UK Travel Search - London: Marylebone & Regents Park: Sherlock Holmes: Wallace Collection: Oxford Street: Travel Information


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Page 2 (Continued) Marylebone & Regents Park

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A little further on up Baker Street, on the other side of the street, and you come to The Sherlock Holmes Museum. "Elementary, my dear Watson," as the great detective might say. It's his best-known phrase, although he never once uttered it in the entire works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his creator. Sherlock Holmes may have been an entirely fictional character, but his museum attracts a lot more visitors than those devoted to people who actually existed. It's a great place to buy a deerstalker hat or to take in Holmes' awesome collection of pipes, including "the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood". Doyle set most of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries in London. When not smoking his pipes, Holmes whiled away the time by using opium and cocaine to improve his cognitive processes. Both drugs were readily available in Victorian London and quite legal.

While we're on the subject, if you want to visit a pub dedicated to Holmes, try The Sherlock Holmes at 10 Northumberland Street WC2, a short stroll from Trafalgar Square. In Victorian times this pub was called the Northumberland Arms. It was the venue of a meeting between Holmes and Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles and it now contains a recreation of the detective's study.

Back to Marylebone High Street. Walk down the street the other way (heading east) and you'll pass Harley Street, famed for its medical connections. The London Clinic stands on your left at the corner of the two streets. A block away is Park Crescent, one of Nash's most breathtaking facades. Head from here down majestic Portland Place flanked by embassies, to Langham Place, where Regent Street meets Wigmore Street.

All Souls Church here, topped by a distinctive, conical, columned spire, is another Nash creation. Broadcasting House stands nearby. Long the home of the BBC, Broadcasting House now houses one of London's newer attractions, the interactive BBC Experience. It's a must for radio enthusiasts but offers little to keep television fans interested - mainly because Broadcasting House was a radio HQ rather than a TV one.

The Globe theatre, where Shakespeare's plays were originally performed was built in 1598. Unfortunately, while firing a cannon in the play Henry VIII the thatched roof caught fire and the Globe burnt down in 1613, (now that wasn't too clever was it). In 1994, nearly 400 years after the original building was commenced, work on the new Globe theatre's thatched roof was begun. It was the first thatched roof in London since the Great Fire of London in 1666 - this time extra fire precautions were taken. In 1997 the new Globe Theatre opened - do try to see a performance, as they are truly unique.

The Wallace Collection at Hertford House in Manchester Square is best known for its fine assemblage of 18th century French paintings and decorative art. Lady Wallace, widow of Sir Richard Wallace, bequeathed the collection in 1897. Sir Richard, illegitimate son of the fourth Marquess of Hertford, was an inveterate collector of art throughout his life. He gave it all to England, on condition that nothing should ever be added or taken away. All sorts of things jostle for pride of place in the Wallace Collection - there's even a sizeable armoury. Frans Hals' The Laughing Cavalier is probably the most famous painting, along with Titian's Perseus and Andromeda, Nicolas Poussin's A Dance to the Music of Time and Rembrandt's Titus. Titus, by the way, was Rembrandt's teenage son. Tragically, Titus died aged just 28. There are many lesser-known works too, such as a fine portrait of the Countess of Blessington, an author and society beauty.

Marylebone extends south to Oxford Street, Europe's greatest shopping street, busy at the quietest of times and virtually unbearable at Christmas (unless you are into really vast crowds). Selfridges, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer are the best-known stores - there are hundreds of others, selling everything from Doc Marten's boots to expensive jewellery. Oxford Street offers a little of everything. Not everything is sold from shops - fast-moving and fast-talking young men set up stalls on the footpath to sell "fine French perfume" which is actually cheap scent worth a fraction of the price they charge. They usually have a copy of Vogue or some similar magazine, opened at an advertisement featuring a seemingly identical bottle of perfume.

"You can buy this same bottle in there [indicating a swanky department store] for 85 pounds. But I'm not charging you that ladies and gentlemen - I'm not even charging you half of that. I'm not selling this bottle for 40 pounds, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not even selling it for 20 pounds. I'll tell you what I'm asking -just 15 pounds. It's yours for just 15 pounds! Yes, it's true ladies and gentlemen - yours for just 15 pounds!"

(And so on -- all accompanied by much hand slapping and theatrical gesturing.) Leave such purchases to the gullible.

A little street worth investigating off the northern side of Oxford Street is St Christopher's Place - a genteel haven after the hurly burly of mass shopping. It leads into Wigmore Street, quieter and more refined, known for the Wigmore Hall, a great place to catch a recital.

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