it in London. It's a popular tourist destination. Conan Doyle did visit the house and I've been told that details match up with the building that's in the books (such as number of stairs). They've decorated the rooms there to match the details from the books too.

jacquesm 16y ago
London also exists... Baker Street 221b is a setting, the fact that it is real and that Conan Doyle visited it is parallel to any author documenting the 'setting' of their story. The article is all about the stuff in Holmes' rooms.
- ErrantX 16y ago
  According to the notes the main problems were in consolidating the layout etc. of the rooms in relation to each other. (that they agree with the current museum building is possibly due to the current building being chosen because it fitted the description - rather than it being known as the correct address)
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Interesting! Art imitating life imitating art again. edit: Apropos Conan Doyle: A cabbie picked up the great writer at a Paris railroad station to drive him to his hotel. Upon parting the cabbie said: "Goodbye mr. Doyle". Conan Doyle taken aback by this responded: "How do you know who I am, do you recognize me from my picture?" the cabbie: "No, sir, I've never seen a picture of you before, but I read you were going to be vacationing in France, your coat has the cut of an English gentleman, you have an ink spot on your finger indicating you are a writer and the train I picked you up on hails from the coast. All these clues together made it very likely that you were the great writer himself." Doyle: "Amazing feats of deduction, you are worthy of being an incarnation of Sherlock himself!" Cabbie: "Oh, and one more thing, your bag has your name written on it".
ableal 16y ago
That's like one of those "Now there is" jokes/stories. Search for "there was no 221 Baker Street during the years of the Sherlock Holmes stories".
- Nekojoe 16y ago
  Yes, but rather than him just randomly select an address for a location he has taken the time to visit it and describe it accurately in his books. If he's gone to this level of detail already, it would make sense that the layout of the furniture, fittings and items in the building also map to an accurate model. Some authors can't always go to this level of detail. For example J. K. Rowling was in Scotland when writing the first Harry Potter book, as a result she describes Kings Cross from memory, confusing it with another London Station, so her description of it does match the real world location.
anamax 16y ago
> can go there today and visit it in London. It's a popular tourist destination. There's a museum/gift shop there now. The pictures that I can find now online look a lot more residential than what I remember from 2000 or so. I remember that it was a granite-slab front office building with a pla
- ErrantX 16y ago
  The official 221 Baker street was actually (in modern times) the offices of Abbey National. The current museum was about at that time too but is located between 137 and 140 Upper Baker Street. The location of the original 221 is not known for certain because of street renumbering and destruction during the Blitz.

by Nekojoe 16y ago

jacquesm 16y ago

London also exists... Baker Street 221b is a setting, the fact that it is real and that Conan Doyle visited it is parallel to any author documenting the 'setting' of their story. The article is all about the stuff in Holmes' rooms.

ErrantX 16y ago
According to the notes the main problems were in consolidating the layout etc. of the rooms in relation to each other. (that they agree with the current museum building is possibly due to the current building being chosen because it fitted the description - rather than it being known as the correct address)
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Interesting! Art imitating life imitating art again. edit: Apropos Conan Doyle: A cabbie picked up the great writer at a Paris railroad station to drive him to his hotel. Upon parting the cabbie said: "Goodbye mr. Doyle". Conan Doyle taken aback by this responded: "How do you know who I am, do you recognize me from my picture?" the cabbie: "No, sir, I've never seen a picture of you before, but I read you were going to be vacationing in France, your coat has the cut of an English gentleman, you have an ink spot on your finger indicating you are a writer and the train I picked you up on hails from the coast. All these clues together made it very likely that you were the great writer himself." Doyle: "Amazing feats of deduction, you are worthy of being an incarnation of Sherlock himself!" Cabbie: "Oh, and one more thing, your bag has your name written on it".

ableal 16y ago

That's like one of those "Now there is" jokes/stories. Search for "there was no 221 Baker Street during the years of the Sherlock Holmes stories".

Nekojoe 16y ago
Yes, but rather than him just randomly select an address for a location he has taken the time to visit it and describe it accurately in his books. If he's gone to this level of detail already, it would make sense that the layout of the furniture, fittings and items in the building also map to an accurate model. Some authors can't always go to this level of detail. For example J. K. Rowling was in Scotland when writing the first Harry Potter book, as a result she describes Kings Cross from memory, confusing it with another London Station, so her description of it does match the real world location.

anamax 16y ago

> can go there today and visit it in London. It's a popular tourist destination. There's a museum/gift shop there now. The pictures that I can find now online look a lot more residential than what I remember from 2000 or so. I remember that it was a granite-slab front office building with a pla

ErrantX 16y ago
The official 221 Baker street was actually (in modern times) the offices of Abbey National. The current museum was about at that time too but is located between 137 and 140 Upper Baker Street. The location of the original 221 is not known for certain because of street renumbering and destruction during the Blitz.