Review

The address of Sir Henry Baskerville at the Northumberland Hotel, where he stayed when he came to London from Canada, in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' was based upon the real-life Northumberland Hotel where Conan Doyle wrote many Sherlock Holmes novels. Today, the Northumberland Hotel, setback off Northumberland Avenue, is the home of the Sherlock Holmes pub.

Some London pubs have great Victorian interiors, elegant bars festooned in all the trappings of 19th Century elegance, yet very few have great Victoria facades. The Sherlock Holmes on the corner of Craven Passage (where there's a palpable feeling of Victorian ladies of the night plying their trade), has such a façade that approaching the pub from every angle feels like it ought to be the early 1900s, despite the overindulgence of window boxes and hanging baskets that give the appearance of a building being overrun by a Triffid offshoot. Inside, the original features have been stripped and the pub itself is non-descript, with an uncharacteristic bar straddling two rooms, where a handful of tables provide somewhere for the Holmes Enthusiasts to rest a while before another journey around the pub, delighting in the vast collection of Holmes and Conan Doyle memorabilia.

The literature provided free in the pub explains how the Whitbread brewery purchased a complete collection of Sherlock Holmes memorabilia, amassed for the Festival of Britain, in the late 50s with the intention of opening a theme pub. The collection is described as the 'most important collection in the world to be based on the famous detective'. With the assistance of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's family, The Northumberland Arms was purchased, renamed and used to house the Holmes tat.

If you're the type of person who likes drinking under a glass cased dog's head then this is the pub for you; there is a bloodhound's head mounted on the wall, which I assume is a depiction of the hound of the Baskervilles. Groove, the laid back character from Jim Henson's The Hoobs, sits atop the bar, but where in any Sherlock Holmes novel do The Hoobs make an appearance, as I never realised Conan Doyle was quite that inventive and I thought it was only Holmes who took drugs?

There is a roof garden and restaurant upstairs, where the collection's pièce de résistance is to be found: a replica of a Victorian sitting room, where I imagine Holmes spent many enjoyable hours relishing in the benefits of cocaine - a legal drug in the 1800s. The menu has some interesting items: a Pickled Onion for £0.30p (sic) and a Pickled Gherkin for £0.50p (sic)!

Obviously aiming at the tourist market, with random punters popping in to gawp at the Holmes related junk on display, this is an ideal pub to visit for the novelty factor, but there's also a nice atmosphere here with a smattering of attractive women in attendance. And if you're looking for a London pub with the most memorabilia, the Sherlock Holmes is surely a contender, as where else can you purchase a Sherlock Holmes Tankard, a 100‰ Wool Deerstalker, a Detective Magazine, a Brass Door Knocker, and a Pint Glass that costs £12.95? It's a wonder they've any time left to devote to selling beer, which of course they do but I forgot to mention that!

Review by mr_psm