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"I
fancy we should be back in Baker Street for dinner"
--- Holmes (DANC)
Mr.
Holmes & Dr. Watson spent most of their time in
the "little sitting room" at 221B. This small
space has been studied intensively by several Sherlockians
in an effort to properly recreate it. See "Essentials"
for some visual tours of 221B at different sites on
the web or the links at the bottom of this page.
Inside
the small chamber that was often full of "chemicals
and criminal relics" (which might end up in the
butter dish) (MUSG),
one could usually find the great detective or our dear
doctor. Here are many of the things that would have
filled that small space that they rented from Mrs. Hudson.
The space was not large, as Dr. Watson indicated it
was a "little sitting room." And, indeed,
most boarding houses were not roomy affairs. Thus, with
all the items we shall see henceforth crowded into it,
it may have been somewhat claustrophobic at times.
General
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Modern
Bow Window
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The
sitting room had a a "bow window" looking
out to Baker Street (MAZA)
with a window seat. ((Watson only notes two broad
windows in the sitting room in STUD)).
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Window
seat (Note: this is in
a Bay Window, not a Bow Window, as a Bow Window
would have 4 or more window panels)
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Dining
Area
The
following furniture is mentioned in the Canon. Photos
are the closest representations I could find to what
was mentioned in the text (but they are not necessarily
accurate representations).
In
NOBL, most furniture
is implied as being "humble lodging-house mahogany."
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(Breakfast) Table (Various) |
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Mahogany
Breakfast Table
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Mahogany
Victorian Dining Room Chairs
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At
least two chairs for the (breakfast) table. (Various)
(Perhaps three given the wooden chair next to the
couch in BLUE
and three suggests a set of four.... |
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Sideboard (Various) |
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Mahogany
Side Board
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Victorian
Butter Dish
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Butter
Dish (MUSG) |
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Egg
Spoon (STUD)
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Egg
Spoon
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White
Victorian Plate
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White
plates (NAVA) |
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(At
least 3) Plate Covers (NAVA)
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Plate
Cover
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Fireplace
Area
Fireplace
(VARIOUS) with
a mirror over it. On the mantle was "a
litter of pipes, tobacco-pouches, syringes,
penknives, revolver cartridges, and other debris."
(DYIN)
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Victorian
Fireplace
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| Before
the fireplace lay a large bearskin hearthrug (PRIO).
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Bearskin
Rug
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Victorian
Armchair
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One
could often find Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes on either
side of the fire (GLOR),
Holmes in his "big armchair" (ENGI) |
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Basket
chair (wicker armchair) (VARIOUS)
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|
Victorian
Basket Chair
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A
Victorian, Mahogany Sofa
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The
Sofa (MUSG)*
or Couch (BLUE) |
Victorian
Settee
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A Settee*
(VARIOUS)
*It
is possible the settee and the sofa are one in
the same piece of furniture as the sitting room's
"small space" might not accommodate
both items, and they are very similar. However,
since they were mentioned separately, they are
presented separately
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Lamp
(VARIOUS)
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Victorian
Lamp
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Victorian
Playing Cards
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Playing
Cards (REDH)
While waiting to catch would-be bank robbers, Holmes
brought along a pack of playing cards to play a
rubber of whist, a 4-person card game and the forerunner
to today's modern bridge. |
| V.R.
was marked in pistol bullet-pocks by Holmes' target
practice when he was in a "queer mood."
(V.R. stood for Victoria Regina -- Queen Victoria).
He would marked it with his "hair-trigger and
a hundred boxer cartridges." (STUD)
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|
|
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In 1866, Colonel Edward Mounier Boxer of the Woolwich
Royal Arsenal in Kent County patented a type of
reloadable primer and case. He wanted "to
construct the cases of cartridges for breechloading
firearms and ordnance in such a manner that they
shall rapidly expand by slightly uncoiling and
stretching on firing so as to fill the chamber
and will contract slightly after firing so as
to admit of the empty case being easily removed."
His center-fire cartridge design used a coiled
brass case with an iron base. Eventually, the
case was discontinued but cartridges with his
primer are still in production. Since this type
of cartridge was used with a variety of weapons,
exactly what pistol Holmes owned is unclear.
