I was delighted to find that legendary black door – and I deduce that when I took a photo of it, Sherlock Holmes’s brother Mycroft hadn’t been round lately (he’s always straightening that knocker apparently). But all is not as it seems in the films…
… the windows above are familiar, and the café blind seems similar, but there’s a rather bright sign above the door and a blue plaque that doesn’t even mention the hat detective and was covered over on filming days with a light (series 1) or what sometimes appears to be a slightly strange black ‘blob’.
As for that café, it’s real enough, but inside looks decidedly different to the meetings Mycroft and Watson, Sherlock and Charles Augustus Magnusson had on screen… and it’s not actually in Baker Street, but North Gower Street close to Euston Station. But this member of the Sherlock fandom was still delighted to have found it one morning early on my way to work!
Speedy’s café – google maps link - https://goo.gl/maps/EkdReLh3E8T2
I love taking photos in the early morning – you can see the buildings more – and, before everyone’s up and about, the filmset locations look more as they did in the movies. Your imagination is free to dream that the familiar characters might be somewhere close by. This one shows the famous roof of Barts Hospital and the ambulance station in front of it that played a significant part in enabling the famous detective to pretend to be jumping to his own death to protect his closest friends from being killed by Moriarty’s assassins.
This one shows that familiar pavement where Watson believed his sleuthing friend had died.
Barts (Bartholomew’s) Hospital – google maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/hsehQKSbfb12
It wasn’t quite so early morning when I went in search of Sherlock Holmes in the real Baker Street, but, while I didn’t find Sherlock, Watson or even Mrs Hudson the housekeeper, I did have the luck to get photos of that famous study where he sees his clients at 221B Baker Street.
Sherlock Holmes Museum – google maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/STU1MvESLvN2
And, as I headed back from his usual haunts to Baker Street station, I came across this statue to him – proof, surely, that England needs, and has a great deal of affection, for Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes statue – google maps link: Google Maps
