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