Sherlockian Sojourns #71: ‘Off Up To Birmingham’ [STOC/3GAR]

Having arranged to travel to Birmingham for a theatre show, I decided to visit the sites relating to two canonical fake businesses – ‘the Franco-Midland Hardware Company’ from ‘The Stockbroker’s Clerk’ and ‘Howard Garrideb Agricultural Machinery’ from ‘The Three Garridebs’. Birmingham has many buildings dating from the Victorian period, but unfortunately, none of the places seen by Holmes and Watson have survived.

Catching an early train from London Euston, arriving at Birmingham New Street a couple of hours later. This is the station where Holmes and Watson would have arrived in Birmingham accompanying Hall Pycroft  [STOC]. However, the station was completely rebuilt in 1960, meaning that none of the station seen by them is still visible. Regardless, I took a few photos.

  

 ‘It was not, however, until we were in a first-class carriage and well started upon our journey to Birmingham that I was able to learn what the trouble was which had driven Mr. Hall Pycroft to Sherlock Holmes’.  [STOC]

 

Exiting the Station, just across the road was the Macdonald Burlington Hotel (formerly The Midland Hotel), the most likely location for the hotel where Hall Pycroft stayed whilst working in Birmingham.

 

‘I was off to Birmingham in a train that would take me in plenty time for my appointment. I took my things to a hotel in New Street, and then I made my way to the address which had been given me’.   [STOC]

 

It was then time for a non-canonical detour. A ten minute walk brought me to Sherlock Street, which was undergoing massive renovation. It was difficult to identify, but #115 is named Doctor Watson House, but was under so much scaffolding that this name plate could not be seen.

Retracing my steps to New Street, I reached the corner with my next port of call, Corporation Street. This was previously named Queen’s Corner, after the visit of Queen Victoria in 1887 (a year before Holmes and Watson visited).

   

Walking along Corporation Street, I finally reached a large roundabout, which now takes the place of 126B Corporation Street, the address, where the ‘Franco-Midland Hardware Company’ had its temporary premises. The property, was demolished to make way for the roundabout in the 1960s.

“ ‘Be in Birmingham to-morrow at one’, said Mr. Pinner. ‘I have a note in my pocket here which you will take to my brother. You will find him at 126B Corporation Street, where the temporary offices of the company are situated’.“    [STOC]

‘126B was a passage between two large shops, which led to a winding stone stair, from which there were many flats, let as offices to companies or professional men’.   [STOC]

 

The middle of the roundabout is Old Square, and features a sculpture to the comedian, Tony Hancock, who was born in Hall Green, Birmingham, on 12 May 1924. Appropriately the Square is the former home of the Birmingham Blood Transfusion Service  ['A Pint ?  That's very nearly an armful !'] . The sculpture was unveiled by Sir Harry Secombe in 1996. It has since been moved a few yards, to the centre of Old Square. Unfortunately, I have no record of Hancock ever playing Holmes.

I then caught a bus from a nearby stop to Aston Station. It was to this part of Birmingham that the unlucky Nathan Garrideb was sent on a fools errand, based on a fake advertisement.  [3GAR]  Garrideb presented at Grosvenor Buildings, which no longer exists (and may not even have ever existed), but Grosvenor Road still does. I therefore took a photo of the most likely building.

 

     

‘Howard Garrideb Constructor of Agricultural Machinery, Binders, reapers, steam and hand plows, drills, harrows, farmers’ carts, buckboards, and all other appliances. Estimates for Artesian Wells. Apply Grosvenor Buildings, Aston’    [3GAR]

 

Catching a bus back into central Birmingham, (passing the site of Conan Doyle’s practice with Dr. Reginald Ratcliff Hoare which I had visited previously) I had around an hour-and-a-half to waste before my theatre performance, which I spent in visiting a few nearby shops and having some lunch. My walk to the theatre led me past two points of interest. Firstly, Victoria Square, with its statue of Queen Victoria, sculpted by Thomas Brock, originally in marble then later recast in bronze. The Square was in process of being set up for Christmas Markets. Secondly, just up from the theatre, Baskerville House, actually named for John Baskerville, a local printer and type designer who was responsible for inventing "wove paper", which was considerably smoother than "laid paper", allowing for sharper printing results, which is the library for University College Birmingham.

