Sherlock Holmes: the Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die

Entrancing exhibition at the Museum of London looking at the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes, how he came about, the world he lived in and how he has been represented.

From the entrance through a bookcase I was completely engaged with this exhibition. It starts by looking at the origins of the character and how Conan Doyle came to write the books and stories as well as how they were received and became popular. There was an interesting section on how the illustrations of Sidney Paget helped to establish the character in the public imagination and his friendship with the author.

My favourite section looked at the London of the time through maps, photographs and paintings. I loved three old maps with pinned string showing you the journeys around London taken I particular stories and a time lapse film of what those journeys looked like now.

The exhibition built up a real sense of how life at the time the books were written what changing and how Holmes used all the latest developments in science as well as telephones and new railway lines. We read the stories with a huge sense of nostalgia but they were actually about a changing world.

Finally the show looked at representations of Holmes on film and how that has shaped our view of the character. Needless to say there were lots of references to the current series and I loved seeing Benedict Cumberbatch’s great coat, made to a classic design but modernised by a button hole sewn in red.

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