“’Drive like the devil,’ he shouted, ‘first to Gross & Hankey’s in Regent-street, and then to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgware road. Half a guinea if you do it in twenty minutes!’”

The only mention of Edgware road in “Scandal in Bohemia” is spoken by a character we barely meet, Godfrey Norton, the future husband of Irene Adler. Holmes, disguised as a homeless man, goes to Adler’s house to see if he can get a visual on the picture or of Adler herself, and instead finds out that she’s had a gentleman caller each day. Holmes isn’t there long when Norton comes out of the house, seeming flustered, and yells to the cabby to take him to the Church of St. Monica in Edgware road. Soon after, Adler comes out demanding the same location.

Although this road is only mentioned once, it holds a lot of significance, especially in relation to Irene Adler as a character. Irene is a well-to-do woman, which is alluded to when Holmes gets her address in St. John’s Wood, a ritzy area of London. When I looked up Edgware road on the Charles Booth Archive, I saw that it had all red, even some yellow, surrounding it, pointing to a well-to-do middle to upper class area.

To get married in such a nice area follows the thread that Irene is a wealthy woman and is going to be married in a wealthy part of London. I had Regent Street for the last assignment so when it was mentioned in relation to Edgware road I knew that it would be along the same vain. I looked up Gross & Hankey’s, and found that it was most likely a fictional jeweler, which also reflects Godfrey Norton’s level of wealth.

Looking through the various online sources, there wasn’t a lot of information available on Edgware road individually, but I did find that it wasn’t far from the Marble Arch. The Historical Eye puts it in relation to Hyde Park Place: “Hyde Park Place is the name given to a row of mansions overlooking the park and built on the right and left of the entrance to Great Cumberland Place. On turning round the corner into the Edgware Road, almost opposite the Marble Arch…” The Marble Arch was originally used as the entrance for the royal family into Buckingham Palace. Over time, this has changed obviously, but the arch definitely has royal origins. It’s a small detail, but I found the connotation with royalty in the area important in relation to Irene Adler and the kind of woman she is in the story.

I think it’s important that Edgware road is a real place and not fictional. Irene Adler is a larger than life woman so she’s put in real places where real wealth resided in London at this time. Arthur Conan Doyle puts Irene in a real place that readers can recognize and contextualize its meaning in relation to her as a fictional character about to be married in a well-to-do neighborhood.

“Adventure I. – A Scandal in Bohemia.” The Strand Magazine: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 1. Stanford: Stanford U, 2006. N. pag. The Strand Magazine. Stanford University, 27 Jan. 2006. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

“Charles Booth Online Archive.” Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

“Marble Arch.” The Victorian Web. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

“Marble Arch and Kensington Gardens.” The Historical Eye. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.