Conan Doyle's Intentions
We met next day as he had arranged, and inspected the rooms at No. 221B, Baker Street, of which he had spoken at our meeting. They consisted of a couple of comfortable bed-rooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows.
(Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, 1887)
When the "Sherlock Holmes" stories were first published, street numbers in Baker Street only went up to 100, which was presumably why Conan Doyle chose a higher street number for the location of his hero, to prevent any person's actual residence from being affected by the stories' popularity.
The section north of Marylebone Road near Regent's Park – now including 221 Baker Street – was known in Conan Doyle's lifetime as Upper Baker Street. In his first manuscript, Conan Doyle put Holmes' house in "Upper Baker Street," indicating that if he had a house in mind, it would have been there. However, a British crime novelist named Nigel Morland claimed that, late in Conan Doyle's life, he identified the intersection of Baker Street and George Street, about 500 metres south of Marylebone Road, as the location of 221B. Sherlockian experts have also held to alternative theories as to where the original 221B was located and have maintained that it was further down Baker Street.
Read more about this topic: 221B Baker Street
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