Close to Holmes - A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

215 Pages·2009·9.58 MB·English

by  Alistair Duncan

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First edition published in 2009
© Copyright 2009
Alistair Duncan
The right of Alistair Duncan to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be
made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may
be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or
in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person
who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information
contained in this book, as of the date of publication, nothing herein should be
construed as giving advice. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and
not of MX Publishing.
Paperback ISBN 9781904312502
Published in the UK by MX Publishing
335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive, London, N11 3GX
www.mx-publishing.co.uk
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This book is dedicated to my wife (my own Mary Morstan) and to the memory of Pippa
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Contents
About the author
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Baker Street
Upper Wimpole Street to Regent Street
Regent Street to Pall Mall
Pall Mall
Northumberland Avenue and its hotel mysteries
The Strand
The Lyceum Theatre and William Gillette
Sherlock Holmes and the railways
British Museum and Museum Tavern
Holborn
Tottenham Court Road
Covent Garden
St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Brook Street
Scotland Yard
Royal College of Surgeons
Kennington Road
The Three Norwoods
Croydon
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
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About the author
Alistair Duncan is an I.T. Consultant and Sherlock Holmes
enthusiast. Since the early 1980s he has been a fan of the Great
Detective and in February 2008 he released his first book
Eliminate the Impossible which was a look at the Sherlock
Holmes stories and films. He is a member of the Sherlock
Holmes Society of London and a member of the Conan Doyle
(Crowborough) Establishment.
He lives with his wife in South London.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to formally acknowledge the following:
Steve Ball, Catherine Cooke (Sherlock Holmes Collection:
Marylebone Library, Westminster Libraries), Phil Cornell (Vice-
President of the Sydney Passengers), Christine Corner et al.
(Croydon Local Studies Library), Crystal Palace Library, John
Hickman, Roger Johnson (Sherlock Holmes Society of London),
Brian Pugh and Paul Spiring (authors of Bertram Fletcher
Robinson - A Footnote to the Hound of the Baskervilles).
Efforts have been made to identify material still under
copyright and seek permission for use. If I have overlooked any
item the copyright holder is asked to contact the publisher so
that the matter can be rectified in any future edition of this
book.
Cover design by Staunch with central illustration by Phil
Cornell.
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Foreword
Of the dozen or so guides to Sherlock Holmes’s London there
are two that I recommend to visitors: Arthur Alexander’s Hot on
the Scent and Thomas Wheeler’s Finding Sherlock’s London. Now,
thanks to Alistair Duncan, I’ll have to add a third.
The point being that the three books complement each other.
Mr Alexander offers thirty-five walking tours, all within an area
stretching from Whitechapel in the east to Kensington in the
west, and all enhanced with anecdote and description. Mr
Wheeler deals with each story separately, directing the traveller
to the nearest Underground station to each site, and pithily
summarising the essential details.
Mr Duncan takes a different approach, as the subtitle of this
book indicates. Most importantly, it is, I think, the first of its
kind to give equal emphasis to those places associated with
Arthur Conan Doyle. We may have wondered why so many of
Sherlock Holmes’s cases took him south of the Thames, but
Alistair Duncan makes all clear: that was the part of London
that his creator knew best.
Reading Close to Holmes we feel that we are in the company
of a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and witty friend. He guides us
through most, but not all, of Holmesian London. He doesn’t
follow Irene Adler to St John’s Wood, or Charles Augustus
Milverton to Hampstead, but perhaps that would have taken us
too far from Conan Doyle. On the other hand, in mentioning
“The Priory School,” an investigation that took place far from
the capital, he advances an interesting and, as far as I’m aware,
original idea about the location of “Mackleton” in the Peak
District.
In any case, I couldn’t possibly be unenthusiastic about a book
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that features a photograph of the beautiful Maude Fealy!
(Intrigued? Then read on…)
Roger Johnson
Editor, The Sherlock Holmes Journal
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