Sherlock Holmes exhibit runs at Museum of London

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 9 years ago

Sherlock Holmes exhibit runs at Museum of London

A new exhibit on Sherlock Holmes can, fittingly, only be accessed behind a row of books tucked inside the Museum of London.

By Steve McKenna
Exhibition objects

Exhibition objectsCredit: Museum of London

In the City of London - an enclave splintered with mysterious nooks and crannies - there is a "secret door" camouflaged amid shelves of faux leather-backed books that evoke the studious air of a library trapped in the 1800s.

Stepping through this "hidden" portal, however, transports you into a gallery garnished with objects and observations spanning three centuries, from the foggy, horse-and-carriage strewn streets of Victorian London to the fast-paced, tech-obsessed megapolis of today.

The central character of this exhibition has moved - indeed thrived - with the times, swaggering across various mediums: print and stage; radio and TV; online and big screen. In fact, the evidence presented here suggests that Sherlock Holmes is probably immortal.

A conservator prepares a tweed deerstalker hat, cape and coat.

A conservator prepares a tweed deerstalker hat, cape and coat.Credit: Museum of London

The Man Who Has Never Lived and Will Never Die is the biggest Sherlock-inspired exhibition to be held in London for over 60 years. Packed with exhibits that will intrigue diehard Sherlockians and casual fans alike, it's tucked inside the Museum of London, round the corner from St Bartholomew's Hospital, from whose roof Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock leapt to his (faked) death in the Emmy-award winning ABC drama following a showdown with arch-nemesis James Moriarty. In Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, it was at the hospital's chemical laboratory that Holmes first met Dr Watson.

Sherlock's curious relationships with both his friend and foe are among the issues explored in this engaging expose of the brilliant, yet baffling Baker Street detective, who first appeared in the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet, then three years later in The Sign of the Four. It wasn't until his adventures featured in Strand magazine, however, that Sherlock really caught the public's imagination. Such was his popularity that when Conan Doyle tried to send Sherlock to his death, with Moriarty, at the Reichenbach Falls, readers demanded their hero's return. Conan Doyle yearned to spend more time on 'serious' writing, away from Sherlock, but the walrus-moustached author - whose portrait graces the exhibition - succumbed to pressure and resurrected his protagonist, who starred in 56 short stories in Strand between 1891 and 1927 (plus four novels).

Vintage editions of the magazine - alongside Sidney Paget's classic illustrations of Holmes and Dr Watson - are among the bygone artefacts sprinkled across the gallery. Also on show are pocket watches, violins, pince-nez, telegraph receivers, fingerprint kits, Remington typewriters and other nods to Victorian and Edwardian life. Echoes of Sherlock's bohemian side include cigarette cases and a silk-lined box with a metal syringe and needles (cocaine, opium and morphine were among Holmes' vices).

The evidence presented here suggests that Sherlock Holmes is probably immortal.

There is, naturally, a selection of unmistakable Sherlockian icons. A chunky pipe, magnifying glass and tweed deerstalker are neatly arranged on a wall next to a 221b Baker Street door, providing the perfect backdrop for a selfie. There are capes and big coats, including the Belstaff coat and the Derek Rose camel dressing gown worn by Cumberbatch in Sherlock. Other cabinets flaunt costumes that helped him become a master of disguise.

Advertisement

One of the exhibition's most treasured items is a notebook of Conan Doyle's, in which he penned his very first Sherlock lines while working as a physician in Southsea, Portsmouth. The Scottish-born author based Holmes on Dr Joseph Bell, one of his old tutors at theUniversity of Edinburgh renowned for his amazing analytical skills. Conan Doyle was also inspired by C. Auguste Dupin, the masterful sleuth from Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). More notes from Conan Doyle show references to Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker - who would later become Holmes and Watson.

Strolling past colourful posters advertising old Sherlock plays and films, I come to a superb collection of paintings of the mist-suffused, gas-lamp-riddled London cobblescapes in which Holmes pursued shadowy villains and solved his mind-boggling cases. A particularly striking canvas is Pont de Londres (1902), one of 37 views of Charing Cross Bridge captured by Claude Monet, who was fascinated by the way the city's industrial fog affected the light quality.