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A
rolled brass short chamber Boxer-Henry .45 cartridge
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Slightly
bent Fireplace poker (twisted by Dr. Roylott) and
re-straightened by Holmes (SPEC) |
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Bell for ringing servants
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Brass
Servant's Bell
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Chemistry
Corner
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Mahogany
Side Table
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Holmes'
side table (upon which the chemistry investigations
occurred) (NAVA)
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2 3-Legged Stools (STUD).
Holmes used at least one of these later for working
at his chemistry side table (DANC).
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Victorian
Footstool
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A
Retort
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A
large Curved Retort (NAVA) |
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A
2-litre Measure (NAVA)
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A
Glass Measure
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Bunsen
Burner
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A
Bunsen burner (NAVA) |
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Litmus
Paper (NAVA)
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Litmus
Paper
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Glass
Pipettes
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Glass
Pipette (NAVA) |
Various
Chemicals
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Chemicals
(RESI)
Bottles, test-tubes, hydrochloric acid & other
chemicals (Various)
|
| "Sherlock
Holmes had been bending for a long time over a low-power
microscope" (SHOS). |
|
 |
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A
pair of forceps were used to examine the hat in
BLUE. |
Other
Major-General
Charles George Gordon
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|
Watson's
framed picture of General Gordon (placed in the
Suite shortly before CARD).
Gordon was noted for his exploits in China and Northern
Africa. He was beheaded two days before his 52nd
birthday by Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed's soldiers in the
Sudan. |
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Watson
also had an unframed portrait of Henry Ward Beecher
which stood atop his books CARD.
Beecher was an American Congregationalist preacher
who was an advocate of women's suffrage, temperance,
evolution, and anti-slavery. In a famous trial,
he was accused of committing adultery with a married
woman, Elizabeth Tilton (the trial ended in a
hung jury). This was likely framed later to balance
the picture of Gordon.
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Henry
Ward Beecher
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Holmes
had bundles of manuscripts (which were explicitly
not to be burned). (MUSG).
In addition, he had many papers and documents
regarding cases throughout the suite. Holmes had
"a horror of destroying documents,"
and he only arranged and docketed them once or
twice a year in one grand effort.
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A Magazine
Subscription (which one is debatable) which the
"Book of Life" appeared in. Popular
Victorian magazines included "Household Words"
and "All the Year Round" (STUD)
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Household
Words, edited by Charles Dickens
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Holmes had
framed pictures of "celebrated criminals"
on every wall. (DYIN)
These may have included such infamous criminals as Mary
Ann Cotton, William Burke & Henry Hare, or perhaps
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream. Inevitably, at least one portrait
was of Charley Peace, of whom Holmes himself said, ":
"A complex mind . . . . All great criminals have
that. My old friend Charlie Peace was a violin virtuoso."
Charles
Peace, a thief and murderer of at least two
people, who kept his burglary tools in his violin
case.
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Mary
Ann Cotton, who killed at least 20 acquaintances
(including children, 4 husbands, and step children)
with arsenic.
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William
Burke & Henry Hare, who murdered 16 people
to sell their bodies for anatomy purposes.
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Dr.
Thomas Neill Cream, the "Lambeth Poisoner"
who dispensed strychnine to prostitutes.
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The above
items relate specifically to the sitting room - other
items, such as personal effects may be found categorized
under the pages relating specifically to Messrs. Holmes
and Watson.
Holmes' bedroom
was likely off the sitting room, and Watson's was on
the floor above (as he descended to breakfast in THOR).
Mrs. Hudson and the Maid also had quarters upstairs
(so, 221B had at least 3 floors).
Of Holmes'
bedroom, we know that it also had a window that looked
onto Baker Street. Like many period bedrooms, it also
had a fireplace which "unanswered
correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very
centre of his wooden mantelpieces"
(MUSG).
For
further information on the layout of 221b, please see
221
Revisited, 221B
House Plan or the excellently done 221B
Baker Street. There is also the virtual
tour, the
Baker Street Builders, the Building
of Baker Street, the miniatures at the Mini-Tonga
Society.
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