Sherlockian Sojourns – Special #5: 'Return to the Moor' - Part Two

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Day 3: Buckfastleigh & Ashburton

 

‘The train pulled up at a small wayside station and we all descended. Outside, beyond the low, white fence, a wagonette with a pair of cobs was waiting. Our coming was evidently a great event, for station-master and porters clustered round us to carry out our luggage.’   [HOUN – Chapter 6]

 

Checking out of my accommodation, and catching a bus a few yards from the previous day’s bus stop, I made my way to Buckfastleigh, and the South Devon Railway.  A branch line from Totnes once passed through Buckfastleigh and ran on to Ashburton. Therefore, this is the station at which Watson and Sir Henry would have alighted to be taken to Baskerville Hall. It certainly would offer relatively easy access to the moor via one of the many lanes wandering vaguely northwards. This is also where Holmes and Watson would have met Lestrade.

I caught a train to Totnes and back, pulled by a steam locomotive. Due to social distancing, I had an assigned seat, and there was much less milling about on the platforms. However, I still managed to get some photos.

 

Leaving the station, I made my way to ‘The Valiant Soldier’, which was an active pub until it closed in the 1960s. It has recently been opened as a museum, giving visitors a glimpse of the past.

 

My next stop was via a footpath which started with a long climb up a set of wooden steps, then a long walk through woodland. Eventually I reached Holy Trinity Church, primarily a Thirteenth Century building but it has a Fifteenth Century nave  (Graveyard #4). Opposite the church porch is the sepulchre built for Squire Richard Cabell III (1622-1672), an unprincipled squire, nicknamed ‘Dirty Dick’. Various malicious stories abounded about him. The most famous of these was that one night he accused his wife of adultery, and following a struggle she fled to nearby Dartmoor. However, Cabell recaptured her, murdering her with his hunting knife. The victim’s pet hound was then supposed to have exacted revenge by ripping out Cabell’s throat, and some say that its anguished howls can still be heard. This legend has clear parallels to the legend of the death of Sir Hugo Baskerville (who was even a Royalist) related to Holmes by Dr. Mortimer in HOUND, which also involves a chase onto the moors and the ripping out of a man’s throat. (In reality, Cabell’s wife actually outlived him by some fourteen years, but the legend persisted nevertheless).

Cabell’s notorierty has led to the sepulchre being blamed for the various misfortunes that have befallen the church. It has also been suggested that the heavy tombstone enclosed therein was intended to prevent his ghost from escaping to Dartmoor and riding to hounds. Children were also dared to put their finger in the keyhole of the tomb’s lock on pain of the Devil biting it ! The tombstone has been damaged through past acts of vandalism or black magic rites, and is now safeguarded by an iron grille. Another local legend concerns the ghost of a weaver who lived in nearby Deancomebe. Unquiet, the weaver’s spirit sat at its ghostly loom until a priest threw a handful of soil from the churchyard at the ghost which immediately turned into a black hound. The hound was given the task of emptying a pool in the adjacent Dean Burn, using a nutshell with a hole in it, and the pool has been known ever since as Hound Pool.  

 

Continuing on for half-a-mile, I picked up a bus into Ashburton, alighting opposite The Old Exeter Inn, one of Britain’s oldest pubs, built in 1130 to house workers building the nearby St Andrew's Church. Local legend has it that Sir Frances Drake was a regular patron (and appears in mural form on the side of the building), as was Sir Walter Raleigh who was arrested at the Inn before being imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1603. More recently (and relevant to today’s quest), the Inn states that Conan Doyle was a regular client when writing HOUND.

