The Bad Boys of Baker Street: The Sherlock Holmes Museum

[dropcap1]I[/dropcap1] recently found myself overseas in London for a few days (don’t ask questions. My life’s dope, I do dope shit) and decided to see some sights. Now when I say see some sights, I’m not talking about Big Ben. Nah, homie I don’t even fuck with time like that. I’m not talking about London Bridge, I only fuck with Nash Bridges you feel me. I’m going to see those 100% fiction based sights. You get where I am coming from. You hear that and are saying to yourself, “Oh, he must be talking that Hogwarts. He probably going to the Hogwart’s 9 3/4 platform.”

Nope, I’m good homie. I was never into Harry Potter that deep…I mean a dude does want to find the sorting and discover what house I’d be, because I believe I’m Hufflepuff straight up and fucking down, so dude got to know once and for all. However that’s for another trip. Nah, If I’m in London then you already know what I gotta see. I gotta see the London MVP. The king of fiction overseas. My man that was solving cases back in the day with just his observational skills and logic. The dude that was partnered with the best doctor and ex- military man to do it. That’s like having guile and Jessie Williams from Grey’s Anatomy combined into one. I am of course talking about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Watson and Holmes were the badest mutha fuckas on Baker Street. When Sherlock rocked his deerstalker cap and Watson put on the bowler hat (like it was a Victorian era 59fifty cap) you knew right then and there the game was afoot. These are two of London’s oldest and most well-known characters. They are so well known and respected that their apartment 221-B Baker street (an actual location in London) was made into a museum to showcase their tales and their lives.

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It was a long walk (I didn’t trust myself to take transit and not get lost) but well worth it to see the old house where the most boss duo to ever do it had their shop set up. Up the carpeted stairs you arrive first at Sherlock’s room on the left-hand side. It was a pretty small and tiddy space very much like you would imagine it to be with Sherlock. The feel of it was a bit cold with much of his work and attire laid out all over the place but for a man as meticulous as Sherlock, where one would find his bearings rigid and stiff, for him you could imagine that this was as comfortable as it gets.

Watson’s room was directly above Sherlock’s, one floor up. It was a lot more decorated than Sherlock. Watson had some military memorabilia from his younger years in the service up on the walls.

There was more artwork (it seemed) in his room as well as opposed to Sherlock’s who kept what looked to be only his essentials close by, all that would help him out in the field was stored at arm’s reach. Whereas Watson’s room clearly had more of a welcoming feel to it. The model ship on his window sill was a big surprise but offered insight into Watson which proved fitting.

The common areas were great to see. Watson and Holmes’ possessions were sprawled all over the place.

In their study, there was clearly a section where Sherlock worked tirelessly on cases and hobbies with vast amounts of time put into research. This was cool to see, the old tools of a prodigy that were used daily. This felt like we were walking through the original spec design for the Batcave. Yo, fuck that, 221-B Baker street is the original Batcave & Fortress of Solitude, I SAID IT!

Upstairs there are wax characters from a multitude of the cases and stories. The Man with the Crooked Lip, Scandal in Belgravia, A Study in Scarlet, The Hounds of Baskerville, etc., etc., but if we talking epic, if we talking the tale of all tales, then we gotta talk villain talk and we gotta mention the Napoleon of crime himself. The king of the archenemies, Professor James Moriarty.

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This figure of Moriarty broods over the room (much like the Giant Penny in the Batcave) and stands out above all else on the top floor. This is the guy that pushed Holmes to his limit and depending on how you see it, was part of the last adventure of Sherlock Holmes as they battled each other at Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem (till Sir Conan brought Sherlock back years later). This dude right here was the archetype the majority of the brilliant villains in today’s fiction were modeled after.

All in all I gotta say it was a lot of fun to see such a popular icon in fiction given this much street cred in real life. I mean come on, when you so good that they take the actual address from your fictional base of operations and make that shit into a museum? That’s just the highest regards I can think of. Shit, Peter Parker grew up in Forrest Hill, Queens. He still waiting to get this type of recognition right here. There are a lot of great places to see and visit in London both non-fictional and fictional but I’m just telling yall what set I chose to rep. 221-B Baker Street over everything, homie.

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