Sherlock Holmes Museum facts for kids
The exterior of the Sherlock Holmes Museum and doorway marked as 221B
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| Established | 1990 |
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| Location | Baker Street London, NW1 United Kingdom |
| Public transit access |  Baker Street Marylebone |
The Sherlock Holmes Museum is a special place in London, England. It's a museum all about the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, who is a character from books. It was the very first museum in the world made just for a book character like Sherlock Holmes!
The museum opened in 1990. It's located on Baker Street, which is a famous street in London. Even though the real building is between numbers 237 and 241, it has the special address of 221B, just like in the stories. The city of Westminster gave permission for this special number. The museum is near the north end of Baker Street, close to Regent's Park.
The building itself is a beautiful old house, built in 1815. It's called a Georgian town house. From 1860 to 1936, it was used as a place where people could rent rooms, like a boarding house. The museum shows what the house might have looked like between 1881 and 1904. This is the time when the stories say Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived there as renters of Mrs Hudson. The house is a very old and important building. It is listed as Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. Inside the museum, you can see items from different movies and TV shows about Sherlock Holmes. There are also rooms set up to look like scenes from the 1984 TV series Sherlock Holmes.
The 221B Address Mystery
The address 221B Baker Street is very famous because of Sherlock Holmes. For a long time, there was a bit of a puzzle about who should get the mail sent to "Sherlock Holmes." Since the 1930s, the Royal Mail (the postal service) delivered all letters for Sherlock Holmes to a bank nearby, called Abbey National. The bank even had a special person whose job was to read and reply to these letters!
The museum tried many times to get the mail delivered to them instead. They felt they were the best place to answer letters meant for Sherlock Holmes, not a bank that mostly deals with money. Even though their first attempts didn't work, the problem was finally solved in 2002. That year, the Abbey National bank moved out of its headquarters after 70 years. Now, all the letters for Sherlock Holmes are delivered right to the museum!
Family's Thoughts on the Museum
Jean Conan Doyle was the daughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories. She wasn't very excited about the London museum. She didn't like the idea of people thinking her father's character was a real person. She knew that having a museum would make many people believe Holmes truly existed. This idea was made even stronger by a special blue plaque on the outside of the museum. It says the years Holmes supposedly lived there.
However, Dame Jean Conan Doyle did support the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Switzerland. She even went to its opening in 1991. The London museum offered Dame Jean the chance to create a room dedicated to her father, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But she said no to this offer. Because of this, the last remaining items that belonged to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were later sold at an auction.
- Inside the Museum
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The "Sitting Room"
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The table set in "Sherlock Holmes's Room"
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Sherlock's laboratory
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"Holmes' Bedroom"
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A typewriter from the late 1800s
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"Dr. Watson's Room" with books
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The bathroom
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Sherlock Holmes Museum, Baker Street, "The Study"
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A cyclist sculpture, showing a scene from a story
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"Mrs Hudson's Room" with a fireplace
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"Dr. Watson's Room" with a washstand