 

 

The Church was my next port of call, in whose graveyard Henry (Harry) Baskerville is buried  (Graveyard #5). It was he who was the coachman in 1901, who drove his master’s son, Bertram Fletcher Robinson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, around during Conan Doyle’s research trip to Dartmoor in June of that year. Henry shares his name with the new Lord of the Manor in the novel, and he received a first edition of HOUND from BFR in 1902. It was inscribed 'To Harry Baskerville from B Fletcher Robinson with apologies for using the name !'  Henry worked for Fletcher Robinson’s family for twenty years until 1905, when Emily Robinson (BFRs’ mother) was admitted to Springfield Nursing Home in Newton Abbot. He then moved to Ashburton where he worked for a further fifty-two years for an influential local family called Sawdye. The graveyard also features another familiar name – ‘James Mortimer’, a former local headmaster, who gave his name to the local doctor in HOUND who first brings the legend of the hound to Holmes’ attention. However, I was unable to find his grave despite precise directions, with a fallen cross probably his memorial.

Walking down West Street, I passed ‘Dorncliffe’, 18 West Street, where Harry Baskerville lived from 1931 until his death in 1962, aged 91. 

 

However, it was to another local pub, that I was making my way – ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (formerly The Royal Oak) in East Street. Unfortunately, due to staffing problems, it was not open that day

Instead I continued up East Street reaching a building with a golden lion over the doorway. This building is notorious for being the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party until 1999.

 

 Returning to the bus stop  I then caught a bus to Exeter Bus Station, where I checked into my new accommodation, only a few steps from the bus station.

 

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Day 4: Lynton

 

‘A number of monthly magazines were coming out at that time, notable among which was "The Strand,". Considering these various journals with their disconnected stories it had struck me that a single character running through a series, if it only engaged the attention of the reader, would bind that reader to that particular magazine’.   [ACD - Memories & Adventures, 1924]

 

Catching a train from Exeter St Davids, I made my way to Barnstaple, where I caught a bus to Lynton. A short distance from the bus stop was the Old Station House, the terminus for the former Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B), which was founded in June 1895, with George Newnes as the first Chairman of the Board. Newnes’ company, George Newnes Ltd, published several well-known magazines such as ‘The Strand Magazine’, ‘Tit-Bits’, ‘The Westminster Gazette’, and ‘The Wide World Magazine’, all of which featured stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with ‘The Strand Magazine’ being the first publication of all the Sherlock Holmes short stories.

In September 1895, construction of the station began and Lady Newnes cut the first sod. The line was opened on 11^th May 1898, with Newnes and his wife arriving at Lynton on the first official L&B train, where they participated in the official opening ceremony. The line quickly became famous for its scenic beauty and unusually narrow gauge. Conan Doyle was a frequent rail passenger and it is probable that he used this station for a visit to the town in September 1902. 

 

A fifteen minute walk took me into central Lynton, and Lynton Town Hall, where following their participation in the opening ceremony, Newnes and his wife were driven to in a horse-drawn carriage, and where Lady Newnes laid one of two foundation corner stones for the Town Hall  (located either side of the main entrance). Newnes gifted the building to Lynton and Lynmouth in honour of his son, Frank Hillyard Newnes, who had recently come of age. The building took two years to complete, at a personal cost to Newnes of some £20,000. It was officially opened by him on 15^th August 1900 (there are two dedication stone also located either side of the main entrance). Alighting from his carriage, Newnes was presented with a silver key bearing his coat of arms. He unlocked the main door, then stepped inside, appearing a few minutes later on the balcony to take the cheers of the crowd. After making a short speech, he turned to the Chairman of the Council, and handed him the keys to the building. The building houses a permanent exhibition devoted to Newnes, and two busts of him – a bronze one on an outside niche; and a marble one given pride of place on the main staircase. The latter was a gift from the local people, and was unveiled at a ceremony held on 6^th September 1902, at which Conan Doyle delivered the main dedication speech.

