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The Charing
Cross Hotel is across the street from Trafalgar
Square Π and at the center of Sherlock Holmes's
London, England. The hotel was mentioned in
"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington
Plan."
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Thomas Wheeler waded into
London in the '90s.
First the 1990s, after the
retired government worker from Memphis, Tenn., got serious
about travel. Wheeler and his wife became so intimately
acquainted with London theater and shopping that he began
writing guidebooks and operating tours of the city and the
nearby English countryside.
Then the 1890s: A childhood
interest in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels
and stories never abated, and Wheeler amassed a detailed
knowledge of the legendary Victorian detective.
Wheeler cross-bred his
files to create a guidebook on Sherlock's world, and an
updated version, "The New 'Finding Sherlock's
London'" (iUniverse, $22.95) has just been published.
It lists more than 300 sites.
Most of us have less of an
addiction to the master detective and his friend, Dr.
Watson ... but an attraction nonetheless. Amazon.com
remains fully stocked with the original Sherlock titles
and hundreds of spinoffs, knockoffs and rip-offs.
Countless films have been made of the investigative duo,
and a new, big-budget "Sherlock Holmes" starring
Robert Downey Jr. is being readied for Christmas release.
A great deal of its filming
this past winter was done in London an elementary
decision, as so many cases were set there, and the
metropolis retains something of the feel of crimes and
clues tucked into waistcoats and fog-darkened shadows.
Going to London soon? We
recently interrogated Wheeler, who offers these
slice-of-Sherlock tips.
The absolute must-see
The famous apartment
Sherlock and Watson shared at 221-B Baker St. never
existed, but Baker Street is still the best place to
start, according to Wheeler.
"The Sherlock Holmes
Museum, on the 200 block of Baker Street, has a sign over
the door that reads 221-B. But it's not really where the
fictional place would've been, and the museum's actual
address is 239. But the museum has a replica of Holmes and
Watson's rooms on the second floor. The ground floor has a
kind of curio shop where you can buy Sherlock Holmes
items.
"Across from the
museum at the Baker Street Underground station is a statue
of the detective.
"Where did Holmes
actually live? In my book, I consider it 31 Baker St. I
came to that conclusion studying 'The Adventure of the
Empty House,' in which a route is given that ends up at an
empty house across from their rooms."
Best place to buy a
deerstalker hat and a calabash pipe
Wheeler: "Probably the
museum, where the hats go for about £20 ($29). The shop
also has books and everything else for sale.
"On Oxford Street is a
tobacco shop that has been in business a long time. It
might be where Sherlock bought his pipe tobacco or
cigarettes. He had cigarettes in some of the
stories."
Best Sherlockian place
to eat
"Go to the Sherlock
Holmes Pub, at 10 Northumberland St. Its second floor has
a restaurant with decent pub food bangers and mash
(sausages and mashed potatoes). And behind glass is a
replica of the 221-B drawing room, just as you imagined
it. There's good beer downstairs.
"Restaurants mentioned
in the Sherlock Holmes adventures that are still in
business include Simpson's-in-the-Strand, at 100 Strand
mentioned in 'The Adventure of the Dying Detective'
and 'The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.' If you
order the tableside carved roast at Simpson's, remember to
tip the carver in cash. And there's the Criterion Grill,
224 Piccadilly, where Watson first heard of Holmes, in 'A
Study in Scarlet.' At the Criterion, ask if they still
have the good value pre-theater dinner."
Best place for Sherlock
sleep
You can stay at several
hotels mentioned in the stories, according to Wheeler.
"There's The Charing
Cross Hotel, which I like because it's at the center of
Sherlock's London. It's within walking distance of the
Simpson's-in-the-Strand Sherlock's favorite
restaurant. And Trafalgar Square is right across the
street. The Charing Cross is a nice hotel and was recently
refurbished. Also, the Charing Cross Hotel was mentioned
in 'The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plan.'
