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#221 Baker Street


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I figure it's about time the house had its own thread!

 

Right now, I'm wondering why (in a five-flat house) there are no other tenants.  Mrs. Hudson mentions in "Great Game" that she has tried to rent out the basement flat, but could never get any takers (and considering the condition it's in, I'm not surprised!).  In "Study in Pink," John considers this to be the high-rent district, so she could presumably get a pretty penny for the other upstairs flats.  In "Empty Hearse," she's even let 221B sit empty for two years.

 

Clearly, Mrs. Hudson doesn't depend on that income.  But why?

 

It has just occurred to me that she may have had an ulterior motive for wanting Sherlock to ensure that her husband was executed.  If he'd ever been convicted of drug trafficking, then the Florida police would have seized any of his assets that were supposedly derived from drugs.  But if he was "only" convicted of murder, his widow would inherit everything.

 

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Interesting! That could be. What a great thread, by the way. Love 221b! It has a homey feel to it.

 

I'm thinking the writers probably didn't want other tenants, because it would require spending time on them as well. They'd have to deal with how those tenants react to "firing guns at half past one in the morning", and Sherlock's violin playing at any hour, and what not.

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Also, it appears to be canon -- at least if there were ever any other tenants in the Conan Doyle stories, they don't figure prominently.

 

But it does seem odd from an in-universe perspective.

 

I'm also wondering about John's bedroom.  Presumably that floor has an entire other flat, laid out similarly to "B" (and which should logically be called "C" if that weren't -- for some peculiar reason -- the basement).  So it's odd that Mrs. H. would rent out just the one room as part of the downstairs flat.  But it also strikes me that there must be a bathroom right next to John's bedroom.  So why does he apparently use the bathroom by Sherlock's bedroom?

 

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On my other forums there is a brilliant plan of the building, but believe me, this is how it is!

'C': basement.

Mrs Hudson's('A'!) flat: ground floor(in English!)

221B: Sherlock's flat(as it were!) 1st floor.

Jonn's bedroom(only): top floor.

 

There is ONLY the 1 bathroom in the flat.

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And if Sherlock is as well heeled as all evidence points to then, like in canon, he paid her a "princely sum" even for all that she owned him a favor and she could afford to do what ever. 

 

 Or, when she found out what her husband was up to she started skimming, which would be a good incentive to having him receive the death sentence so he wouldn't do her in first.

 

  In canon, Mycroft paid the rent for 221b for his supposedly dead brother. Either the original Mrs. Hudson was as dense as stone or something else was going on. But since in the real world that would have created way to many red flags for all involved both the good guys and the bad guys, the simplest solution was to have her to emotionally attached to rent it?

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On my other forums there is a brilliant plan of the building, but believe me, this is how it is!

'C': basement.

Mrs Hudson's('A'!) flat: ground floor(in English!)

221B: Sherlock's flat(as it were!) 1st floor.

Jonn's bedroom(only): top floor.

 

There is ONLY the 1 bathroom in the flat.

 

Sorry, I was confused by real life (wherein the house has four above-ground stories).  Apparently in the program, it's only three -- and so far I haven't even found screen caps that show anything above Sherlock and John's living room.  How does your other forum depict the top floor, where John's bedroom is?

 

Obviously I can't prove that there's a bathroom up there, but it would seem odd if there wasn't at least an area allocated for one.  I once lived in a house that had been built to have servant's quarters in the attic, but only the bedroom had ever been finished off, so the would-be bathroom had only the stubs of plumbing.  Maybe the top floor of #221 is like that.

 

Unless they ever take us up those stairs, I guess we'll never know for sure.  :(

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Except John uses the downstairs bathroom...I think that tells us all.

If Mrs Hudson had really wanted to be selling the flat to John, she would have mentioned his bathroom, too!

It is quite common in old English houses to only have 1 bathroom...in fact, i only have 1 bathroom- and it's downstairs!

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I've always been a bit puzzled by Sherlock's finances too ... in the first episode he implies he needs a roommate so he can afford the place, but from that point on he never acts like it. It's all very mysterious....

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Except John uses the downstairs bathroom...I think that tells us all.

If Mrs Hudson had really wanted to be selling the flat to John, she would have mentioned his bathroom, too!

It is quite common in old English houses to only have 1 bathroom...in fact, i only have 1 bathroom- and it's downstairs!