Making my way into nearby woodlands, I reached the ruins of Hollerday House. During 1890, Newnes purchased Hollerday Hill with a view to building a home there. The work was supervised by a local builder called Bob Jones. The construction of the approach road began in May 1891, and eighteen months later work began on the house itself, with all works completed by the end of 1893. From then on, Newnes and his family spent each August, September and Christmas there. It also appears that Conan Doyle stayed at Hollerday House during his visit to Lynton in September 1902. During the summer of 1909, Newnes became seriously ill with diabetes, and died at Hollerday House on 9^th June 1910, aged 59. Due to the substantial debts left by Newnes, his family attempted to sell the property, but due to failing to attract any buyers, they shut up the house, selling the furniture off at auction. On the night of 4^th August 1913, the building caught fire and could not be saved. Although there was ample evidence of arson, the culprit has never been identified. Opposite the ruins there are information boards with details about Newnes and Hollerday House. At this point it started raining, but luckly I was under cover.

  Retracing my steps to the Town Hall, I continued on to Lynton Toy Museum, which houses a great display of toys, games and action figures ranging from the 1960s to 1980s and is the result of many years collecting by the owners, Tony and Lorraine Bennett. No Sherlockian toys, but a nice smattering of 'Doctor Who' toys. The attached shop sells lots of second-hand toys and games with lots of vintage items.

A short distance down the road was Lynton United Reformed Church. At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the existing Lynton Congregational Church near the bottom of Sinai Hill was considered too small and inconveniently sited by many worshippers. In 1903, Bob Jones offered a plot of land in Lee Road upon which a new church could be built. Members of the congregation approached Newnes for some financial assistance with the project. With characteristic generosity, and in memory of his father, the Reverend Thomas Mold Newnes, he paid £1,500, not only for the site to be enlarged, but also for a far more imposing building than was previously planned. The Church opened in August 1904, with the opening services being taken by the well-known London-based preacher, the Reverend Reginald John Campbell, who was presented with a new motor car following the service by Newnes for his pains.

 

Further down the road was the Old Cemetery, Longmead (Graveyard #6), where Newnes’ body was conveyed to from St. Mary’s Church (Lee Road) where his funeral service was conducted by the Reverend C.E. Treadwell (Vicar of Lynmouth) and the Reverend E.H.L. Jones (pastor of Lynton Congregational Church).

Next stop was the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway, a water-powered railway was designed by civil engineer, George Croydon Marks, who provided the required engineering expertise. Its construction was financed mainly by his business partner, George Newnes. Construction started in 1887. A cutting was excavated in the limestone cliff to form the track-bed and three bridges were built over it to carry existing cliff paths. Progress relied entirely on manual labour. The railway was completed in February 1890, and continued to glide up and down the 862 foot length of track; from Lynton at the top of the cliffs to Lynmouth nestling at the foot of the cliffs 500 feet below; providing tourists with stunning views of the North Devon Coastline. There is also a no smoking/vaping sign with a familiar silhouette.

 

All sites visited, I caught a bus back to Barnstaple, and then a train to Exeter St Davids. On my way back to my accommodation, I passed Higher Barracks. Constructed during 1794 (and now developed into residential properties) for the cavalry in response to a perceived invasion threat from France, Conan Doyle visited here to see his brother Innes during February 1897. He may also have shown the building to Jean Leckie during a visit to Exeter in around August 1902.

 

 

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The next day I made my way home, via Bath, visiting a street used in ‘Sherlock: The Abominable Bride’ and ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ a newly opened immersive visitor attraction based on another Victorian Gothic Novel just up from the Jane Austen Centre.

 

Sherlockian Sojourns – Special #5: 'Return to the Moor' - Part One

 Introduction

Having made two previous trips to Devon and Dartmoor, I decided to visit some sites that I had previously missed, relating to the novel and several individuals to which Conan Doyle owed a debt to varying degrees – namely Bertram Fletcher Robinson, George Newnes, Harry Baskerville, and George Turnavine Budd. As outlined in a previous post, I have watched/listened to over fifty dramatisations of HOUND, and in tribute to two of my favourites (09 Lives & British Touring Shakespeare), I found myself visiting several graveyards.

In preparing this sojourn I was indebted to 'Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes & Devon: A Complete Tour & Companion', written by Brian W. Pugh, Paul Spiring, and S. Bhanji, and published by MX Publishing.

