221B Baker Street

Watson and Sherlock Holmes live at 221 Baker St. Their apartment is "b", short for "bis", which means 'twice'. This distinguished it from the house proper (where Holmes' former landlady Mrs. Hudson had her address). In our universe, the "real" location of 221B is the subject of some debate, but the Sherlock Holmes Museum occupies the current 221 address (thanks to changes in the street naming system. In the SH22 universe, there was also a museum at the "real" 221, but it was closed for lack of attendance (as Watson noted in "The Rise and Fall of Sherlock Holmes").

The Baker St. of old, cartoon-style

Baker St. evening, 2104

Through Lestrade's connections, the museum space was cleaned and turned liveable again before and during "The Crime Machine", and Holmes and Watson moved in during the evening of June 16, 2103. We do not know whether Holmes and Watson pay rent. Probably not. (Legions of adoring fans who own property can be useful.)

221 is accessible from the street by one door (that we know of). The ground floor interior of the house seems unusually spacious, but it was almost certainly modified at some time down the years to remove the wall between the front and back parlors. There was usually a back door to a garden in houses of this type. Almost certainly there was originally a basement access behind iron railings at the front, where coal and other goods could be delivered and Holmes' pageboy Billy and other servants could hang out. As with most houses on Baker Street, this area has been filled in with concrete and the railings removed.

Door to 221 Baker St.

The famous seventeen steps lead up to the door of Holmes and Watson's sitting room/consulting office.

landing and 221B Door to 221B

221B has hardwood floors and a decorated plaster ceiling. There are two large Oriental rugs on the floor. One is rectangular and covers the traffic area leading away from the entrance; the other covers the majority of the hearth area. There are gas fixtures on the wall; whether these are original or museum reproductions is impossible to say. They do not seem to have been converted into lumies. The room's primary visible source of light is a chandelier. However, most of the real light seems to come from lumies hidden in the molding around the walls. There seem to be some kind of egg-and-dart patterned beams or molding along the walls.

Just inside the door (on the street side) is a handy coatrack. Holmes keeps his Inverness and deerstalker here. It stands next to a curio cabinet containing pottery and other knickknacks. Initially Holmes' wax bust was kept on top of this cabinet. In the corner on the other side of the door hangs a picture in an oval frame.

Just inside the door More of 221B

Holmes' tall brown armchair and reading light sit a little further out, between two portraits. On the other side of the door hang two pictures, at least one a portrait; their subjects are unknown. There's also a grandfather clock on the opposite wall, with a landscape hung next to it (MAZA2). Watson has a shorter red armchair which is seen in various spots throughout the episodes.

The middle section of the sitting room is dominated by three windows which curve out from the house like a bay window. There are window seats all around, where Holmes has been known to sit and watch passersby; the window seats seem to have drawers in their sides, though the handles may only be decorative. This is also where Holmes' famous wax bust was set up. The windows have dark red curtains which match the rugs. There are also two bow windows (the circular ones), although they seem to disappear from sight from inside 221B. Possibly the view through the side windows in the bay is the result of a very nice television broadcast and concealed cameras, installed when the place was a museum. (Bay windows are pretty, but probably less secure than a wall with bow windows in it.)

On the inside wall sits what appears to be a rolltop desk (with a mirror above and attached to it when deployed) with a hurricane lamp sitting on top of it. This is actually Holmes and Watson's computer console. The mirror/screen slides out and the rolltop slides open to reveal a keyboard; it seems to do so by remote control, since Holmes opens the desk from across the room in MAZA2. The desk chair is a circular stool.

Two pictures hang above the desk when it's not in use; in MAZA2, they appear to be photos of Moriarty and Irene Adler. There is also a door into another room, which in MAZA2 appears to lead into a passageway with three doors. The one in the middle is a closet which may include a secret exit (MAZA2). One of the others must lead to a small kitchen or pantry, since Watson is always bringing out tea from there; the other is almost certainly Holmes' bedroom (which adjoins the sitting room, according to the original MAZA).

The far end of the room contains the fireplace. Its mantel contains at least four knickknacks, one of which is a small clock. (Alas, no knife-transfixed correspondence or tobacco-filled Persian slippers are visible. Down with political correctness!) Over the hearth hangs a mirror, which would reflect the firelight and brighten the room. On the street side of the fireplace there is a red "fainting couch" or chaise lounge. There are two gas fixtures on the wall and a picture hung between them.

On the house side stands a large bookcase with a statue of some kind (a blue Buddha?), a framed portrait, and what looks like a gasogene standing on its top. There is another picture hung on the wall to its left, which looks like either a landscape, a bear (MAZA2) or a woman in a bonnet (MAZA2). In the corner stands another chair.

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