Victorianizing Sherlock

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 I know this has been discussed in one of the Season Three threads but I kept losing it so to simply things I thought I would try this. So, here is a partial list of all the things that come to my mind on the topic. If anyone else can come up with other tidbits, please feel free to add on.

 

  First off, Mofftiss stating that they made a conscious effort to do so in the 90 minute episodes.

 

  The differences they made in Sherlock between TUP and the series:

 

   We have already discussed Sherlock's old world speech patterns.

 

   In TUP Sherlock's hair is BC"s natural hair color. In Canon, Holmes has dark hair. So now, BC's hair is dyed or he wears a wig to conform to the Victorian Sherlock, Black or dark auburn.

 

   In TUP, Sherlock is dressed very casually, jeans and button down shirts. In Canon, Holmes was either in a dressing gown or in a tailored suit. We now see that dress code in the series.

 

   221b itself:  The Victorian wall paper in the living room.

 

                      In TUP the living room is sunken, one step down to the sitting area around the fireplace. Not an original Victorian architectural feature that I can discover anyway. Maybe someone better versed in British living spaces can fill in that gap but in the US it's a 70's thing. But anyway, in the series, there is no sunken living room in 221b.

 

  

[Carol the Dabbler]

Right, that sunken living room in the unaired pilot did strike me as a modern touch.  The building it's in is clearly much older than 70's, so the implication is what?  Maybe the building had been gutted by fire and redone during the sunken-room era?  In that case, the re-do would have been at least partly covered by the fire insurance.

 

Or maybe it was intentionally gutted and redone?  It's hard for me to believe that anyone would intentionally take on a project of this magnitude unless this had been a shabby building in a newly posh area, and the owners figured they could easily recoup their remodeling expenses by raising the rent to astronomical levels.  Mrs. Hudson doesn't strike me as that type of landlady, but perhaps the remodeling was done in the 70's by the previous owner, who sold it because they had guessed wrong about how much rent people would be willing to pay for it.

 

In either case, by the time of the pilot, that sunken living room was an anachronism, fitting neither the original building nor the current times.  But Mrs. Hudson was young in the 70's, so perhaps it still seemed very chic to her.  Or perhaps the rather shockingly Victorian decor was her attempt to return the building to its roots.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

Or perhaps the rather shockingly Victorian decor was her attempt to return the building to its roots.

 

 

  It could be this. A lot of people here in the US are filling in their sunken living rooms, just laying down floor joists and covering them over.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Having nearly broken my neck falling into one recently, I heartily approve!

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Another element of the Victorianizing of Sherlock is John's ever present pistol. Although by modern day laws John should not be able to have it, because it is canon, he will need to have it when Sherlock calls for it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Of course he had the pistol in the pilot as well (thank goodness!), but you're right, he "shouldn't."

 

[MrsHudsonsbins]

I live in a house built in 1756. It ws updated in 1865, I have a sunken floor, my sister lives in a property built in 1835, she also has a sunken floor. We know it's original to the property as it is in the original plans. 

 

Just an insight from a history geek here in England.

 

 

Kate

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wow, thanks, Kate!  That is a surprise to me.  I guess there really is nothing new under the sun, huh?  Just old stuff rediscovered.

 

Are those sunken floors in just one room, or ... ?

 

[SherlockBatman]

I used to have a house boat and that had a sunken floor.

 

Well it did after the accident, I miss that boat.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

Well it did after the accident, I miss that boat.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

So, sunken floors go back to post colonial times?  So yes, even sunken floors can be Victorian. Thank you for the insight, MrsHudsonsbins.