Sherlockian Sojourns #42: 'The Red-Headed League is Dissolved'

Warning: Contains SPOILERS.

 

Having enjoyed previous sojourns around the sites of a particular story in an order similar to that in the story itself (eg. ‘The Blue Carbuncle’ & ‘The Bruce Partington-Plans’), a tour of the sites of ‘The Red-Headed League’ was a no-brainer. The fact that it is one of the few stories to have an exact date in, meant that there was only one date when such a sojourn could take place – 9th October – the date of the League’s dissolution.

 

I therefore made my way to Central London, and Chancery Lane Underground station, where a short walk brought me to the far end of Poppins Court. It was here, at number 7, renamed ‘Pope’s Court’ by Watson, that the headquarters of the Red Headed League were located. Jabez Wilson attended here in response to an advertisement in the Morning Chronicle meeting with a Mr. Duncan Ross, and it was also here that he attended on a daily basis 10am-2pm, copying out articles from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. However, on attending on 9th October 1890, he found the curt note ‘THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED’.

“From north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope’s Court looked like a coster’s orange barrow.”  [REDH]

 

Having found the League dissolved, Jabez Wilson went to the landlord of the office in Pope’s Court, who knew nothing of the League, stating that the office had been rented by a William Morris, a solicitor who was using the room as a temporary convenience until his new premises were ready. However, he had stated that his new offices were ‘at 17 King Edward Street, near St. Paul’s.’ Therefore, I followed in Wilson’s steps 132 years (to the day) later, undertaking the ten minute walk to King Edward Street, passing the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) and finding myself (as Wilson would have) opposite the rear entrance to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital where in 1881 Holmes and Watson met for the first time. However, on attending #17, Wilson found that it was a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross. I also had some problems finding #17, taking photos of the appropriate stretch of the road.

 

On learning that he had been duped, Wilson’s first instinct was to attend Baker Street to seek counsel from Sherlock Holmes, who decided to visit his pawnbrokers in Saxe-Coburg Square. This was my next destination, winding my way through back streets (passing the site of the house where Charles Wesley where was converted on 21st May 1738 and where John Wesley declared 'I believe' at about 10pm on 24th May) until I reached Charterhouse Square, identified as Saxe-Coburg Square, where Wilson had left the pawnbrokers in the care of his assistant, Vincent Spaulding, whilst working for the League.

“I have a small pawnbroker’s business at Saxe-Coburg Square, near the City. It’s not a very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the business.”   [REDH]

 

Having visited the pawnbrokers, Holmes identified that it was geographically interesting, given its closeness to my final point of call, less than a two minutes’ walk away, ‘the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank’. It was this Bank that Spaulding (real name John Clay) was intending to rob by digging a tunnel from Wilson’s pawnbroking shop into the bank’s vaults. Watson neatly modified the name of the bank to The City and Suburban Bank but not the purpose of the building. In 1890 this was the London and County Bank, but is now a branch of the National Westminster Bank.

   

The Bank is next to Barbican Underground Station, which was only one stop away from Moorgate, from which I could easily make my way home.

 

Sherlockian Sojourns #41: As Seen On Screen 3 - Windsor

A week after a visit to one of the most used Sherlockian filming locations, it was time for another sojourn, and a return to Windsor, previously visited as a site mentioned in ‘The Bruce Partington Plans’ and the location of Eton College (one of the constituent parts of Brompton College in ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’). I had booked to see a play at the town’s Theatre Royal in the evening, but I decided to spend my afternoon visiting locations featured in my favourite and least favourite Sherlockian films.

Catching a train to Windsor and Eton Riverside, I walked the short distance to the Theatre Royal, from outside of which I caught a bus to the nearby village of Winkfield. There is evidence of human occupation in Winkfield in prehistoric times. From the Late Iron Age, this evidence becomes more substantial, although there is as yet no hard evidence of settlement until the early Medieval era. Winkfield was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wenesfelle, and was recorded to have 20 households and 20 ploughlands, suggesting the area was a rich agricultural settlement. William the Conqueror, in establishing his home at Windsor Castle, also incorporated Winkfield into Windsor Great Park, where it would remain until the 20th Century.