 

 

You're right about Mrs. Hudson's sales pitch.  And it's also common for older American houses to have just one bathroom.  But if a large house is converted into apartments, then of course they have to give each one its own kitchen and bathroom.

 

I would assume that whoever converted Mrs. Hudson's house into flats intended that it would eventually be one flat per floor.  But maybe they didn't have enough money to add all the extra kitchens and bathrooms at once, so they did just "B" (and perhaps "C"), and figured on using the rent to pay for converting the rest -- then somehow never got around to it.

 

OK, I'm happy now!  :D

 

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Set design is excellent. All the personal nicknacks and the clutter make it feel real.

 

And can we talk about the wallpaper? Before the show never in a million years but now...

 

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

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No matter your personal taste, you've gotta admit that the wallpaper is distinctive -- which makes it an excellent pattern for fan items.  I've just gotten this T-shirt (in baby blue, 'cause I look awful in gray) and this pendant.

 

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Wow, I never got far enough in my head to actually map out 221b! I'd make a terrible detective...

 

One question for those who are more observant and think practically: Is what we see of the house consistent over the series or did they change things over time? Like, did they change the location of a room, add one, "forget" one, etc?

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See I was adamant they had actually made the bathroom and Sherlock's bedroom change places...but I think i must have just misunderstood before!

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It seems to me that the main plan has always been the same with Sherlock's bedroom always "been in the back through the kitchen".  It wasn't until people started posting layouts that I got the idea of how that worked.

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I always found the layout confusing as well -- partly I suppose because I was constantly being distracted by all that action stuff and dialog.  This is the only floor plan I've ever seen, but it actually makes sense to me.  (And it's in 3-D, with views from different angles if you click on that link.)

 

tumblr_m7yitbPRo31rorqs9o1_250.jpg

 

(above image thanks to Sherlockology.)

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You're welcome -- but that was actually posted by The Rani last December, here.

 

Now that I see that plan again, I'm wondering whether it even makes sense from a real-world perspective.  Looking at that row of houses on the real North Gower Street, I assume that each of them was built for a different owner, possibly at different times.  So presumably each house sits on its own small rectangular piece of land.  (Someone please correct me if land ownership has different rules in London.)  In which case, Sherlock's bedroom really should be a mirror image of itself, to avoid lapping over into the neighbor's lot.

 

And what's out back?  Does canon ever mention a back door or a rear garden?

 

It actually looks to me like the bathroom and Sherlock's bedroom are an addition to the original house.  Recall that there's a stained-glass window in the stairwell, presumably because a clear-glass window would merely have a view of the exterior wall of the bathroom wing.  This would make sense if the house was originally built as a single-family dwelling and later converted to flats.  They would have needed a bedroom and bathroom for each flat, so they built an addition in what had been the back garden.  I'm guessing there isn't much open space behind the house now.

 

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I've always wanted to explore the mews of London......if any exist any more....but any way....one thing about those images....I always got the idea that the corridor to Sherlock's bed room was on the right hand kitchen wall....but in HLV....the above image does look correct.

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There must be some (small) back garden or yard, for Mrs. Hudson keeps her bins there.

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Oops sorry, cross post!

Yes and it's the yard at the back of Speedy's.

Mrs H has referred to the fact that 221C is damp.

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In "The Adventure of the Empty House"  Holmes tells Watson that he, Holmes, was able to return to 221b Baker Street because Mycoft had paid the rent while he was "dead" why he would do that is anyone's guess.

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I've always wanted to explore the mews of London......if any exist any more....

There are still little streets called This and That Mews.  But from what little I've seen (ages ago), few of the old buildings are still actually used as stables -- most have been converted into posh little houses.  Kind of like the old carriage houses in some American cities.

 

There must be some (small) back garden or yard, for Mrs. Hudson keeps her bins there.

Going by what little we've seen of Mrs. H.'s flat (e.g., in "Many Happy Returns"), it's entirely behind the stairwell, and the window above her kitchen sink faces north (i.e., to the right in the diagram, which I shall repeat below).  In "Scandal" her bins were just outside that window, which puts them in the empty space to the right of Sherlock's bedroom suite.  I agree with Fox, that there must be some sort of alleyway that gives access to that area.

 

tumblr_m7yitbPRo31rorqs9o1_250.jpg

 

Yes and it's the yard at the back of Speedy's.

 

Yes, I think Mrs. H.'s flat is very small, basically underneath Sherlock's bedroom suite and behind Speedy's.

 

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