"At Brook and Davies
streets is Claridge's. It's mentioned in several stories
and is probably the only hotel in which Sherlock stayed as
a guest. After he retired and moved to the Sussex
countryside to become a beekeeper, he returned to London
in 'His Last Bow' during World War I as a double agent
feeding false information to the Germans. In the story, he
was staying at Claridge's. It's a five-star place (www.claridges.co.uk).
"Others include The
Grosvenor Hotel, on Buckingham Palace Road (www.grosvenor-hotel-london.co.uk)
mentioned in 'The Final Problem' and The Langham
Hotel (http:// london.langhamhotels.co.uk/en), on Portland
Place: 'The Sign of Four,' 'A Scandal in Bohemia' and 'The
Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax.'
"My favorite, though,
is The Royal Horseguards. You know you're in London when
you stay there (www.theroyalhorseguards.co.uk). It's a
great old hotel within a half-block of the Sherlock Holmes
Pub. It's also near the Embankment tube station, which has
four underground lines. You can get anywhere quickly from
there. The tube station is where London Walks offers its
Holmes tour, Fridays at 2 p.m., for £7 ($10.19) per
person. Reservations aren't required; just show up (www.walks.com)."
The 'hood that looks
most like Sherlock's turf
"I'd say Craven
Street, off Northumberland. It's where a lot of houses
were never torn down, and many are Victorian. It's one of
those backstreets just east of the Sherlock Holmes Pub.
This area is covered in the London Walks tour."
Best short walk for
casual fans
"One I cover in my
book is only six-tenths of a mile and retraces the route
to 221-B Baker St., as covered in 'The Adventure of the
Empty House.' The walk starts at Cavendish Square and ends
up on Baker Street at the true Holmes-Watson site. The
buildings on the walk are a mix of commercial and
residential. Probably more commercial these days: It's
expensive to have a home in London.
"This is in a part of
London right off Oxford Street which has big stores
but you're taking backstreets. The route is flat; this is
an easy walk."
Best add-on for mood
"Dennis Severs' House,
18 Folgate St., in Spitalfields, is a must for seeing how
Londoners lived in the 19th century. Their Monday evening
tour is the most unique. Advance booking is necessary, and
the cost is £12 ($17.46) per person. They also offer
daylight tours of the house most Sundays between noon and
4 p.m. (£8 per person), and between noon and 2 p.m. the
Monday following the first and third Sundays (£5/$7.28
per person). No advance booking is required for the
daylight tours (www.dennissevershouse.co.uk)."
IF YOU GO:
The Sherlock Holmes Museum,
239 Baker St., London, is open 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. daily.
Admission: £6 ($8.72); £4 ($5.83) for 15 and younger.
Details: www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk
SERIOUS FAN, EXHAUSTIVE
BOOK
Thomas Wheeler, 78, is a
member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, one of
the foremost associations of serious fans. In Memphis,
Tenn., he is also a former First Garrideb of the Giant Rat
of Sumatra organization.
(Sherlock clubs tend to
acquire odd names based on Arthur Conan Doyle's writings.
A giant rat of Sumatra was mentioned in the story
"The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." The
Memphis president is similarly and obscurely titled to
honor "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs.")
Die-hard fans are indeed a
serious bunch, and "The New 'Finding Sherlock's
London'" is guilty as charged. It could easily be
stocked in a bookstore's travel aisle or among
reference guides in the mystery area. The 300-some pages
list more than 300 spots from one end of London to the
other.
The volume is organized in
several ways. One is by story/novel according to the year
in which each was set. (Got a favorite? Just look it up:
Review the synopsis and literally view the scenes.)
Another section groups sites by which of 80 Underground
stations they're near a boon for time-crunched
visitors to whom Holmes-Watson sites may be an easy
by-the-way stop. Other groupings are by train stations and
10 London rail lines. Five walking tours are outlined, and
two lists in the back tell which adventures feature 450
named characters.
The book is exhaustive, but
it makes it infinitely easier for fans to find what they
seek in London. As the man with the magnifying glass noted
in "A Case of Identity" (1891), "The little
things are infinitely the most important."
(c) 2009, The Charlotte
Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
Visit The Charlotte
Observer on the World Wide Web at http://www.charlotte.com/
Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
WLT-HOLMES
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