London Trip: Sherlock Holmes locations
So, finally here comes my blog post about my recent trip to London. As planned, most of the trip was centred around Sherlock Holmes: We did a guided Sherlock Holmes walking tour, visited some other locations on our own and finally went to the BAFTA awards!
Due to the amount of pictures, I'll split this entry into two: This first one will be about locations and general London impressions and the next one about the BAFTA awards. Nevertheless I'll limit myself to the very best pictures out of the several 100 I have taken. If you're interested in more (or in higher resolution versions of these photos), feel free to ask me. :-)
To start with, we did a guided Sherlock Holmes walking tour which turned out to be very informative and lots of fun! :-) It wasn't only about the BBC series; we also visited locations from the Guy Ritchie movie and some places mentioned in the stories or otherwise related to either Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle. So have a look at some of them:
Piccadilly Circus, as seen in the opening credits of Sherlock,
which is also home to the Criterion Restaurant where (in the books as well as in the pilot) John Watson and Mike Stamford met to discuss Watson sharing rooms with Sherlock Holmes.
The Criterion Restaurant is so proud of this, they actually put up a plaque in commemoration (plus a copy of "A Study in Scarlet", with their mention highlighted). ^^
It also looks very nice inside.
The Diogenes Club (Sherlock BBC version)
Trafalgar Square which John and Sherlock cross in order to get to
the National Gallery (also "Blind Banker").
The Sherlock Holmes Pub (originally "The Northumberland Arms" where Sir Henry Baskerville supposedly stayed when in London to contact Sherlock Holmes) which has a nice replica of Sherlock Holmes' study inside as well as lots of pictures of different incarnations of Holmes (go to the bathroom to see Benedict Cumberbatch...) and an equally nice menu.
From Waterloo Bridge you can see both the Gherkin and Tower 42 (the striped one) from "Blind Banker"
and the "dead body beach" from "The Great Game".
All in all the tour was about 2 hours and I can really recommend it. Of course it's possible to find most these locations on your own (as well as other Sherlock ones), but it was really interesting to walk away from the touristy masses and see some more hidden places. Plus, the tour guide really knew what she was talking about! :-)
Then we visited some other Sherlock shooting locations on our own:
The skating park from "The Blind Banker" - right beneath the Southbank Centre where incidentally the BAFTA ceremony was taking place... ;-)
"221b Baker Street" aka North Gower Street, a very easily recognisable and popular location (after we left, we already saw the next people taking pictures there) where other fans had left messages:
And finally the real Baker Street
where the Sherlock Holmes museum is (actually, it is in Baker Street but not really no 221b...)
which has a replica of the 221b living room as well as several items "from the possession of Sherlock Holmes"
and a really well-sorted gift shop.
Next post about the BAFTAs soon to follow...
Due to the amount of pictures, I'll split this entry into two: This first one will be about locations and general London impressions and the next one about the BAFTA awards. Nevertheless I'll limit myself to the very best pictures out of the several 100 I have taken. If you're interested in more (or in higher resolution versions of these photos), feel free to ask me. :-)
To start with, we did a guided Sherlock Holmes walking tour which turned out to be very informative and lots of fun! :-) It wasn't only about the BBC series; we also visited locations from the Guy Ritchie movie and some places mentioned in the stories or otherwise related to either Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle. So have a look at some of them:
Piccadilly Circus, as seen in the opening credits of Sherlock,
which is also home to the Criterion Restaurant where (in the books as well as in the pilot) John Watson and Mike Stamford met to discuss Watson sharing rooms with Sherlock Holmes.
The Criterion Restaurant is so proud of this, they actually put up a plaque in commemoration (plus a copy of "A Study in Scarlet", with their mention highlighted). ^^
It also looks very nice inside.
The Diogenes Club (Sherlock BBC version)
Trafalgar Square which John and Sherlock cross in order to get to
the National Gallery (also "Blind Banker").
The Sherlock Holmes Pub (originally "The Northumberland Arms" where Sir Henry Baskerville supposedly stayed when in London to contact Sherlock Holmes) which has a nice replica of Sherlock Holmes' study inside as well as lots of pictures of different incarnations of Holmes (go to the bathroom to see Benedict Cumberbatch...) and an equally nice menu.
From Waterloo Bridge you can see both the Gherkin and Tower 42 (the striped one) from "Blind Banker"
and the "dead body beach" from "The Great Game".
All in all the tour was about 2 hours and I can really recommend it. Of course it's possible to find most these locations on your own (as well as other Sherlock ones), but it was really interesting to walk away from the touristy masses and see some more hidden places. Plus, the tour guide really knew what she was talking about! :-)
Then we visited some other Sherlock shooting locations on our own:
The skating park from "The Blind Banker" - right beneath the Southbank Centre where incidentally the BAFTA ceremony was taking place... ;-)
"221b Baker Street" aka North Gower Street, a very easily recognisable and popular location (after we left, we already saw the next people taking pictures there) where other fans had left messages:
And finally the real Baker Street
where the Sherlock Holmes museum is (actually, it is in Baker Street but not really no 221b...)
which has a replica of the 221b living room as well as several items "from the possession of Sherlock Holmes"
and a really well-sorted gift shop.
Next post about the BAFTAs soon to follow...