Mycroft's Offices

[Carol the Dabbler]

J.P. posted this in the Reichenbach thread:

 

11 Mycroft's room - the set must be a different building - there was no medieval-like stone arabesque blends on the Diogenes Club house.

 

... which got me to thinking -- just how many "offices" does Mycroft have, anyhow?  There are several scenes where he seems to be "at work" or possibly "at home":

 

"Great Game" -- Sherlock sends John to placate Mycroft.

 

"Scandal" -- Mycroft receives Jim's text message

. . . . . . . . -- Mycroft meets with Irene and Sherlock

 

"Reichenbach" -- John confronts Mycroft twice

 

"Empty Hearse" -- Sherlock gets a shave

 

"Sign" -- Mycroft uses his treadmill

 

Just offhand, that seems to be at least three places:  I would guess that the two scenes from "Scandal" take place in Mycroft's home (but the man's a workaholic, so that still qualifies as an office).  John's first meeting with him in "Reichenbach" apparently takes place in an above-ground room (there are daylit windows), whereas the barber scene in "Empty Hearse" takes place in a windowless room.

 

Have I omitted some "office" scenes?  Which of these rooms are (or could be) the same?  Which are definitely different?

 

[besleybean]

You need to listen to The Empty hearse commentary on Mycroft's various offices...the discussion is hilarious!

[Carol the Dabbler]

You mean this?
 

MARK: And then Arwel [Wyn Jones, the Production Designer] created this fantastic set, deliberately sort of Bond-like. This [location] is also under The Diogenes Club.
SUE: Yes, ’cause your offices change quite a lot.
STEVEN: Well, he’s got several offices, Mycroft.
MARK: The first one we see [in The Great Game], I think is my, you know, my legitimate ...
SUE: ... sort of day to day office.
STEVEN: This is where he orders executions down here.

(Mr. Gatiss says "also under the Diogenes Club" because they'd just been joking that the Serbian torture chamber was in the Diogenes basement -- because the two sets actually are in the same building.)

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

In the original stories, Mycroft's orbit is between the Club and his office in White Hall. But two have life size chess pieces in either of these places.....I always thought maybe he received Jim's text message at his estate. The same with the confrontation with Irene to avoid prying eyes and ears. Especially where Sherlock was in very deep. As would be Mycroft if the blackmail worked.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I agree, the place where we see him in "Scandal" looks like a private home, presumably Mycroft's home, possibly the house he grew up in.

[J.P.]

Well, you knew I would do this, didn't you?

 

Here is what I consider Mycroft's living room, with the big table and the figures in the background

 

The Christmas phonecall:

 

 

Now Sherlock is sitting in the same chair as Mycroft before.

 

The fireplace is in the lower right corner.

 

180° turn:

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Let's call this "Office #1"

[J.P.]

This seems to be the official office for the minor position in the British government. We don't know where it is supposed to be.

Note the red telephone: Hotline with whom? :P

 

 

180° turn:

Edited July 8, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Let's call this "Office #2"

[J.P.]

This seems to be Myc's private room at the Diogenes Club. One gets there crossing the Silent Room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Let's call this "Office #3"

[Van Buren Supernova]

This seems to be the official office for the minor position in the British government. We don't know where it is supposed to be.

Note the red telephone: Hotline with whom? :P

 

 

180° turn:

The lighting drives me crazy. It's more suitable for landscape or sleazy hotel than office.

 

Anyway, good efforts, great screencaps! Always love those.

[J.P.]

And here is the secret office.

 

 

 

 

Another red telephone.

 

 

I have no idea what that place could be. Note that the "corridor" behind the door has a curved wall... and then all that rivets, metal... Without the walls being obviously made of concrete, I could thing it is a submarine, floating in the Thames, making short excursions to Serbia if needed to fetch certain someone. I know it makes no sense, but you cannot kill an idea, can you?

