Sherlock Holmes pub, revisited

I was in London for a few days over the weekend, visiting with my daughters. I was lucky enough to be in London about two months ago and visit a bunch of Sherlockian locations (https://221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/06/shelockian-glimpses-in-london.html), and this time was a family trip with less self-indulgent touring.

BUT I did have a chance to revisit the "The Sherlock Holmes" for a quick beer, and this time I had a chance to actually wander around. The address of the pub is 10 Northumberland Street, St James's, Greater London, very close to Trafalgar Square and The Strand. While there's no direct historical link to Sherlock Holmes & co., the hotel has a range of memorabilia on display. 

The Wikipedia page for the pub (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sherlock_Holmes) explains that many items on display were part of the 1951 exhibition of Sherlock Holmes created as part of the Festival of Britain. The site states that this exhibition then toured to New York, and finally was returned and some parts of it auctioned in the UK. This collection was purchased by "The Sherlock Holmes" pub. 

The full story of the items in the pub that are actually from the original 1951 exhibition are summarized in an outstanding article by Nick Utechin that is available here: https://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/the-sherlock-holmes-exhibition-of-1951-lives-on/

A delightful exterior. On the ground floor are a range of framed artwork, and a display cabinet with a range of evidence samples - 'murder dossier' style - from various stories. The display is a little dusty and some of the placards have dropped from their displays - could definitely do with a refresh. 

There are rows of books on display in the glass cabinet on the ground floor. It's a fairly generic collection of books, published over a fairly wide period (and not from 1951). For example "The Holmes Affair" was published in 2011, and Conan Doyle by Michael Coren was published in 1996.

Examples of samples, including a locket with a picture of Miss Hatty Doran, from the story 'The Noble Bachelor'. The placards describing each item have numbering suggesting they may have been part of an earlier display.

One of these is very obvious - the plaster cat of the footprint of a gigantic hound! The other is bisulfate of baryta, contained in a set of corked test tubes. Sherlock's investigations into the bisfulfate of baryta is mentioned in "“A Case of Identity”.

A plaster cast of a boot, actually an example relating to the monograph published by Sherlock Holmes titled "Upon The Tracing of Footsteps....".

A final example is a mock Medical Registration Certificate for John Watson. It gives an address of 13 Sussex Gardens, Paddington, and states that his degrees were earned at the University of Edinburgh and the University of London.