Salvador S. Caday Jr. Mrs.

Villacrusis

Section: 3-V

The London of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes

Perhaps no other literary figure is so firmly associated with their surroundings as the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Think of Holmes and you conjure up a vision of 19th century London, at the time the largest metropolis in the world, with its gas-lit foggy streets, the rattle of the hansom cabs and the piercing shriek of a policeman's whistle. Parts of London have changed little in the hundred years or so since Holmes and Watson walked the streets and there are many reminders of Holmes as well as his creator's life. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and at the age of 11 he was sent to the exclusive Stonyhurst School in Lancashire. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Here, he excelled at sports and also discovered a love of literature, enjoying the books of Sir Walter Scott and Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as books about American fur trappers. A connection with the United States would appear regularly throughout the Sherlock Holmes books. Doyle would also entertain the other boys by reading stories aloud to them, some of which he made up himself. After leaving school, Doyle studied at medical school in Edinburgh and Plymouth and also undertook exciting voyages to the Arctic and West Africa as a ship's doctor. Whereas Holmes had a distinct mistrust of women and remained a lifelong bachelor, Conan Doyle was always something of a womanizer. In 1885 he married Louise Hawkins, the sister of one of his early patients who would give him two children. In the early 1890s Doyle and his wife moved to London the city he described in one of his stories as "the great cesspool into which the loungers and the idlers are irresistibly drained" - and immediately set up practice as an ophthalmologist. His first home was in Montague Place, just around the corner from the British Museum, and not by coincidence Holmes' first rooms in London were described as being on nearby Montague Street. Today Montague Street is still a quiet street of whitewashed Georgian terraced houses and small hotels. A delightful pub, the Museum Tavern, which features in one of Doyle's stories The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle still stands across the street from the main entrance to the museum. Doyle's first consulting room was at 2, Upper Wimpole Street, still today the heart of London's medical profession. One of London's distinctive informative blue plaques on the wall of the elegant Georgian terraced building today states that Conan Doyle lived and wrote at the address in 1891. Unfortunately not a single patient crossed the doorstep, and Doyle actually had so much time on his hands, he began to write short stories. One of his earliest efforts was written for a Christmas annual and became known as "A Study in Scarlet" the first Holmes story. The character of Sherlock Homes was supposedly based on Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon at one of the hospitals in Edinburgh, who

was famous for his powers of observation. The name Holmes was probably inspired by the author Oliver Wendell Holmes; the name Sherlock supposedly from a boy who Doyle played cricket with at school. Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyles first debut novel "The Narrative of John Smith" is going to be published for the first time in September, after 130 years of its original inscription.The 150-page book is set to be published by Rachel Foss, lead curator of modern literary manuscripts at the British Library, this autumn.British Library owns an extensive Conan Doyle collection and according to Foss the book has been part of the British Librarys Conan Doyle collection since 2007 until she realized it would make a good publishing project.According to Foss, As you might expect with the creator of Sherlock Holmes, theres a bit of a mystery around the manuscript.and provided about the manuscript,He wrote it in 1883 and 1884, when he was starting to try to establish himself in the medical profession and as a writer. He sent it to a publisher, but it got lost in the post, so he decided to try and redo it from memory. The manuscript we have is the novel as reconstructed from memory, and it stops around chapter six.The Narrative of John Smith was written when Conan Doyle was 23, and just a few years before the author published his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. It tells the story of a 50-year-old "opinionated Everyman" confined to his room by gout, laying out his thoughts and views on subjects from religion to war and literature through the conversations he has with his visitors, from a retired army major to a curate.According to Jon Lellenberg, one of the books editors and a Conan Doyle expert, What is interesting about it is not the story for its own sake but as a look inside the mind of this very young man a struggling physician who is struggling even harder to become a published writer.According to Stephen Fry,The breadth, depth and scope of Conan Doyles knowledge and curiosity is often overlooked. He was the first popular writer to tell the wider reading public about narcotics, the Ku Klux Klan, the mafia, the Mormons, American crime gangs, corrupt union bosses and much else besides.In 1891, Doyle moved to the very ordinary and middle class suburb of Norwood, where he lived in a typical villa as many houses of the time were rather pretentiously known - at 12 Tennison Road, until 1894. A blue plaque on the wall informs visitors that Doyle lived in the house and the rather modest building is now a residential care facility for autistic children and adults. The very ordinariness of the house and the blandness of the suburbs became the sinister backdrop for one of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries called "The Norwood Builder". Doyle used his medical background to good effect when describing the first meeting of Sherlock Holmes and his chronicler Doctor Watson, which took place at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. This is the oldest hospital in England, and the dignified Victorian building has not changed much since that historic meeting. Today, the hospital is part of the University of London and well known for its impressive pathological and medical museum, free to visitors. A bronze plaque on the walls put there by the "Baker Street Irregulars" commemorates the historic meeting there between Holmes and Watson. Of course, anyone interested in following in the footsteps of Holmes should begin at 221B Baker St. - perhaps the most famous address in the world. If you arrive in Baker Street by Underground railway, you can admire the walls of the Metropolitan Line platforms which are decorated with colored murals depicting scenes from several of the Holmes stories. The writer GK. Chesterton suggested a statue of Holmes almost 70 years