 

Another funny detail:

This photo is a scan of my own photoshooting. On the metal container where the Umbrella use to hang (recharging batteries for all the gizmos hidden in it), there are some stains... looking like blood? Creepy

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Let's call this "Office #4"

[J.P.]

Finally the workout room. From the all over look I would say it is another room in Mycroft's house.

BTW, I don't think it is his parent's house - it is probably something that comes with the job.

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Let's call this "Office #5"

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thank you, J.P. -- I didn't know you would do that, but I was hoping you would!  :D

 

I have taken the liberty of numbering your photo posts, so we now have:

 

#1 -- I've just realized that this needs to be #1a and #1b.  When Mycroft receives Jim's text message earlier in the episode, he's sitting in this room:

 

 

Even though there's a life-size chess knight to the left of the window in both scenes, this table is much larger and has more (and different) chairs.  So let's call this #1a, his Dining Room and the photo you posted can be #1b, his Living Room.  Both rooms have so far been used only in "Scandal," correct?

 

#2 --  As you point out, there's a hotline phone on the desk, so I agree, let's call this the Official Office.  This one may actually be in a government building.  We've seen it only in "Great Game"?

 

#3 -- The room that's explicitly at the Diogenes Club.  In canon, this was not really Mycroft's office, though he sometimes used it as such.  It was formally known as the Stranger's Room, because it was the only room in the club where conversation was allowed (and thus one could meet there with guests).  Moftisses seem to be maintaining that concept, because they've clearly got the silent room outside, and then Mycroft says, "...we can talk in here."  So how about calling it the Diogenes Stranger's Room?  We've seen it only in "Reichenbach," correct?

 

#4 -- What you call Mycroft's secret office -- another red phone, but clearly not his public venue.  Looks like a bunker to me, what with no windows, what appear to be buttresses in the walls, and that reinforced steel door.  So can we call it his Secret Bunker?  Moftisses may have been joking, but they said this was underneath the Diogenes Club, and I like that idea.  Seen in both "Empty Hearse" and "Last Vow" -- anywhere else?

 

#5 -- Mycroft's workout room (apparently in the same house as #1, judging by the decor).  So yeah, let's call it the Workout Room.  Seen only in "Sign," right?

 

By the way, I agree this house is not where his parents live -- but I do think it's where they used to live, and where the boys grew up, and it's now been passed along to Mycroft.  (Mum and Dad travel so much nowadays that they've probably moved into a nice little condo.)

 

[besleybean]

I assumed they'd retired to the Xmas cottage. 

[Arcadia]

Thank you, J.P. -- I didn't know you would do that, but I was hoping you would!  :D

 

I have taken the liberty of numbering your photo posts, so we now have:

 

#1 -- I've just realized that this needs to be #1a and #1b.  When Mycroft receives Jim's text message earlier in the episode, he's sitting in this room:

 

 

Even though there's a life-size chess knight to the left of the window in both scenes, this table is much larger and has more (and different) chairs.  So let's call this #1a, his Dining Room and the photo you posted can be #1b, his Living Room.  Both rooms have so far been used only in "Scandal," correct?

Sorry to nitpick, but I think 1a and 1b are meant to be the same room. However, in the scene with Irene, the table and chairs are shown in extreme perspective (and I suspect replaced with a smaller table and fake chairs to achieve that effect.) But if you look carefully you'll see that there are 4 chairs to Irene's left. Also the chairs Mycroft occupies in both scenes appear to be identical. So I think it's supposed to be the same room, but they had to pull some SFX tricks to give the illusion of a bigger space than they actually had.

 

Here's a fuzzy blowup of the scene with Irene, if that helps.

[Arcadia]

Oh, and J.P. ... you are amazing.

[J.P.]

 

Even though there's a life-size chess knight to the left of the window in both scenes, this table is much larger and has more (and different) chairs.  So let's call this #1a, his Dining Room and the photo you posted can be #1b, his Living Room.  Both rooms have so far been used only in "Scandal," correct?

