In “The Adventures of The Blue Carbuncle,” Holmes relates the current circumstances of his latest mystery to Watson. The constable, Peterson, retrieved the goose that laid the sparkling gem that the narrative revolves around.
Peterson witnessed a staggering man on the corner of Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road who gets accosted by a gang of ruffians. The muggers, as well as the owner of the goose, are scared off by the sound of breaking glass and a man in an official looking uniform, according to Holmes, but not before the goose is left abandoned and the opportunistic constable takes home a fresh bird for dinner (Doyle).
According to British History Online, this street was not a home of dukes or duchesses but the “prosaic and work-a-day world” that one would find more pawnbrokers and “gin palaces” than clubs or churches (Walford). Not all of Tottenham Court Road was dangerous, however, but as the “Blue Carbuncle” tells us. The street was surrounded by tenements and low and squalid thoroughfares. The main street was middle class and had some “fine streets and handsome squares” along with a few public buildings or private mansions (Walford).
To attest to the reputation told to us by British History Online, we only have to look at the many accounts in Old Bailey Online. To put in Goodge Street or Tottenham Court Road brings up scores of highway robberies, murders, and assaults throughout the Victorian Age. Tottenham Court Road seems to have been a thriving business district during the daytime but not a place one would like to walk the goose at night. A Michael Ranton committed highway robbery on the 16th of October 1782. This is one of many acts of larceny that occurred on a middle class section of London on a nightly basis.
According to Charles Booth online Archive, this section of London was a mix of middle-class, well to do citizens, but surrounded by poor neighborhoods. In the context of our story, it serves as the perfect location for a robbery on a man carrying a goose home to occur.
Works Cited
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle. Web. 7 November 2015. http://ignisart.com/camdenhouse/canon/blue.htm
Edward Walford, ‘Tottenham Court Road’, in Old and New London: Volume 4 (London, 1878), pp. 467-480 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp467-480. Web. 8 November 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp467-480.
“Michael Ranton”, Violent Theft, October 1782 (t17821016-5).” Old Bailey Proceedings Online. Web. 8 November 2015.
Charles Booth Online Archive. Web. 8 November 2015. http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&args=529432,181653,1,large,0