 

Day 1: Newton Abbot/Plymouth

‘Our friends had already secured a first-class carriage and were waiting for us upon the platform’   [HOUN – Chapter 6].

 My journey started, as did Watson, Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer’s did, at Paddington station, but instead of the reasonable time of 10.30am, my train was at 8.05am. After a two-and-a-half hour journey, I found myself at Newton Abbot Railway Station, which was opened on Wednesday 30^th December 1846 by South Devon Railway Company. It was here on 23^rd August 1902 that Conan Doyle met up with Jean Leckie (later his second wife) with the intention of showing her some of the ‘Baskerville Moor Country’, and was also where the body of Conan Doyle’s friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson was taken to from London Paddington on 24^th January 1907 prior to his funeral. It is also likely that Conan Doyle began a journey to Sherborne from here on 3^rd June 1901, having spent the previous night with Fletcher Robinson in nearby Ipplepen.

 

I was just in time for a bus into the centre, where I caught a bus into Ipplepen, and my second port of call, Park Hill House, the house to which Fletcher Robinson and his family moved in 1882. On Sunday 2^nd June 1901, as part of their research trip, Conan Doyle and Fletcher Robinson visited Ipplepen to see the latter’s parents (referred to in a letter from Conan Doyle to his mother), and although it is not known for certain if they visited Park Hill House together, the coach house used to garage the vehicle in which they travelled is now called Park Hill Lodge, and is situated two doors to the left of Park Hill House, alongside Moor Road. The lintel of the carriage house doors can still be seen above the two newer windows. Fletcher Robinson’s parents died in 1903 and 1906, and he then owned the property himself between July 1906 and January 1907.

Continuing along the road, and turning right, after around 10 minutes, I reached Honeysuckle Cottage, where Henry Matthews Baskerville who was employed by the Fletcher Robinsons as a ‘domestic’ at Park Hill House, lived. By the time of Conan Doyle’s research trip in 1901, Henry was the ‘Head Coachman’ and was responsible for one ‘Assistant Coachman’, three coaches and two horses. It was he who drove his master’s son and Conan Doyle around the moor. Henry worked for the Robinson family for about twenty years until 1905. (see Part Two)

A short distance further on, should have been a bench and plaque dedicated to the memory of Bertram Fletcher Robinson, highlighting his connection to ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. However, despite looking for almost twenty minutes, I couldn’t find it.

Only a short distance further on was St. Andrew’s Church, in whose graveyard Bertram Fletcher Robinson is buried, as are his parents  (Graveyard #1 of the week). The church also features two stained-glass windows dedicated to the Robinson family, both designed by the Victorian artist C.E. Kemp, who also produced windows for York Minster. The southern window in commemoration of Joseph Fletcher Robinson was commissioned by his widow, Emily, in 1903. The northern window was commissioned by Bertram in commemoration of his mother in 1906, and when he died six months later, his name was added to the inscription.

 

 

Having grabbed some lunch from a local shop, I then caught a bus back to Newton Abbot, where I was in plenty of time for my train to Plymouth, my base for the next few days. The journey was supposed to take 40 minutes, but due to points failure it was twice as long before I was arriving at the station where in May 1882, Conan Doyle arrived to set up in practice with a friend from university, George Turnavine Budd. He was greeted by an exuberant Budd in an impressive horse-drawn carriage.

 

My next port of call was to have been another cemetery, Ford Park Road Cemetery, which houses the grave of George Turnavine Budd, and his only son, William, but I decided to hold this over to the next day given that I had lost almost an hour of light.

Checking into my accommodation on the way, I made my way into central Plymouth, and Durnford Street, where Budd opened his surgery. The site of the surgery was demolished during 1958, initially being made into a car dealership called Renwick’s Garage, then into a luxury apartment block called Evolution Cove. Until 2003 the former site of the surgery was marked by a commemorative plaque. A series of twenty-two other plaques featuring quotes from the Sherlock Holmes canon can still be seen set within the footpath between 85 and 125 Durnford Street. An additional plaque is mounted within the lower step of 93 Durnford Street, but contains a number of errors – ‘A Study in Scarlet’ is called ‘A Study of Scarlet’, the number of stories is set at 68 rather than 60, and his time in Plymouth did not act as an inspiration for ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’.