 

Entering the theatre, in plenty of time for the matinee performance of ‘Becoming Nancy’, I had an enjoyable afternoon. I then made my way back to Birmingham New Street and my train home to London.

 

 

Sherlockian Sojourns #70: As Seen On Screen 15 – ‘The Second Sign’

It was time to tour some more Central London filming locations, this time the locations used in the Granada dramatisations of ‘The Second Stain’ and ‘The Sign of Four’.

Catching the Northern Line from Morden, it was a twenty-five minute journey to Charing Cross and then a ten minute walk to Carlton Gardens (passing the little door in the Duke of York steps that is mentioned in ‘His Last Bow’). Number 2, Carlton Gardens was used as the exterior of the home of the Foreign Secretary (Stuart Wilson) and Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope (Patricia Hodge) in Granada’s ‘The Second Stain’.

  

 

The property also appears in ‘Murder By Decree’ (1979) in a scene where medium Robert Lees (Donald Sutherland) points the home of the killer out to Inspector Foxborough (David Hemmings). Field-Marshal Kitchener also lived here from 1914-15

From here I retraced my steps back to The Mall, and turned right onto Horse Guards Road, walking almost all its length until I reached the Clive Steps leading up to the Foreign Office, with John Tweed’s statue of Robert Clive (of India) at the top. Holmes (Jeremy Brett) and Watson (Edward Hardwicke) walk past this statue on the way to see Lady Hilda Trelawney-Hope  [Granada SECO].

A short walk to Westminster Abbey, then cutting through Dean’s Yard, I made my way to Barton Street (previously visited for being Baker Street in both ‘Murder By Decree’ and ‘Without A Clue’ (1988)), and at its end, Cowley Street. Number 17, Cowley Street appeared as the home of Eduardo Lucas (Yves Beneyton), and is where Lestrade (Colin Jeavons) finds the titular ‘second stain’.  [Granada - SECO]

  

Two doors down, at Number 15, there is a plaque to Radio Holmes, John Gielgud.

  

Returning to Horse Guards Road, I reached 1 Horse Guards Road, a building I desperately want to get inside as its courtyard features at the end of ‘Enola Holmes’ (2020), where Enola manages to avoid her two brothers. However, the side gates were walked past by Holmes and Watson on their way to see Lady Hilda.  [Granada – SECO] 

   

Making my way across Parliament Square, I reached Westminster Bridge, and ‘Boadicea and Her Daughters’/’Bouddican Rebellion’, a bronze statue located near Portcullis House and Westminster Pier, facing Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster across the road. The statue was sponsored by Prince Albert and placed in 1902. It was here that Holmes, Watson and Inspector Atheleny Jones (Emrys James) board the Police vessel, just before the boat chase in Granada’s ‘The Sign of Four’. There was also a photo shoot done with Jeremy Brett at this site, with Big Ben in the background.

      

 

Crossing the bridge, I reached the South Bank Lion, an 1837 sculpture which started life sitting on top of James Goding's Lion Brewery building, and the steps leading down from the bridge to the South Bank, which is where Watson collects a newspaper.  [Granada - SECO]

 

Walking back across the bridge, I caught the Jubilee Line to Tower Hill, and the Tower of London, which is seen in the background whilst Holmes is waiting on the Police barge for the start of the boat chase.  [Granada – SIGN]

It was then time for a twenty-five minute walk along the Thames, following the route of the SIGN boat chase, until I reached Wapping Station and Wapping High Street. Here a short distance along was Phoenix Wharf, which was used in the scenes with Toby, Holmes and Watson running around London.   [Granada - SIGN]

    

Further along Wapping High Street was King Henry's Wharf, which was also used in the scenes where Toby is following the scent around London. Specifically, the Wapping Old Stairs were used when Watson walks down to the waters edge. It was also used in the background when the Police boat is travelling into position.   [Granada - SIGN]

