Sherlockian Sojourns #22: 'I gave it up at last, and off I went to Norwood'

The lockdown has put paid to a number of planned 'Sojourns' (but allowed me to plan even more – look out for ones to the Home Counties, Wales and Devon hopefully in the next year), but following my mention in dispatches (Peter Blau's 'Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press' [June 2020]) for my trip to Dorsington, I decided to undertake one close to home. In June 1891, at the age of 32, Arthur Conan Doyle moved from London to a house in South Norwood, at that time part of Surrey.

My starting point was Cross Street, a short walk from East Croydon railway station. It was in a house here that Susan Cushing (and previously her sister Sarah Cushing) lived, where the titular cardboard box containing two severed ears preserved in salt were sent. ['The Adventure of the Cardboard Box'] Finding that #32 claimed to date to c1838, I chose this as the Cushing residence.

From here, it was a half-hour walk to Conan Doyle's former home, passing first the school where my own 'Doctor Watson' met his 'Mary Morstan', then a cul-de-sac named after Holmes' faithful companion.

Following the success of the first five ‘Sherlock Holmes’ short stories in The Strand Magazine, Conan Doyle had abandoned medicine and decided to devote himself entirely to writing. He decided to move to the suburbs, a comfortable red-bricked house at 12 Tennison Road, South Norwood, where he completed ‘The Man With the Twisted Lip’, before renewing his contract for six additional stories at the rate of one per month. Throughout the three years he lived there, he was not only busy with local affairs and with his writing, but also away elsewhere in England and also abroad on business much of the time. It was also a traumatic time for him and his family, for in the same month his alcoholic father died, and his wife Louise was diagnosed with consumption. His wife's declining health appears to have been the main factor in a decision to leave the area, and in September 1894 he left for the United States on a tour of speaking engagements. By this time the house had been put up for sale, and on returning to England he and Louise settled at their purpose-built home, Undershaw in Haslemere, having spent much of the previous year in Switzerland for Touie’s health. The house has a plaque.

A further fifteen minute walk, passing a road with a familiar name, and a housing development named after Mr. Holmes' most famous case, I found myself at Norwood Junction railway station. 

 

 

It would have been from Norwood Junction station that Jonas Oldacre travelled up to London Bridge Station, prior to meeting with (the unhappy) John Hector McFarlane, in 'The Adventure of the Norwood Builder'. During this journey, he drew up the will that he wished McFarlane to 'cast it into proper legal shape'. Holmes later deduced this from the state of the handwriting – the good writing representing stations, the bad writing movement, and the very bad writing passing over points.

A short distance away was 83-84 Norwood High Street, where Norwood Police Station - where Thaddeus Sholto reported the murder of his brother in 'The Sign of Four' - was formerly located. By chance, Scotland Yarder, Inspector Athelney Jones, was at the station investigating another case, and accompanied Sholto and the local force back to Pondicherry Lodge, renewing his acquaintance with Holmes.

I then caught a bus to Upper Norwood where a school with a familiar name was located. This 'Priory School' was not the one attended by Lord Saltire in 'The Adventure of the Priory School', which was located in the North of England (possibly Staffordshire).

A further short bus ride and walk up a very steep hill, and I was at my penultimate stop of the day, ‘Kilravock House’ (101 Ross Road) in South Norwood. It was here, according to noted Sherlockian Roger Johnson, that Pondicherry Lodge - where Holmes, Watson, Mary Morstan and Thaddeus Sholto travelled to meet with Bartholomew Sholto in 'The Sign of Four', only to find that he had been killed and the great Agra Treasure stolen from the attic room – was located.

I then caught a bus back into central Croydon, where due to the pandemic, the Museum of Croydon in the Clocktower, which was supposed to be hosting a 'Storytellers' exhibition, was closed. Luckily I had managed to visit the exhibition, which included a section on Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes and their Croydon connections (including the ear-containing cardboard box), prior to lockdown.

It was then one to my final stop, a Public House also named after Sherlock's most famous case, which I decided not to go into, before catching the bus home.

Postcript: There is another Sherlockian link to Croydon. Peter Cushing who played Holmes on both film and TV lived at 32 St James’ Road in nearby Purley from about 1925 until June 1936, during which time he attended nearby Purley County Secondary School and worked at the local council. In 2018 a plaque was erected to commemorate this, which again I have visited on a previous occasion.