h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

221b Baker street is currently a branch of the Abbey National bank. One of the secretaries at the branch is responsible for answering letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes. Letters addressed simply to 'Sherlock Holmes, England' have been known to reach the bank

That's funny, I'd heard that there wasn't an actual 221b Baker Street - just in some sort of factoid publication mind. Too far from London now to check...

sprout

You may well be right - it rings a bell now you come to mention it. I think the bank is as close as you can get to where 221b would be if it existed. Maybe it's just 221..?

There is an exhibition above it. A mockup of what the books depict Holmes and Watson's loggings in Bakerstreet would have looked like.

There is a 'Sherlock Holmes Museum' at 221B Baker Street (well, I think 221A and B are now combined being upstairs and downstairs of the same museum). I must say I just got off the Baker Street tube station and walked down the street looking at street numbers--never tried calling or sending a letter. The museum is like a mini-Madame Tussaud's, ie: waxworks of Holmes and Watson in Victorian getup and surroundings. Personally, I found the souvenir shop and the letters from children to Sherlock more interesting ("My cat keeps disappearing... can you tell me where it goes every night?", etc). But its worth it if you've got a couple of hours to kill and a tube pass.

Apparently, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used to live at 221B Baker Street himself, so he didn't have to add too much to the room descriptions he gives in his books.

I don't know about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle living there, but when he wrote the books Baker St was not as long as it is now and 221 did not exist at all. What is now the northern end of Baker St had another name.
The Abbey National do own the building now numbered 221, as it is part of Abbey House 217-229 Baker St.

Hmmm... I was just going off what they told me at the museum. They have a website at http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/ I can't vouch for the accuracy of their information, but the museum does actually exist somewhere on Baker Street. Wouldn't surprise me if it is part of Abbey House now.

I'll have to do some research and see whether Conan Doyle ever actually lived on Baker Street or not. The museum website suggests that somebody named Watson who made artificial teeth once lived next-door, but whether Conan Doyle used that as inspiration or not would be difficult to say (Watson isn't that uncommon a name).

I have to to say that I've never heard anything to suggest Conan Doyle stayed in Baker Street...and of course I'd imagine 221b did not exist...afterall-can you imagine the havoc it would have caused the 'real' residents of the address? All sorts of loonies would have been turning up

Reluctantly I have to agree with you, since I couldn't find anything to the contrary. I found that 221B was a flat/apartment during the 1930s, but there was no list of who lived there, and that is a little after the period in question anyway. Perhaps this was after the street was extended, and some loonies moved in.

Oh well, it was an appealing idea.

My husband and I were visiting London in March and went to Baker Street. 221B appeared to be just a doorway, so we went into a shop directly across from it which sold Holmes memorabilia. I saw several items featuring the Brett series which I absolutely adore. I asked the clerk if he could tell me where Brett was buried, which he was not allowed to do. But he did offer that the interior scenes of 221B were filmed in the upstairs of the shop there. Unfortunately it was not open to the public that day.

Peace.