Returning to Wapping Station, I continued on, reaching New Crane Wharf, which was used in some of the scenes where the Baker Street Irregulars are hunting down the whereabouts of the Aurora.   [Granada - SIGN]

Back at Wapping Station, I caught an Overground train to Hoxton, where directly outside the station is Museum of the Home. This includes a ‘Rooms Through Time’ exhibition exploring how ways of living, furniture, textiles and decor have adapted through the ages, from the wooden interiors of the 1630s and Victorian floral motifs to mid-twentieth-century geometric designs and speculative visions of a future home. My main focus was on a recreation of a Townhouse from 1878.

 

  

I then caught a #243 bus to Old Street Station, had a brief detour to the Museum of Methodism for a Probation-themed exhibition, and then Northern Line back to Morden.

Sherlockian Sojourns - Special #11: Making a Beeline for Sussex

This is a slightly unusual write-up, as it conflates two trips to Sussex in search of Holmes’ retirement cottage. Holmes took early retirement in 1903, and moved to a house on the South Downs, where he kept bees. We have only two cases recorded by Watson during this time, ‘The Lion’s Mane’ and ‘His Last Bow’, with the former providing much of the information about his cottage and surrounding area, in a tale recounting his investigation of an unusual murder.

I had first visited the area in August 2010, managing to reach both the cottage identified as being Holmes’s and the nearby school, The Gables, as well as the beach where the main action of ‘The Lion’s Mane’ takes place.

However, having identified some additional points of interest, having spent the last couple of days on the Kent/Sussex border, I made my way fuller into East Sussex. Catching a train from East Croydon, and changing at Lewes (where I had to wait for almost half-an-hour due to my in-bound train running five minutes late meaning that I just missed my connection), and catching a train to Seaford, the true identity of ‘Fulworth’ in 'The Lion's Mane'. The first stop was Newhaven Town, which would have been the station that Holmes and Watson alighted at to catch the Dieppe ferry in ‘The Final Problem’, having changed trains at Canterbury on learning that Professor Moriarty was pursuing their original train. As it had begun raining heavily, I managed to get from photos from inside the train, without having to step onto the platform.

  

Around ten minutes later and the train was pulling into Seaford Station. From here it was a three minute walk to Seaford Police Station, where Holmes sends Mathematics teacher Ian Murdoch, colleague of the murdered Fitzroy McPherson, to report the murder.

     

“You can hurry to the police-station at Fulworth. Report the matter at once”-  Sherlock Holmes [LION]

 

Another short walk brought me to the junction of Steyne Road and Cricketfield Road. It was here that ‘The Haven’, the home of Maud Bellamy, who was in a relationship with the murdered man, (and her father and brother) lived. The original building had a square tower, separate from the house although joined to it, and in the same cream-rendered and black-timbered construction as the rest of the house. It was one of three identical houses erected in Cricketfield Road in the late 1890s by Charles Morling, described as 'the best builder in Seaford'. However, the tower has since been removed, a garage added in front and, as with many Victorian houses, the original slates replaced with cheaper tiles.

  

“That’s The Haven, as Bellamy called it. The one with the corner tower and slate roof. Not bad for a man who started with nothing but by Jove, look at that !” -  Stackhurst [LION]

 

I then walked for about ten minutes to catch a #12 bus, initially alighting at Gayles Farm on the A259, with the intention of walking along to access the possible candidates for Holmes’ retirement cottage and The Gables that I had visited fourteen years before. However, the rain had increased and there proved to be no pavement for walking the ½ mile to the site, with a steady stream of vehicles speeding along the A-road. I, therefore, waited at the stop for ten minutes, catching the next #12 into the nearby village of East Dean.

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At this point, I shall outline my experiences from fourteen years before in which I accessed the buildings from another direction in sunny weather. On this occasion, I also arrived at Seaford by train, making a brief detour to Holmes Lodge, a local guest house  (unfortunately now closed).