At the west end of the village, and a twenty-minute walk away, stood my destination, the Church of England Church of St Mary's. The ancient church building has stood on its present site in the heart of Winkfield for at least 700 years. It is famous for its unusual oak pillars along the centre of the aisle, one given to the Church by Elizabeth I. However, it was for its appearance as a Highland graveyard in ‘The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ (probably my favourite ever Sherlockian film) in a scene featuring a very unusual funeral and Stanley Holloway as a gravedigger, that I wished to visit. Walking along a winding road around the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club, finally I reached the church. Entering the churchyard, I soon found the appropriate side of the church to match the screenshots that I had brought with me.

 

              

Photographs taken, I made my way to a nearby bench to eat my lunch, having time to waste before my bus back to central Windsor. I then slowly made my way back to the bus stop, arriving twenty minutes before the bus was due, trying to find some shelter as the wind was getting up. The bus arrived around ten minutes late, and soon I was back in central Windsor. I had a brief wait before my next bus, so I spent the time in nearby shops, purchasing a Sherlock Holmes Puzzle Book in one.

Back at the bus stop, my bus had just pulled in, but the driver seemed confused by the bus stop I quoted that I wished to alight at. However, having consulted his route map, he finally sold me the right ticket. Alighting 25 minutes later, unfortunately it had begun to rain, so putting up my umbrella, I strode off for another 20 minute walk, passing Windsor Marina and Oakley Green Cemetery.

Finally, I reached my destination, Oakley Court, a Victorian mansion house set in 35 acres of English countryside on the banks of the River Thames, now run as a hotel and events venue. However, it was for its appearance as Baskerville Hall in the 1978 Peter Cook/Dudley Moore comedy ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ that I was visiting  (It also features in 'Murder by Decree'). As I have indicated elsewhere in this blog, this HOUND is probably my least favourite of all the Sherlockian films that I’ve seen (and vies with the Stewart Granger version as my least favourite HOUND). I therefore walked down a long winding path leading to the main building, passing newer additions, until finally I found myself by one side of the building, which features in some shots. Following a small path round the building, I found myself at the lawns that feature prominently, along with a set of steps.

          

     

 

Photographs taken of the building from all sides, I initially attempted to exit via a small gate at the far side of the lawns, but this proved to be for hotel guests only, and needed a keycard. Therefore, retracing my steps I made my way back up the long driveway, and the 20 minute walk back to the bus stop. Arriving fifteen minutes before my bus, the bus was again around ten minutes late, driven by the driver I had confused earlier. 25 minutes later and I was back in Central Windsor, wasting some more time in more shops, this time purchasing a 15cm-high plastic Sherlock Holmes figure and a ‘Big Ben’ (TGMD) key-ring in a gift shop.

Having grabbed dinner in a local burger restaurant, I made my way to the Theatre Royal, arriving early enough to beat the queue for a programme (which were in short supply due to the play’s run ending the next day). After a quick read of the programme, it was time to take my seat. My evening’s entertainment was ‘The Chalk Garden’, a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered in the US in 1955 and was produced in Britain the following year. It tells the story of the imperious Mrs St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under the care of Miss Madrigal, a governess, whose past life is a mystery that is solved during the action of the play. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1964, starring Deborah Kerr and Hayley Mills. This production featured three actors with Sherlockian links – Jenny Seagrove (Mary Morstan in Granada’s ‘The Sign of Four’), Edward Fox (Dr. Watson in ‘The Darkwater Hall Mystery’ and Ross in ‘The Crucifer of Blood’), and Finty Williams (daughter of BBC Radio 4 Watson Michael Williams and Judi Dench who appeared in ‘A Study in Terror’ and as Mrs. Hudson in the BBC Radio 4 HOUND), along with Sian Phillips and John Partridge. The play was very enjoyable, being both witty and tragic in equal measure.

The play having finished, and it still raining outside, I decided not to try and meet any of the actors at the stage door, making my way back to Windsor and Eton Riverside station, then a train back to Clapham Junction, then home.