 

Definitely the same room and the same table. The apparent size difference is only another lens and perspective. The chair with Myc sitting on it is just a bit further away, that's why it seems smaller. The table is made of 6 panels:

 

 

The room is not rectangular - the part with the table is broader than the one with the fireplace and chairs.

And even the plant outside the window is the same.

 

BTW, watching Sherlock I have an impression that EVERY room in London has a fireplace and a big mirror on the wall.

 

Still don't think it is the house where mom and dad Holmes lived. They don't look THAT posh/aristocratic. Cannot imagine someone with a big red fly and X-mas socks living in those rooms. But I could imagine Mycroft moving in some museum.

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, maybe it was Grandmum's house and Mycroft inherited it directly!

 

And I do believe you're both right about the table -- and the Rhododendron ponticum outside the window too!  But in that case, is it a living room or a dining room?

 

[J.P.]

Both? :P

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, so are we calling it his Living/Dining Room?  Great Room?  Family Room?  Multi-Purpose Room?

 

[Arcadia]

I'm guessing it's two rooms, but without a full wall between them, if you see what I mean. Most of the houses I've lived in were like that, especially between the dining room/living room. In fact, looking back, I can only remember one house where the dining room was actually a separate room. Although that table makes me think "conference room" instead of dining room, for some reason.

 

So, civil servants make good money in Britain, do they? And I'm inclined to agree with JP, based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I think the house we saw at Christmas is Sherlock's childhood home. Just because it would be more "ordinary!"

[besleybean]

Only top civil servants and remember, Mycroft virtually is the government...but I think Daddy and Mummy have money.

I completely disagree on the houses.

Mycroft has inherited the family home.

The parents have gone to their retirement cottage.

[J.P.]

Your obsession is bad when you try to make out layouts of all rooms used in the series...

 

We can call the room STable Room. (the horses!) :P

 

I tried to find out the interior location, but somehow I can't. IF it is another studio set*, then I wonder about the stained glass shield visible in the window behind the big Table. Sadly it is too blurred to define what's in that shield. Any ideas?

 

 

Well, I have found out about the Mystery Photo in 221B living room - if I stay obsessed enough, the information I want, will find me in the end. Happened often enough with my other obsessions. :D

 

* there is a change of weather/daylight behind the window but we know Master Arwel can do this - he's doing this with the Baker Street outside 221B all the time.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Guys... straight jackets???

said someone who had spent whole day thinking about charms

 

 

​But please..continue..!

[J.P.]

[Carol the Dabbler]

I tried to find out the interior location, but somehow I can't. IF it is another studio set*, then I wonder about the stained glass shield visible in the window behind the big Table. Sadly it is too blurred to define what's in that shield. Any ideas?

 

 

 

* there is a change of weather/daylight behind the window but we know Master Arwel can do this - he's doing this with the Baker Street outside 221B all the time.

 

Well, the lighting outside the windows at 221B is still inside the sound stage -- so it's always fake.  Whereas I think Mycroft's house is a real-life house -- with actual sky outside.  But as you say, the lighting people do such a good job that it's sometimes hard to tell.  A quick internet search turned up nothing about where that real-life house might be.  Even Sherlockology doesn't have it, and I'm guessing that's because the owners/residents don't want fans trampling their lawns.  (Not that we would, but the concern is understandable.)

 

Regarding the question of whose house it is / has been in the show, this blog says (among other things), "In the commentary for ['Scandal'], Mark Gatiss speculates that this set was supposed to be the Holmes’ ancestral home" (though Ariane DeVere apparently does not quote that part).

 

Regarding what to call the room, wellingtongoose has (of course) a blog entry on that and related questions, which comes to this conclusion:  "The room we see in ASiB is definitely either a drawing room or a sitting room for the family."  They clearly do a lot of sitting in there, so how about calling it his Sitting Room?