Sherlock Locationing (15) Chasing Taxis in Soho (Part 1a) Give my regards to Broadwick Street
The eastern end of Broadwick Street which runs in from Wardour Street
Broadwick Street (known as Broad Street until a name change in 1936) is, as its name suggests, a very long, verywide street which is placed much in the centre of Soho. The street is so broad in fact it’s almost as wide as some squares found in London. It’s also often busy with cars and cabs and vans making its way noisily over its cobbles, so you have to be careful not to get knocked over. That’s not something the average Londoner really bothers about though as we’re used to a lot of traffic.
Historically this area is very much linked to one of Soho’s most famous medical residents. As you come in from Wardour Street, and wander further along the north side of Broadwick Street towards the John Snow pub, you’ll pass what looks like an old fashioned water pump with its handle removed. This is actually a memorial to Dr Snow put there in the 1920s. He lived in the area in various locations, and apart from being one of the pioneers of anaesthesia, and leading the way in providing pain relief for women in childbirth (he attended Queen Victoria at the delivery of her last two children) he is best known for his involvement in the study of epidemics.
The John Snow memorial:
In 1845 there was a cholera outbreak in the area killing lots of people. The idea at the time was that illnesses like this were caused by ‘miasmas’ or bad air. Dr Snow, however, worked out, by studying where the local people took their drinking water from, that it must have been being spread by the pump in Broad Street. He made the case to the local authorities who, for once, listened and took action removing handle off the pump. Research later proved a faulty cesspool full of cholera bacteria was leaking into well which the pump was drawing from. Once the people stopped drinking the tainted water the epidemic began to subside. Because of this research, and the saving of so many lives then and in future times, Dr Snow is known as the ‘father of epidemiology’.
He also remembered in the John Snow pub on the Broadwick / Lexington Street corner which we will be talking about in the next post. This is where the original pump was located and there is another memorial plaque and a pink kerb stone to differentiate its original location from the rest of the footpath.
Now to return to our subject in hand, the reason for this street’s choice as a Sherlock location, seems to me to be its central position in Soho and the handy gathering together of everything needed to film the sequence shot here. It has Angleo’s restaurant, a decently sized area outside for stunts with a car, a pub on the corner for the taxi to wait outside and a streets to dash down after it. Soho is a relatively quiet (read self-contained and tucked away) part of London that perfectly suited compared with other, busier areas which might have been chosen. This was presumably why, when pilot was filmed in Wales, a similar building grouping was found in Swansea town centre. I have, by the way, found out where this pilot location is sited (Wind Street in Swansea) and I’ll try and have lunch there and report when I can arrange a visit. Perhaps I can even produce a comparison of the two sites.
Next stop: Angleo's Restaurant
Broadwick Street (known as Broad Street until a name change in 1936) is, as its name suggests, a very long, verywide street which is placed much in the centre of Soho. The street is so broad in fact it’s almost as wide as some squares found in London. It’s also often busy with cars and cabs and vans making its way noisily over its cobbles, so you have to be careful not to get knocked over. That’s not something the average Londoner really bothers about though as we’re used to a lot of traffic.
Historically this area is very much linked to one of Soho’s most famous medical residents. As you come in from Wardour Street, and wander further along the north side of Broadwick Street towards the John Snow pub, you’ll pass what looks like an old fashioned water pump with its handle removed. This is actually a memorial to Dr Snow put there in the 1920s. He lived in the area in various locations, and apart from being one of the pioneers of anaesthesia, and leading the way in providing pain relief for women in childbirth (he attended Queen Victoria at the delivery of her last two children) he is best known for his involvement in the study of epidemics.
The John Snow memorial:
In 1845 there was a cholera outbreak in the area killing lots of people. The idea at the time was that illnesses like this were caused by ‘miasmas’ or bad air. Dr Snow, however, worked out, by studying where the local people took their drinking water from, that it must have been being spread by the pump in Broad Street. He made the case to the local authorities who, for once, listened and took action removing handle off the pump. Research later proved a faulty cesspool full of cholera bacteria was leaking into well which the pump was drawing from. Once the people stopped drinking the tainted water the epidemic began to subside. Because of this research, and the saving of so many lives then and in future times, Dr Snow is known as the ‘father of epidemiology’.
He also remembered in the John Snow pub on the Broadwick / Lexington Street corner which we will be talking about in the next post. This is where the original pump was located and there is another memorial plaque and a pink kerb stone to differentiate its original location from the rest of the footpath.
Now to return to our subject in hand, the reason for this street’s choice as a Sherlock location, seems to me to be its central position in Soho and the handy gathering together of everything needed to film the sequence shot here. It has Angleo’s restaurant, a decently sized area outside for stunts with a car, a pub on the corner for the taxi to wait outside and a streets to dash down after it. Soho is a relatively quiet (read self-contained and tucked away) part of London that perfectly suited compared with other, busier areas which might have been chosen. This was presumably why, when pilot was filmed in Wales, a similar building grouping was found in Swansea town centre. I have, by the way, found out where this pilot location is sited (Wind Street in Swansea) and I’ll try and have lunch there and report when I can arrange a visit. Perhaps I can even produce a comparison of the two sites.
Next stop: Angleo's Restaurant