 

 

 

Next up was 6 Elliot Terrace, part of a row of seven imposing six-storey Victorian mansions, constructed in around 1873 by Messrs Call & Pethick. The name derives from one Colonel James Elliot who once owned most of the land upon which Plymouth Hoe now stands. Conan Doyle resided with Budd and his family at 6 Elliot Terrace following his arrival in Plymouth in early May 1882. Records indicate that Budd co-leased the property with the Royal Western Yacht Club and the nearby Grand Hotel (where Conan Doyle stayed in February 1923). There is now a commemorative plaque on the address.

Returning to my accommodation, I settled in for the night, having a strenuous day planned for the next day.

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Day 2:  ‘The Moor’

‘But down beneath me in a cleft of the hills there was a circle of the old stone huts, and in the middle of them there was one which retained sufficient roof to act as a screen against the weather. My heart leaped within me as I saw it. This must be the burrow where the stranger lurked’. 

 [HOUN – Chapter 11]

 

Day two was my day on the moor. But first, I managed to make up for missing Budd’s grave the previous day, by attending as soon as it opened at 9am  (Graveyard #2). Conan Doyle and Budd were classmates at Edinburgh and both rugby players (Budd playing for Blackheath as Watson had done). After graduating from the medical programme, Budd initially established a practice in Bristol. However, the cost of his plush lifestyle exceeded his income, leading to his moving moved to Plymouth, where things seemed to turn around for him.  In May of 1882 he sent word to Conan Doyle asking him to come and join the practice. Despite being advised by all whose advice he sought not to join Budd’s practice, he did so anyway. When the partnership was about two months old Budd told Conan Doyle there was a problem. Profits had fallen and there wasn’t really room for two doctors in the practice.  Later Doyle found out that Budd had found one of his mother’s disapproving letters about him and was upset by it.

Conan Doyle used Budd as the model for Dr. James Cullingworth in 'The Stark Munro Letters', and combined with their shared Edinburgh professor, Professor William Rutherford, as a part model for his most famous non-Sherlockian character, Professor George Challenger.

 

 

Making my way back to Plymouth Station, I caught the Dartmoor Explorer to ‘The Warren House Inn’ in Postbridge, one of the highest and most remote pubs in England. The first inn on the site is thought to date from around 1760 and stood on the opposite side of the road to the present ‘house’ and was known as the ‘New House’. That inn would have provided shelter and sustenance for miners and for travellers on the 1772 Morehamptonstead turnpike road, as did the replacement Warren House Inn (once called the Moreton Inn) in later years.

Even if Conan Doyle’s party did not then stop at the Warren House Inn, having been picked up by Fletcher Robinson’s coachman, Harry Baskerville, it certainly would have been visible to them across the valley. The landlord still guarantees a warm welcome today, declaring that the fire in the bar has been burning continuously since 1845 !

I then undertook part of a self-guided walk, ‘Tors and Tin’ planned by the Royal Geographic Society. Finding the starting point, I was soon walking across the moor, reaching a good example of a traditional Devon clapper bridge made from granite slabs taken from the surrounding landscape. 

 

Continuing on, past locations used in the 'Doctor Who' story, 'The Sontaran Experiment', I found myself at Grimspound, a late Bronze Age settlement. The Anglo Saxons knew ‘Grim’ as the Devil, and it is a prefix to placenames associated with evil legends throughout England. It also inspired the name ‘Grimpen’ in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’.

Reminiscing about his trip around Dartmoor with Conan Doyle, Fletcher Robinson recalled:

‘We tramped eastward to the stone fort of Grimspound, which the savages of the Stone Age…raised with enormous labour to act as a haven of refuge from marauding tribes. The twenty feet slabs of granite – how they were ever hauled to their places is a mystery – still encircle the stone huts where the tribe lived. Into one of these Doyle and I walked….It was one of the loneliest spots in Great Britain. Strange legends of lights and figures are told concerning it.’

