Sherlockian Sojourns #15: Edinburgh

Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22nd May 1859, at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, the second of seven children. However, possibly due to his not becoming famous until leaving the city, his Edinburgh connection is not one that is highlighted in the city, with JK Rowling and her creation Harry Potter, seemingly being trumpeted in every corner. Even the city's Writers Museum, celebrates only Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Having gone up to Edinburgh for the Fringe, I decided to visit a number of Doylean sites. The second of my three days in Edinburgh was deemed 'Conan Doyle Day'.

This began with my undertaking 'The Real Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour'. This is run by Toby Virgo, and tells the story not only of Conan Doyle but of Dr. Joseph Bell ('the Real Sherlock Holmes'). The tour started on the Royal Mile, where we were given an overview of Edinburgh's history, before walking a short distance to the University of Edinburgh Medical School, where Conan Doyle was a student from 1876. 

 

It was here that he met two men who influenced the choice of his future novel heroes.The first was Professor Rutherford, whose Assyrian beard, booming voice and broad chest, inspired Professor George Edward Challenger. It was also where he met Dr. Joseph Bell, Professor of Surgery, whose amazing deductions on his patients and their diseases germinated the idea of a detective using the same methods.After a quick stop for a group selfie, we moved on to the next stop.

23 George Square represented Doyle's penultimate Edinburgh address, moved to in 1877. It was separated into three residences, the basement and the upper floor having other occupants. To distinguish them from the main apartments these were deemed 23A & 23B, possibly inspiring 221B. The rent was paid by a Doyle family friend, Dr. Bryan Charles Waller, who had a joint consulting room and study in the house, which Doyle could use in his absence, but had to vacate when Waller had business there, much as Watson had to in the early days of his friendship with Holmes. After another selfie, we moved on to our final stop.

 The final stop was the Old Infirmary, where Dr. Bell ran regular surgeries with Conan Doyle as his clerk. It was here that Conan Doyle first observed Bell's deductive abilities that later inspired Holmes. Dr. Bell observed the way a person moved.  The walk of a sailor varied vastly from that of a solider.  If he identified a person as a sailor he would look for  any tattoos that might assist him in knowing where their travels had taken them.   He trained himself to listen for small differences in his patient’s accents to help him identify where they were from.  Bell studied the hands of his patients because calluses or other marks could help him determine their occupation.  (Click here for a more detailed example, beginning 'But the most notable of the characters whom I met...')

 

 

Thanking Toby, I left and caught a bus to York Place, which opens into Picardy Place, due to roadworks taking place, the birthplace was inaccessible and also the statue of Sherlock Holmes that usually stands outside has been removed. However, the Conan Doyle Public House remains opposite the site  (but even this was briefly renamed at the start of the year).

Just around the corner was St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral where Conan Doyle was baptised.

It was time for a Fringe show so I made my way back to central Edinburgh, passing 'The Waverley Hotel' where in October 1900, Conan Doyle stayed when he ran for election in Edinburgh as an MP, in favour of retaining Ireland within the United Kingdom.

Having enjoyed a sketch-show and eaten my lunch, I made my way to the Pleasance Courtyard for an hour of comic songs from Flo & Joan.  Returning to 23 George Square, I began a tour of Conan Doyle's Edinburgh homes, making for 'The Meadows', a public park since the 1700s. Skirting the side of the park, my second stop was 15 Lonsdale Terrace. This was Conan Doyle's final Edinburgh address, which he moved to in 1881.

 

However, it is a nearby road, Lauriston Gardens that has a canonical connection, being moved to 'just off the Brixton Road' in London for the first crime scene (3 Lauriston Gardens) that we see Holmes and Watson investigate, in the novel 'A Study in Scarlet'. 

Returning to The Meadows, I cut across where after a short walk, I reached 2 Argyle Park Terrace. The Doyle family moved here in 1875. This property previously had a bow window, as Watson claims 221b did in 'The Beryl Coronet', when he stood in it to watch the troubled approach of Alexander Holder. This would have been improbable for Baker Street at that time.

However at this point, things went a bit wrong. The heavens opened and it was necessary for me to cut short my tour with several stops left. 

The next morning, having breakfasted, I caught a bus to Goods' Corner, and moving down Nether Liberton Lane, I reached The Conan Doyle Medical Centre.

I then returned to the main road and spent around half-an-hour desperately trying to find my next location, until I finally found it was only 2 minutes walk further on from the Medical Centre. In the mid to late 1860s, Doyle was sent to live at Liberton Bank House seemingly to protect him from the negative influences of his alcoholic father and, no doubt, to facilitate his attendance at the nearby Newington Academy. At Liberton Bank he was in the care of Mary Burton, a trailblazing educational and social reformer, the first woman Governor of Heriot-Watt College and a leading advocate of women's suffrage.

In 2009, a sycamore tree outside the property, which had been felled because of rotten roots, was used by Edinburgh-based luthier Steve Burnett, to make a violin, named 'The Sherlock Violin'. In 2010 it was donated to the University of Edinburgh's Musical Instrument Collection. The Collection is displayed at St. Cecilia's Hall five minutes from my accommodation, but when I visited later in the day, the violin was not on display.

Catching the bus back, I alighted at Newington Road, and made my way down to 3 Sciennes Place, where Doyle rejoined his parents on leaving Liberton Bank House, living there until 1875.

Retracing my steps, I walked along Newington Road, until I reached Surgeons Hall Museum, which exhibits a letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle crediting Dr Joseph Bell, as the main inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes.

It was time for some shows, but having a long break in the middle of the day, I made my way back to the area around Lauriston Gardens. First stop was The Moriarty Bar, Lothian Road , which when I last visited it a few years ago, had a Reichenbach Falls mural in the main bar to commemorate its villainous namesake. Unfortunately, this seemed to have been painted over.

On my way back into the City Centre, I popped into a bookshop on Lauriston Place, where I managed to obtain a copy of 'The Strand Magazine' - August 1895 (Vol 10, Issue 8), which included the Conan Doyle story, 'How the Brigadier Took the Field Against the Marshal Millefleurs'. I also passed The Lauriston Building, a hospital where Dr. Joseph Bell worked.

This ended my tour of Conan Doyle-related buildings. A few more Fringe shows, and the next morning, it was time to make my way home.