Sherlock Holmes Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sherlock Holmes Museum is the most popular privately run museum in London, dedicated to the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. It is situated at 239 Baker Street,[1] near the north end of Baker Street in central London close to Regent's Park.[2][3]
The Georgian town house which the Museum occupies as "221b Baker Street" was formerly used as a boarding house from 1860 to 1936, and covers the period of 1881 to 1904 when Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson were reported to have resided there as tenants of Mrs Hudson. The Museum is run by The Sherlock Holmes International Society, a non-profit making organisation.
[edit] Numbering dispute
- Further information: 221B Baker Street
The address 221B was the subject of a protracted dispute between the Museum and the nearby Abbey National building. Since the 1930s, the Royal Mail had been delivering mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes to the Abbey National Bank, and they had employed a special secretary to deal with such correspondence. The Museum went through several appeals for such mail to be delivered to it, on the grounds that it was the most appropriate organisation to respond to the mail, rather than the bank whose primary business was to lend money out on interest. Although these initiatives were all unsuccessful, the issue was finally resolved in 2002 when the Abbey National vacated its headquarters after seventy years, and the mail is now currently delivered to the Museum.
[edit] References
- ^ The Sherlock Holmes Museum - On This Very Spot
- ^ Thomas Bruce Wheeler (2003). Finding Sherlock's London: Travel Guide to Over 200 Sites in London. iUniverse. ISBN 0595281141.
- ^ "Sherlock Holmes 101", Washington Post, January 11, 2004.