 

 

It was in a stone hut similar to those in Grimspound that Watson discovered the hiding place of an incognito Holmes:

 

‘Far away came the sharp clink of a boot striking upon a stone. Then another and yet another, coming nearer and nearer. I shrank back into the darkest corner and cocked the pistol in my pocket, determined not to discover myself until I had an opportunity of seeing something of the stranger. There was a long pause which showed that he had stopped. Then once more the footsteps approached and a shadow fell across the opening of the hut.

“It is a lovely evening, my dear Watson,” said a well-known voice. “I really think that you will be more comfortable outside than in”.’    -  Chapter 11  [HOUN]

 

Retracing my steps  I returned to the Warren House Inn, for some liquid refreshment prior to catching the Dartmoor Express, making my way to Princetown, from where Conan Doyle wrote to his mother in June 1901:

‘Dearest of Mams,

Here I am in the highest town in England. Robinson and I are exploring the moor over our Sherlock Holmes book. I think it will work out splendidly – indeed I have already done nearly half of it. Holmes is at his very best, and it is a very dramatic idea – which I owe to Robinson. We did 14 miles over the moor today and we are now pleasantly weary.’

Arthur Conan Doyle, writing to his mother from Princetown, June 1901.

 

Princetown (not the highest town in England – that’s Flash in Derbyshire by 33 feet), is where Conan Doyle and Fletcher Robinson took rooms at the Duchy Hotel in 1901 before their exploration of the moor. In 1941 the hotel became the Dartmoor Prison Officers’ Mess, and remained so until the early 1990s when it became, and remains, the Dartmoor National Park High Moorland Visitor Centre. In this building there is now a permanent Sherlock Holmes exhibition, including a life-size mannequin of Holmes and the Hound, and a full-size portrait of Conan-Doyle watching his famous creation going out onto the Moor, as well as other exhibits. I also purchased a 'Hound of the Baskervilles Trail' leaflet.

 

 

Nearby is Fox Tor Mires, the most likely candidate for the ‘Great Grimpen Mire’, which I visited on my last Dartmoor trip.

My final stop of the day was at Dartmoor Prison, founded in 1806. The prison was originally used to house French and American prisoners of war captured during the Naploeonic wars until 1816. The prison was re-opened in 1850 when England’s jail population was reaching a peak. On 13^th June 1901, as Conan Doyle was completing the third instalment of ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ two convicts named William Silvester and Fergus Frith made a widely publicised escape. This almost certainly inspired the escape of Selden the Notting Hill Murderer from ‘Princetown Prison’ in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. The prison now features a museum that I visited.

 

  

On my way back to the Visitors Centre, I popped into the churchyard of St. Michael’s and All Angels Church. This simple, slender-towered Dartmoor church was built between 1812-14 by prisoners captured in the Napoleonic Wars with France, and the War of 1812 with the United States – they were held at Dartmoor prison. It also features gravestones for prisoners who died during their sentence  (Graveyard #3). Unfortunately the engraved names had been eroded away, so I could not see if one of them was for Selden.

 

Catching two buses, first to Yelverton (close to the stables from ‘Silver Blaze’), and then to Plymouth, I made my way back to my room to collapse exhausted.

 

Go to Part Two

Sherlockian Sojourns #23: ‘Surely that is Baker Street’

My companion put his hand upon my shoulder and his lips close to my ear.

“Do you know where we are?” he whispered.