ago and his vision was recently realized. A 9 foot bronze statue of Holmes complete with pipe was recently unveiled outside the Marylebone Street exit of the station, designed by the English sculptor John Doubleday. The site of 221B is today a small but fascinating museum which recreates the suite of rooms that Holmes and Watson occupied for many years. Visitors to the museum are met by the great man himself, or by Holmes landlady, the long-suffering Mrs. Hudson. Inside, the sitting room and bedrooms are faithfully reconstructed as depicted in the books, complete with Holmes' odious chemical experiments, Persian slipper full of tobacco, and bullet holes in the walls. Gazing out of the windows of 221B it doesn't take too much imagination to picture an assassin crouched in the window of the building across the street with a rifle trained on Holmes, as described in Doyle's short story "The Empty House". Every day, dozens of letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes arrive at the nearby bank, which also claims the same address of 221B where they are duly answered; informing the writer that Mr. Holmes has retired. The other unique reminder of Sherlock Holmes is the pub that bears his name, on Northumberland Street, just around the corner from Charing Cross station, one of London's busy rail terminals which features in many of Doyle's stories. The upstairs rooms of the pub contain a reconstruction of Holmes sitting room, originally exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951 and moved to this spot soon after. You can sample excellent English food and drink in "Mrs. Hudson's Pantry" or simply admire the extensive collection of Holmes memorabilia. Around the corner from the pub, in Trafalgar Square, is the site of the Grand Hotel in which Sir Henry Baskerville finds that one of his boots is mysteriously missing, in the book The Hound of The Baskervilles. Trafalgar Square leads into the wide street known as the Strand, which lent its name to the famous magazine which published Doyle's stories. Conan Doyle was something of a gourmet and today you can dine where Doyle and Holmes enjoyed some of London's finest food. The restaurant in the Langham Hotel was one of Doyle's favorite places to eat, and he contrived to mention the hotel in several stories. Today, the Langham once the haunt of other writers such as Mark Twain and Arnold Bennett - has been refurbished to its previous high standards and is once more one of London's finest hotels. Another of Holme's favorite places to dine was Simpsons on the Strand 100 years later, this celebrated restaurant still serves some of the best traditional English food in London and is well known for its superb roast beef. Carvers dressed in white still wheel joints of meat over to your table, where they lift silver covers to carve the beef in front of you. One of Holmes main haunts was the Metropolitan police headquarters at Scotland Yard where he spent much of his time solving puzzling crimes for the baffled police. The Metropolitan police have since moved to a more modern building, but you can still admire the ornate Italianate building that was originally intended to be London's new opera house, until the police took it over. A wonderful view of Scotland Yard with the government buildings of Whitehall behind it can be enjoyed from the Embankment, near Westminster Bridge.

Throughout his career, Doyle frequently complained that Holmes had taken over his life to the extent that his other achievements were overlooked. Doyle became so fed up with Holmes that he killed his character off in one of his stories called "The Final Problem." However, public outcry over the death of Holmes was so great even Queen Victoria was reputedly disappointed that Conan Doyle was forced to resurrect the detective and then plausibly explain himself. His other achievements were impressive indeed he fought in the Boer War, was a staunch advocate of spiritualism and wrote many excellent historical novels. Doyle's first wife died in 1906 of tuberculosis, and the following year, Doyle married one of his old friends Jean Leckie, who gave him three children. One of their children, Adrian, would later keep the legacy of his father alive by writing a book of short stories about Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died from a heart attack in 1930 and was buried alongside his second wife in Minstead churchyard in Hampshire, some 80 miles from London, the city that gave him so much inspiration. The inscription on his grave describes him as a patriot, physician and man of letters. And what of Sherlock Holmes' grave? To thousands of people around the world, Holmes is a historical figure, rather than just a fictional character. Although if Holmes was a real person, the whereabouts of his grave is certainly a mystery equivalent to any he solved.

John Worthy ...

John Worthy President John is Principal of Baldivis Primary School - located on the urban, rural fringe in one of the fastest growing areas of Australia.This delightful school, in its bushland setting, presents leadership challenges as it grows and changes from its rural outlook to a redeveloped area.His teaching and Educational Leadership background involves stints in many varied schools primary and secondary, large and small including Nannup, Gingin, Northam DO, Ejanding, Tuart Hill, Narrogin, Allenswood(Greenwood), Roebourne, West Northam and Dalwallinu.He has been a member of ACEL since 1994 and actively on the ACEL (WA) Executive since 1999.Learning organisations are very important for him and as President he is keen to continue the support of all Educational Leaders, at any level, location and education system. John Worthy is President of ... acel.org.au, 20 April 2008 [cached] John Worthy is President of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders Western Australia a position he has held for three years, and National Board member since 2001.He was recently awarded the status of National Fellow for contributions at state and national levels.John has been a teacher and school leader in the Western Australian Government school system for over twenty five years.He commenced his primary school teaching in ruralWestern Australia in a rural District High School.From there he moved to several schools regarded as difficult, including schools with significant indigenous populations in low socio economic areas.His first promotion was as Principal of an isolated two teacher school.He then led schools in the Midland District as a Development Officer before Principalships in large secondary District High Schools.John is currently Principal of Baldivis Primary School on the outskirts of Perth.He is chair of the Baldivis Children's Forest, a project engaging twelve schools in environmental and Indigenous studies.This project has won major educational, indigenous and environmental awards.