If you like mystery solving, you will likely have heard about Sherlock Holmes. Do you like crime and detective series? There is a likely hood you’ve heard or read about Sherlock Holmes. Maybe your thing a bit of eccentricity plus a huge dose of whodunit, then Sherlock Holmes is most probably a name you’re familiar with.
If you’ve read about Sherlock Holmes, you will know he lived in Victorian times around 1881-1904 at 221B, Baker Street, London. You will know he had an equally sharp-minded assistant, named Dr. Watson. The two went on great adventures of mystery-solving. You may also remember their landlady, his landlady, Mrs. Hudson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the British writer created Sherlock Holmes and made him alive to readers and fans worldwide.
So alive is this eccentric detective that the British government in 1990 decided to open house for him in form of a museum with a souvenir shop beside it.
Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?
I haven’t read all of Sherlock Holmes’ novels nor have I watched all movies associated to him. But when the idea of going to see where he “lived” came up, I jumped at it.
On a Sunday, the line to see Sherlock Holmes’ home was long and thick. The British, a friend told me, have nothing to sell to the world but tourism. They have mastered the art of bringing thousands of tourists to see the royal family and the likes of Sherlock Holmes.
22iB Baker Street overlooks the huge Regent Park and sits among an assortment of other residences. It is quaint with a ceremonial footman standing at the door to welcome visitors. Upstairs is where the master detective propounded murder mystery theories with his trusted sidekick, Dr. Watson, is all done up. There are notepads, pens, typewriters and eerier-looking wax works that kept me awake days after the visit.
The different characters that populate Holmes’ mysteries
The curious thing about our visit is that we were the only blacks among the sea of different hues of white faces. I had to ask, “Black people don’t like Sherlock Holmes or we just don’t give a darn about him?”
I think we do, just that we don’t consider him an ancestor worthy of the $16 pounds per head for just a few minutes of dummy gazing.
To be honest, it was a visit worth. It brought once more to life, the stories I had enjoyed reading many years ago. The stories about an eccentric detective called Sherlock Holmes.