The Sherlock Holmes
The Sherlock Holmes is a Victorian-style pub on Northumberland Street, between Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square. It holds a collection of Holmes memorabilia that began as a 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition, including a replica of the 221B Baker Street sitting room, viewable from the upstairs restaurant.
Photos
Gary Gao
A pub with a case history
The building began as a small hotel and was known as the Northumberland Arms, a name that appears in Conan Doyle's 1892 story The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor. Some fans also link it to the Northumberland Hotel in The Hound of the Baskervilles. It reopened as The Sherlock Holmes in 1957, and the Victorian Turkish baths that Holmes and Watson used were next door on Northumberland Avenue. Fans of the stories will enjoy spotting these links.
The collection
The memorabilia was assembled for a Holmes exhibition in 1951, toured abroad, then bought by Whitbread and installed here. Look for the stuffed head of the Hound in the bar. Upstairs, the recreated 221B sitting room sits behind glass and can be seen from the first-floor restaurant. Even if you don't eat upstairs, it is worth a look at the displays around the bar.
Visiting
It is a Greene King pub serving traditional food and drink, and it gets busy with visitors, so midweek lunchtimes are calmer. Trafalgar Square is a couple of minutes' walk, The Ship & Shovell is round the corner if you fancy a second pub, and Joe Blake's on Villiers Street is close by for coffee the next morning.
Highlights
- Replica of Holmes's 221B Baker Street sitting room
- Collection from the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition
- Hound of the Baskervilles head in the bar
- Two minutes from Trafalgar Square
Good to know
- The 221B room is viewed from the first-floor restaurant
- Run by Greene King
Frequently asked questions
Nearby
Sources: en.wikipedia.org