I then caught a #12 bus to the Exceat Park Centre, where just behind the bicycle hire shop, there was a gate, which led down to a pasture and old flint wall with steps over it. Walking down here, I crossed the wall and made my way down a long flight of wooden steps to the village of Westdean with a small pond. Following the gravel road eastwards, after ¾ mile, I reached my first port of call, a house and converted barn named New Barn, and just past it Newbarn Cottage, a semi-detached pair of cottages knocked into one by bricking up the right-hand door.

This cottage stands fractionally over five miles from the centre of Eastbourne, making it a prime candidate for Holmes' retirement home, as in the first few pages of ‘His Last Bow’, the unidentified narrator states that Holmes retired to “a small farm upon the Downs, five miles from Eastbourne”. Watson’s literary agent, Conan Doyle, knew the area well, having been born in Crowborough, and was said to have been a regular visitor to the Eastbourne area during the later years of his life.

The flint cottages made a compact single house of eight rooms, while the high-pitched double roof bespeaks a large attic, suitable for Holmes' chemistry experiments. Behind the house at the foot of a steep slope is a paddock where Holmes could have had his bee-hives, as sheltered a spot as you could wish for. The cottage lies deep in Newbarn Bottom, facing south-east, marooned in grassy slopes as far as the eye can see. Whether standing near it or viewing it from afar, the sense of being cut off from the outside world is palpable and profound. Though the busy Brighton Road is not far, no traffic can be heard. In its emptiness and silence, the place is the epitome of loneliness.

From the paddock a track previously wound up over Newbarn Hill to the brow beyond, over 350ft above sea-level, which Holmes could have walked until a whole swathe of the Channel hoved into view. A short distance away is Cliff End, the 'great cliff' described in 'The Lion's Mane'.

     

“My villa is situated upon the southern slope of the downs, commanding a great view of the Channel. -  Sherlock Holmes [LION]

Next I made my way over the hill, to Gayles Retreat, a substantial property in its own grounds reached by a long drive. This represents the prime candidate for Stackhurst’s school, The Gables. The house was built in 1900, and while some additions and alterations have been made over the years, the building is much as it was. More recent buildings, both agricultural and residential, are now scattered around, but in 1907 the house stood quite alone. It would therefore have been an ideal property for Stackhurst to have leased for his “crammers”. The stroll to Holmes' cottage is the required half-a-mile north-west over the hill, and the stroll to Cliff End for the swimmers is just over a mile. The Gables is also a reasonable renaming of Gayles by Holmes in his account, following his old friend Watson's habit of slightly tweaking the names of buildings. At the time I visited it was holiday accommodation, but the building is now used as a Yoga retreat.

“Half a mile off, however, is Harold Stackhurst’s well-known coaching establishment, The Gables, quite a large place, which contains some score of young fellows preparing for various professions, with a staff of several masters” -  Sherlock Holmes [LION]

 

I then made my way past a prominent red-roofed barn, getting a good view of the village of East Dean, until I reached a stile near the car park in Birling Gap. From here I made my way along an undulating coastal park until I found myself at Cliff Edge, the prime candidate for the site of the cliffs overlooking the beach where the Lion’s Mane attack took place. The height of Cliff End above the beach is around 150 feet, but around its western corner, the bluff shelves away to a steep grass-covered bank about 80 feet high, with multiple scramble paths, such as the one that features in the story.

  

 “At this point the coast-line is entirely of chalk cliffs, which can only be descended by a single, long, tortuous path, which is steep and slippery” -  Sherlock Holmes [LION]

 

I therefore made my way down one of these paths to Cuckmere Haven Beach below. The fatal bathing pool must have been somewhere in front of the ‘great cliff, and at the time of the McPherson incident would have been relatively new. It had only been ‘discovered’ a few years earlier, because up to 1900 it had been difficult to reach. Then the River Cuckmere meandered due east across the estuary, made a sharp right-angled turn, and flowed into the sea at Cliff End, hugging the cliffs so closely that it was a hazardous climb down to the beach. However, around 1900, the river found a new outlet nearer the Seaford shore, and the old river bed was left as a long, muddy lagoon, which dried out, but also regularly refilled with water. I therefore made my way there, taking photos of where the attack on McPherson took place, the general beach and some fishing boats out at sea.

