– Lord Blackwood ('Sherlock Holmes', 2009).
The 2009 film, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ tends to split Sherlockians with its action film/steampunk vibes, but it holds a special place in my heart as it was the only film where I stood behind barriers at a film premiere hoping to meet the stars (I met both Robert Downey Jr. [Holmes] and Jude Law [Watson] very briefly, managing to snatch an autograph on a promotional postcard from the latter). It was filmed around the country, but unsurprisingly partly in London, and it was these locations that I was keen to visit. (Having had to wait for some normality to come back after the pandemic before I could do so)
Catching a bus and tube, I made my way to my first location of the day – Brompton Cemetery. It was to here that Holmes and Watson were called as Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) appeared to have risen from the Blackwood family vault. The cemetery also appears in multiple spy films - ‘GoldenEye’, ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’, and ‘Stormbreaker’.
The cemetery also contains the grave of Charles Augustus Howell, on whom it is believed that the character of the similarly monikered Charles Augustus Milverton was based. (He was also the basis of the character De Castro in Theodore Watts-Dunton's 1898 novel ‘Aylwin’) Howell was an art dealer and alleged blackmailer who died in mysterious circumstances and had his throat cut after his death. His house contained correspondence of members of high society. However, due to having a schedule to keep, I was only able to make a cursory search in the area of the gigantic graveyard that I had identified as where the grave can be found, leaving without finding the grave.
Retracing my steps, I made my may back to West Brompton, catching the District Line to Temple. Making my way up to The Strand, and passing the disused Aldwych (Strand) Station (which I had visited on a previous occasion as it appears in ‘Sherlock: The Empty Hearse’, as well as other productions including ‘V For Vendetta’, and ‘Atonement’), finally reaching Somerset House.
The building’s subterranean Light Wells feature in the scene where Holmes visits Blackwood’s prison cell. These are not usually open to the public, but can be visited as part of a ‘Historical Highlights’ tour run on Tuesdays and Saturdays, which was reinstated at the start of July 2022, after two years break due to the pandemic. The tour packed a lot into an hour, but I managed to grab several shots of the Light Wells once we reached them.
As well as the Light Wells, the tour also took in several impressive staircases, a barge, and the atmospheric Deadhouse, just off the Light Wells. Somerset House was built on the site of a Tudor palace belonging to the Duke of Somerset, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776.
In the 19th century it contained the Registry of The Court of Probate. Therefore, Holmes would have visited here to find the details of Mrs Stoner’s will in ‘The Speckled Band’. It also appears in ‘The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ as the Diogenes Club.
Having made a brief detour to grab some lunch, I continued up The Strand, passing the St. Mary Le Strand Church, famous for its appearance as part of the cover of ‘The Strand Magazine’, until opposite the Royal Courts of Justice on Fleet Street, I reached Middle Temple Lane. The opening scene of the film - Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) & Watson heading towards the Cathedral - was filmed here.
It was then time for a brief detour to a location used in another Sherlockian film, ‘Enola Holmes’ (2020), where the exterior of King's College Maughan Library building on Chancery Lane doubled as the Houses of Parliament in one of the final scenes, where Enola and speak through iron railings. However, astute observers will have noticed that there is a small mistake in the scene: the Westminster Clock Tower appears twice in the background of the same sequence, in two different locations !
Returning to Fleet Street, I continued along, reaching Ludgate Hill and the St. Paul’s Churchyard. Turning right along Godliman Street, after a short walk, I found myself at the College of Arms, which appeared as the exterior of the grand home of Sir Thomas Rotheram (James Fox). The College is the official heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and much of the Commonwealth including Australia and New Zealand. (It is also where James Bond gets a crash course in heraldry in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’).
Retracing my steps, I made my way back to the churchyard and St Paul’s Cathedral. Taking a photo of the ledge outside the entrance from which Holmes is seen jumping down at the start of the film, I joined the queue for security.
Once inside, I had my pre-booked ticket scanned, and picked up my pre-booked Souvenir Guide, a map of the Cathedral and a multimedia guide. Looking at the map, it seemed that the other main part of the Cathedral that I wanted to visit – the South West Bell Tower, with its geometric staircase which Holmes uses to the get into the Crypt – was only available as part of a guided tour (included with entrance, but already fully booked). However, my ticket allowed me to return as many times as I wanted in the next year, so I resolved to return on another occasion to do the tour. I therefore completed the self-guided ‘Highlights’ tour, before making the foolish decision to visit the Cathedral’s galleries. The world-famous ‘Whispering Gallery’ was closed, but after 376 steep and narrow steps I found myself at the ‘Stone Gallery’ fifty-three metres from the Cathedral Floor, and just below the dome. Due to my legs beginning to ache, and mild vertigo setting in, I decided not to walk up the further 152 steps to the ‘Golden Gallery’ above the dome, forcing my way back down even narrower steps to get back down to the Cathedral Floor. Exit was via the Crypt, where I visited the tomb of Christopher Wren, designer of the Cathedral, before purchasing a postcard of the geometric staircase in the Gift Shop.
Back outside, it was a ten-minute walk to my final stop, the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, a stone’s throw from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where in ‘A Study in Scarlet’, Watson is introduced to Holmes. The crypt where Lord Blackwood is apprehended while preparing a human sacrifice, was the nave of this church. It can also be seen in ‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’, ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’, and ‘Shakespeare in Love’ among many other productions.
Final photos taken, I made my way
to Barbican Station, and then by tube and bus home, my legs feeling bruised
from all the exertion.
No comments:
Post a Comment