“Surely that is Baker Street,” I answered, staring through the dim window. [EMPT]

 

221b Baker Street is one of the most famous addresses in literature, and many letters are still received to this day asking Mr. Holmes for assistance. However, due to being full of commercial properties, Baker Street now looks so unlike how it did in Holmes’ day that television and film have had to look elsewhere for a suitable street for the exterior of Holmes and Watson’s ‘suite of rooms’. Many have dealt with this by building Baker Street in a studio, such as the Granada series’ in Manchester (whose recreation I walked during my student days), the ‘Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ set at Pinewood, and the ‘A Study in Terror’ set at Shepperton. However, several productions chose to use other London streets as filming locations. Therefore, having had a meeting in Central London for a whole morning, and needing to reduce my TOIL hours, I decided to visit as many of them as I could in an afternoon, in a gradual restarting of sojourns.

Making my way to Westminster Underground Station (which appears in ‘Sherlock: The Empty Hearse’), I walked past the church where Conan Doyle married his second wife, Jean Leckie  and the Houses of Parliament, until finally I reached Great College Street, which I walked along for a short distance, eventually reaching Barton Street, which doubled for Baker Street in two different films.

The first of these was ‘Murder By Decree’ (1979), the Holmes vs Jack the Ripper film, starring Christopher Plummer and James Mason. It was to here that Holmes and Watson returned to from the Royal Opera House at the start of the film.

 

The second was the comedic ‘Without a Clue’ (1988)  [one of my favourite Sherlockian films], which revealed Watson as the true genius of the pair. It was in Barton Street that reporters crowded Holmes, and where Reginald Kincaid was thrown out onto the street.

 

 

Photographs taken, and it was back to Westminster Underground Station, passing Deans Yard which features in the conclusion of 'Murder By Decree', and via the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines onto Holborn. Making my way to the nearby Red Lion Square, I passed the Conway Hall which appeared in ‘Mr Holmes’ (2015) as the cinema where he sees the film of a past case. 

 

But it was to the Baker Street featured in that film, Bedford Row, via Princeton Street, that I was making my way. When interviewed by ‘Radio Times’, locations manager for the film, Richard George, stated “We could turn it into 1923 London with ease. Directly opposite 221B in the movie, at number 36, a trick is played on tourists who come and see where Mr Holmes lives, in fact he’s actually watching from across the street.”

 

 

Making my way to Chancery Lane Station, I caught the Central and Northern Lines to Warren Street, where a short walk was North Gower Street, which featured as Baker Street in all series of ‘Sherlock’. Speedy’s Sandwich Shop had just closed up for the day, but I got a few photos of the outside.

 

 

Walking to the nearby Euston Square Underground Station, I caught a tube the two stops to Baker Street itself  (‘the original, one might say’). Exiting from the Marylebone Road exit, I found myself by the John Doubleday statue of Holmes.

 

 

Walking around the corner, I made my way up to the ‘Sherlock Holmes Museum’, which claims to be 221b, but is actually 237-241. Having gone round the house several times, I just briefly popped in the souvenir shop to see if they had anything new and exciting, but they did not.

 

 

Walking back down Baker Street, I passed the Lloyds Bank at 185 Baker Street. This bank has a tangential link to Holmes as on the night of 11^th September 1971, a gang tunnelled 12 metres from a rented shop two doors away to come up through the floor of the vault of this bank. The value of the property stolen from safety deposit boxes is unknown, but is likely to have been between £1.25 and £3 million (equivalent to between £18 and £43 million today); only £231,000 (equivalent to £3.3 million today) was recovered by the police. The burglary was planned by Anthony Gavin, a career criminal, who was inspired by John Clay’s plan in ‘The Red-Headed League’. They even wrote on the vault walls – “Let’s see how Sherlock Holmes solved this”.

A fictionalised version of the burglary is the subject of the 2008 film ‘The Bank Job’, which uses the storyline that the crime was either set up, later covered up – or more probably both – by MI5 to secure compromising photographs of Princess Margaret that were being kept in a deposit box at the bank by Trinidadian radical Michael X.

 

Continuing along Baker Street, I reached the properties identified by noted Sherlockian scholar, Bernard Davies as 221b and Camden House (the empty house) – 31 and 34 respectively.

 

Returning to Baker Street Station, I made my way home via the Jubilee and Northern Lines.