First print edition.

First print edition.Credit: Museum of London

The exhibition offers a smart mix of old-fashioned and multimedia displays. A dozen or so TV screens beam out the many incarnations of the timeless Holmes, from Sir Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett to Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jnr (who played the lead in Guy Ritchie's recent Sherlock movies). Audio clips also permeate the gallery, including a whispered narrative of Sherlock's apparent death as a waterfall thunders away on a giant screen.

Dozens of other events and installations are running alongside this exhibition, including screenings of archive Sherlock films at the nearby Barbican cinema, The Mind Maze (where you can indulge your inner sleuth in the museum's foyer) and Q&As with Anthony Horowitz, whose new page-turning novels set in the world of Sherlock Holmes have been endorsed by the Conan Doyle Estate. Published on October 23, Horowitz's Moriarty picks up immediately after the dramatic events of Reichenbach Falls and revolves around a fiendish new criminal mastermind stalking the streets of London. Add to this news that a fourth season of Sherlock has been confirmed, and it's safe to say that the cult of Holmes is truly alive and well.

The writer was a guest of Visit Britain and the Museum of London.

TRIP NOTES

GETTING THERE

Qantas, British Airways, Emirates and Singapore Airlines are among the airlines that fly between Australia and London. The museum is between Barbican and St Paul's tube stations.

STAYING THERE

Housed across two renovated 18th-century buildings on Baker Street, the Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes hotel has 119 rooms and runs regular Murder Mystery events that challenge your grey matter. Rooms start from £169 ($310); parkplazasherlockholmes.com

SLEUTHING THERE

Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Has Never Lived and Will Never Die ends on April 12, 2015. General admission to the Museum of London is free, but the exhibition costs £12 for adults, £10 for concessions (ages 12-15, students, over 60s); museumoflondon.org.uk

MORE INFORMATION

visitbritain.com

FIVE OTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR SHERLOCKIANS

1. SHERLOCK'S LONDON ON FOOT

Various walking tours - including Brit Movie Tours (britmovietours.com) - lead pilgrims around the London locations that made an impression on Conan Doyle and featured in Sherlock's TV and cinema adaptations. Sherlock's fictional home, 221b Baker Street, houses a permanent museum devoted to the detective (sherlock-holmes.co.uk). Featuring a re-creation of his sitting room, and a gift shop, this Grade II-listed building is near Baker Street tube station, inside which you'll find tiled Sherlock murals.

2. SHERLOCK-INSPIRED REFRESHMENTS

Hidden in a side street off Euston Square, Speedys Cafe is where Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman snacked both on and off screen during filming for Sherlock. Speedys sells Sherlock and Watson wraps (speedyscafe.co.uk). In Westminster, the Sherlock Holmes Pub is decorated with Holmesian memorabilia (sherlockholmespub.com).

3. DEVON

This overwhelmingly rural county in south-west England was the setting of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Unique Devon Tours takes in places that Conan Doyle visited while planning and writing the story, including the wild, brooding Dartmoor - home to the mysterious 'black beast' in the classic tale; uniquedevontours.com/hound-baskervilles

4. NORTH NORFOLK

Another part of England thought to have inspired the Baskervilles was North Norfolk - a coastal region north east of London. With its arched windows, crenellated towers and high chimneys, Gothic-revival style Cromer Hall bears a striking resemblance to the novel's Baskerville Hall. Conan Doyle dined at Cromer Hall in 1901 and during his Norfolk travels, he also heard about a local legend, the Black Shuck, a huge canine phantom who had roamed the coastline since Viking times; visitnorthnorfolk.com

5. REICHENBACH FALLS

Conan Doyle's occasional overseas forays also influenced his stories; none more so than a trip to Switzerland in 1893. Conan Doyle thought the Reichenbach Falls in the Bernese Oberland region would be the perfect place to kill off his fictional sleuth in The Final Problem. You can ride a cable car up to a viewing platform, or go to the falls on foot from Hotel Zwirgi; myswitzerland.com

Sign up for the Traveller newsletter

The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading