In The Man with the Twisted Lip, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Cannon Street is mentioned in the beginning of the story when Holmes is describing his new case to Watson. He describes Neville St. Clair to Watson and what his daily routine looks like. In the story, Holmes tells Watson, “He had no occupation, but was interested in several companies, and went into town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5.14 from Cannon Street every night” (133). We all know how the story goes. After investigation,  St. Clair is revealed to disguising himself as a beggar due to the simple fact that he made more money begging than any other job. St. Clair’s daily routine consisted of him returning home from Cannon Street. After doing some research about this street, this Sherlock Holmes story ties into the history of Cannon Street.

Cannon Street was a poor area of Victorian London. According to Charles Booth’s Poverty Map, Cannon Street is poor. This map also states that this area housed many 18-21 year olds. After researching Old Bailey Proceedings, I found that many crimes were related to burglary. In fact, there are 54 cases listed as theft. Cannon Street was also a road that lead to Cannon Street Station. An area that includes a major transportation station for a city could be very populated. This could also lead to increase in crime. The dominant young-aged civilians that lived on Cannon Street could also play a part in crime.

Cannon Street was originally called Candlewick Street. It was named this due to the candle makers who lived there. After them, it became home to drapers, who sell cloth and dry goods. The ancient Roman milestone, now the London Stone, also resides on Cannon Street in the church of St. Swithin. The legend of this stone says that it is so strong and rooted to the earth that even if a car were to hit into it, it would not move. The car would dent before the rock moved. During the Fire of London, the stone was half destroyed. There is now a new, less powerful, stone on top of the old stone to preserve the old stone. In 1866, the Railway Extension opened, creating a connection with Charing Cross and London Bridge. There is a signal box at the entrance of Cannon Street that extends across the entire bridge. There is also a hotel on Cannon Street which has visually appealing architecture.

 

Bibliography

• Locating London’s Past, The Old Bailey Proceedings, 1700-1814, Theft, Cannon Street.
• http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/special/endsandbeginnings/twistedlip.pdf
• Walter Thornbury, ‘Cannon Street’, in Old and New London: Volume 1 (London, 1878), pp. 544-550 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol1/pp544-550 [accessed 8 November 2015].
• http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&args=532366,180940,1,large,0

Figure 1: View of 49 Great Russell Street on Victorian Google Maps

Figure 2: Google Maps screenshot of Museum Tavern as of today 

 

 

 

Figure 3: Charles Booth Online Archive screenshot of 49 Great Russell Street

 

From what we know about the 49 Great Russell Street, or the Alpha Inn, (now known as the Museum Tavern because of the popularity from museum goers) from the Blue Carbuncle is that Henry Baker had purchased the goose, unknowing of the precious gem inside, from the Alpha Inn near the British Museum. From the Charles Booth Online Archive (Figure 3) we can tell that everywhere around the museum was middle to upper middle class, telling us that everyone living around there was very comfortable financially. This tells us about Henry Baker, knowing that he could afford to buy a (probably) pricey goose from the Inn. The goose must have been a well kept one, or it’s original seller must have been a middle class person to have the ability to sell in that area, around the upper class people.  According to an article on the British History website, a very wealthy and talented artist and scientist Benjamin Wilson lived on Great Russell Street for the ending of his life in the 1700s, giving us insight that significant people who can afford to live on this street have been doing so for a hundred years (Nos. 55 and 56, Great Queen Street). From a court preceding in Old Bailey’s Archive made in 1811, John Jones was a poulterer on Great Russell Street who had some product stolen from him (“John Jones, theft”). This is very interesting information because in the original Holmes story, a piece of poultry was sold on that street, giving the readers information that Great Russell Street is a popular market, and one good enough to steal from. This is important because Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to put Sherlock into current context so his readers could relate to the story, and give Sherlock a more real feel.

 

Works Cited

“John Jones, Theft, October 30th 1811 (t18111030-79).” Old Bailey Proceedings Online Web. November 8. 2015. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18111030-79&div=t18111030-79&terms=+Great%20+Russell%20+Street%20#highlight

‘Nos. 55 and 56, Great Queen Street.’ Survey of London: Volume 5, St Giles-in-The-Fields, Pt II. Ed. W Edward Riley and Laurence Gomme. London: London County Council, 1914. 42-58. British History Online. Web. 6 November 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol5/pt2/pp42-58.

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.

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17821016-5&div=t17821016-5&terms=Tottenham|Court|Road|or|Goodge|Street#highlight

 

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

Harley Street and Baker Street on OS map of London from 1893-96 (Harley Street in blue)

“Our footfalls rang out crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors’ quarter, Wimpole Street, Harley Street.. , and so through Wigmore Street into Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at the Alpha Inn, which is …which runs down into Holborn”.

Sherlock holmes and Watson in the story The Blue Carbuncle walk through the streets of London on their way to the Alpha Inn to follow up a lead into the case of the stolen blue carbuncles. Harley Street is parallel to Baker street (see on OS map above), and not far so the route, they walked through in the story, makes sense. However, when following this route on the map it does not match up. Harley Street does not meet with Wigmore on the way to Holborn, as can be seen on the OS map of London from 1869-80 below. 

 Red line- Baker Street, Yellow line- Wimpole Street, Green line- Harley Street, Blue line- Wigmore Street, Purple dotted line- the route Holmes took. The end of the blue line is where Wigmore Street ends, Cavendish Square begins. Harley flows into Cavendish Square.

In the story they walk from Harley Street to Wigmore Street which is possible only if they turn counter to their next destination Oxford Street towards Holborn. The point is that Conan Doyle wanted to include Harley and Wimpole streets in the story even if it doesn’t make sense for them to walk that way, especially when in a rush in a very cold night.

Harley Street is specified in the story as the doctors’ quarter. it was, and still is, regarded as the quarter of the best doctors:

 “White Mason gazed at my friend as the little village practitioner looks at the Harley Street specialist who by a word can solve the difficulties that perplex him” (the Valley of Fear Chapter 4 ).

Harley Street is also discussed in the story The Resident Patient:

” In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street … gave positive injunctions that the famous private agent lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown.”

Here again a Harley Street doctor is mentioned as an indication to a high quality care given to Sherlock Holmes.

The map in Charles Booth Poverty map shows that Harley street residents were from Upper-middle and Upper classes, Wealthy.

Baker Street residents, according to Booth Poverty Map are designated in red-  middle class, Well-to-do . So Harley Street residents were considered of a higher class then those on Baker Street.

Walter Thornbury in his book Old and New London: Volume 2 supports the portrayal of Harley street: “The doctors now swarm in Cavendish Square, Harley Street, Wimpole Street….” referring to the migration of practitioners from Finsbury Park area to the Harley street area in mid 19th century. He continues: “When the doctors and surgeons thus swarmed in the Finsbury district, the City and its adjacent districts were largely inhabited by wealthy families, that have now also migrated westward, as their doctors naturally have.

Sherlock Holmes in his walks in upper class districts, and in him being treated by  upper class doctors maybe positioned as a close member to the upper classes. In the British class based society this position might be necessary to shape Holmes’ character as respected and trusted.

 

 

 

 

St. John’s Wood is an entire district in London composed of very affluent neighborhoods. In Sherlock’s “Scandal In Bohemia” Irene Adler, the only woman who is able to deceive Holme’s, lives in St. John’s Wood.

 

Using Victorian Google Maps I learned that St. John’s Wood is actually a very big area and it is characterized by many houses, proving to be a wealthy district.

According to Forbes magazine, St. John’s Wood (with the area post code NW8) is the fifth most expensive neighborhood in London based on the average home price in 2007.

In the “Scandal of Bohemia” Irene has a photograph that Holmes needs to get back for his client. Just as he was about to cleverly cheat her into showing him where she had it hidden, Irene outsmarts Holmes. She took the photograph with her and ran off to another country with her new husband. The fact that Irene lived in such a wealthy area is important to the plot because it suggests that independence and wealth contributes to her cleverness.

Using Old Bailey’s Locating London I was able to search for crimes committed in St. John’s Wood. I found one in particular that was very interesting of a married couple, William and Elizabeth Board who were found guilty of coining and given death penalties (“William & Elizabeth Board, Coining”). Counterfeit money was a popular crime in Victorian London with very serious punishments. The irony is that crimes like these occurred in wealthy neighborhoods where people did not need the money, but instead craved the “high” of committing the crime. In todays time a perfect example is celebrities caught stealing, they have the means to get what they desire  but it’s the adrenaline they’re after.

                    

Using “Charles Booth Online Archive” I was able to search for St. John’s Wood and with a color key determine the economic status of the neighborhood. For the most part, everything in St. John’s Wood is color red and yellow signifying middle class and the wealthy. An important theme in all of Holme’s stories is “class.” By knowing that class in London was of so much importance and the wealthier you were, the higher your social status was, we are able to infer that  Irene Adler who lived in St. John’s Wood was not also wealthy, but also of a high social class. After Holmes was outsmarted by Irene Adler, he began to change his perception of women and gradually accept that women could be “good thinkers” as well.

Works Cited

Donnelly, Sue, and Judith Etherton. “Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth  OnlineArchive).” Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive). London School of Economics & Political Science, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2015.

“Google Maps Engine: Map View.” Google Maps Engine: Map View. National Library of Scotland, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2015.

Olson, Parmy. “In Pictures: London’s Most Expensive Postcodes.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2015.

“William & Elizabeth Board, Coining, Februrary 1805 (t18050220-79).” Old Bailey Proceedings Online. Web. 6 November 2015.

 

 

Wigmore Street, from

“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”

Google Maps via London OS Town Plan 1893-1896 

Modern View

Wigmore Street is a street in the City of Westminster, in the West End of London. The street runs for about 600 yards parallel and to the north of Oxford Street between Portman Square to the west and Cavendish Square to the east. In Victorian London, Wigmore Street was one of shops, homes, and varying socioeconomic status. For Sherlock Holmes, and John H. Watson, Wigmore Street is merley one you pass by, to get to the next one, as dictated from Sir Arthur Conan Doyles “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”,

“Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one of the streets which runs down into Holborn. “

On further investigation, I discovered that Wigmore Street remains largely overlooked, a mere passing street of little interest. Wigmore seems average now, in present day, and it seems that it was average in the setting of Sherlock. During the Victorian era, according to Booth Poverty Map’s, the middle class faced the street itself, while clusters of higher class would surround the blocks. Interestingly enough, small lines of blue and black even, indicated the poor and low class were close by too, impressively close to the wealthy even.

  Even with the varying levels of class, Wigmore remained somewhat stagnant and had low crime. This could be related to the police departments presence no more than a block away. However, when crime was committed it was usually theft according to court records from Old Bailey Online as well as Locating London. The theft is usually small, for example

SUSANNAH LACY was indicted for stealing, on the 27th of July , 33 yards of ribbon, value 5 s. , the goods of William Debenham and Thomas Clark .

WILLIAM DEBENHAM . I am in partnership with Thomas Clark ; we are haberdashers , and live in Wigmore-street, Cavendish-square . On the 27th of July, about two o’clock in the afternoon, Barnes called me, and said the prisoner had taken a piece of ribbon. I took her into the counting-house, and she produced it from her handkerchief.

FRANCIS BARNES . I am apprentice to the prosecutors. I saw the prisoner take the ribbon out of the drawer, and put it into her handkerchief.

(Property produced and sworn to.) Prisoner. Distress led me to it.GUILTY . Aged 44.Confined Six Months .Third Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Recorder.

She stole ribbon, and indicates that stress led her to doing so. There is no apparent drama or excitement, like I hoped, it seems on Wigmore Street. Due to it’s close proximity to Oxford Street, I looked into the London Eye website’s Oxford Street subcategory. There was not much information there. Highlighted in the British  History Online, are seemingly the wills of the wealthy who died in the Victorian Era, and either had residence on Wigmore Street or investment.

Wigmore Street remains one of little interest; to Holmes, as well as historians.

 Works Cited
“Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive).” Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&args=528400%2C181259%2C1%2Clarge%2C0>.
“Google Maps Engine: Map View.” Google Maps Engine: Map View. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <https://mapsengine.google.com/07550989709782409818-08328807677136535917-4/mapview/?authuser=0>.
“The Historical Eye.” London 1896. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <http://historicaleye.com/1896%20London%20then%20and%20now/index.html>.
“Home | LOCATING LONDON’S PAST.” Home | LOCATING LONDON’S PAST. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <http://locatinglondon.org/>.
“The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.” Old Bailey Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/>.
“Search.” Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/search/period/18th-century?query=%22wigmore+street%22&title=>.

The London Bridge was created because many people were inconvenienced by not having easy access over the Thames River (The river the bridge now crosses.) Previous bridges were made across the river, but they were made out of wood, which eventually caught fire and burned down. The construction of the London Bridge took six years to complete. ” It was designed by John Rennie, a Scottish Engineer, begun in 1825 under the superintendence of his sons, Sir John and George Rennie, and completed in 1831″ (London Bridge). The cost to make the entire bridge was £2,000,000 which is equivalent to $3,043,300. If you take in consideration that this bridge was built in the 1800’s, you’ll come to the realization that this bridge was highly expensive to construct. The bridge 928 feet long and 54 feet broad and is help up by five granite arches. These granite arches have a span of one hundred and fifty-two feet. An interesting fact is that the lamp posts on the bridge are made of iron from French Canons which were captured in the Peninsular War. More recently, the expanded the bridge in width and it is now 65 feet wide. It is calculated that about 22,000 vehicles and about 110,000 pedestrians cross the bridge every single week. This shows the importance of this bridge to the many people who live in London.

In the Sherlock Holmes story, The Man with the Twisted Lip, the London Bridge was mentioned when John Watson was describing how to get the opium den. “Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search” (Doyle). For some reason, in the context of the story, it seems to make the bridge mysterious and almost creepy. I think it seems like that because it’s so close to the opium den and the author also used words like “lurking” to describe the alley near the London Bridge. Besides that description, I don’t see any other mention of the London Bridge in this Holmes story.

Citations:

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Man with the Twisted Lip. London: Penguin, 1995. Print.

“London Bridge.” London Bridge. George Landow, 10 Oct. 2001. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.