“Towards the end of July, 1907, there was a severe gale, the wind blowing up-channel, heaping the seas to the base of the cliffs and leaving a lagoon at the turn of the tide” – Sherlock Holmes [LION]

 

“On the sea two or three fishing-boats were at no great distance” – Sherlock Holmes [LION]

 

I then caught a bus back to central Seaford, catching a train home.

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Back in the present, having alighted from the bus in East Dean, I made my way up a side road until I reached The Green, and the War Memorial which looks like a very old village cross and was built after World War I. The railings were hand-made by the last village blacksmith. However, it was to New House Farm, a house directly behind the Memorial that I was heading. This house, which currently acts as the Gilbert Estate Office (the Davies-Gilbert family developed East Dean and Eastbourne in the 19th Century), has a blue plaque which states that this is where Sherlock Holmes retired to. Although not having such a strong claim as the cottages that I had visited fourteen years before, Charles O. Merriman, a former chairman of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London suggested that this house was a plausible location for Holmes’ retirement. I therefore took multiple photos of the property, including a bee-hive in the back garden.

I then made my way back across the Green to The Tiger Inn, whose name probably comes from the Manor’s coat of arms which is a leopard, but as both date back to the 15th century, neither had been seen in this country and so it remains a bit of a mystery. The Inn had a reputation in the world of smugglers & also ‘wreckers’ who used to lure unsuspecting ships onto the rocks with lamps. After pilfering their cargo the ‘wreckers’ would throw the crew back into the treacherous waters. The three adjoining cottages were used as barracks during the Napoleonic wars. I popped into the pub for a large Coke and to get out of the steadily increasing rain.

 

Making my way back to the bus stop, I caught the next bus into Eastbourne Town Centre, getting some lunch and browsing the shops. I then made my way to Eastbourne Station, catching a train to Polegate. From here I caught a taxi to my final destination, Knockhatch Adventure Park, home to ‘The Sherlock Holmes Experience’, an interactive walk-through adventure, in which participants navigate through twisting Victorian streets, using their powers of deduction to find hidden clues, licenced by the Conan Doyle Estate.

Arriving at just after 3.30pm, admission prices were at a reduced rate, so I paid and entered, finding my way to the Experience immediately. On arrival, it seemed that the attraction is only open for fifty-minute periods at certain times during the day, with the last session having begun twenty minutes before. I therefore made my way into the attraction, watching an introductory video from a bearded Holmes (Jon Campling), before making my way through two giant rollers into the attraction itself. 

There were five picture clues to find, the initials of which (recorded in the SHE online notebook) revealed which canonical character – the choices were Moriarty, Moran and Adler – was responsible for the theft of a golden locket. [Watching online videos of others going round, it seems that the clues are regularly changed to give different culprits]. Although there were no live actors, there were plenty of ‘jump scares’ from sudden bangs to jets of air being released. I wandered round, happily taking photos (which I later saw from the rules that I bypassed was not allowed) and solving the case. The SH content was limited and it could just as much have been a ‘Jack the Ripper’ attraction. The experience ended outside a 221b door (I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t the sitting room) with my deductions proved correct, and Holmes anachronistically speaking about hashtags.

   

Outside I took a few photos of the entrance, then a member of staff took pity of my trying to take a selfie with a photo of ‘bearded Holmes’, and offered to take it for me.

I then wandered over to the Lost World Playbarn, which seemed to be themed around the second ‘Jurassic Park’ film rather than the Conan Doyle novel.

Making my way into the gift shop (which had lots of Dinosaur merchandise, but no Sherlock Holmes themed items), I called for a taxi back to Polegate, which turned out to be the same driver. I was in plenty of time for my train back, from Polegate to East Croydon, and then home.